Been to Hawaii? Give me Advice!!

It's pretty difficult to say "cheap" anything when it comes to an island... island tax is very real. Almost everything on an island has to be imported, so prices and taxes are very high! My in laws have a timeshare at the Hyatt Regency Maui... it's a lovely resort, would definitely recommend. It's on Kaanapali beach, and there's a lot of other hotels along that beach so I am sure any of them would be great... it's a really nice area, and all the resorts are very close together so you are walking distance from tons of different restaurants. Not sure if you could do it in under $3000 though!

I want to follow this cause I'm also going to hawaii for my honeymoon.

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I plan to save money by renting an airbnb instead for $100 a night And making my own breakfast each day. Also shortening my trip to 6 days will help. And we are only doing cheap or free things like the beaches, rainforest. We plan to do alot of hiking.

I went to oahu and kauai for a week and spent a lot ahah but it's also because I did a lot of activities. But I did spend maybe almost $2k
Hawaii is expensive but it is worth it! If you're a hiker or love nature they have beautiful trails and beaches right so those are things you could do to cut costs of activities.

My FH and I went to Oahu, Hawaii last year and spent around $3000 for 2 and a half weeks. We stayed at an Airbnb in Waialua on the north shore. We highly recommend staying at an Airbnb with a kitchen you can cook in! There are really nice ones that will be cheaper than staying in an expensive resort. Also, hit up the farmers markets for fresh papaya and pineapples 😋 For activities, there are great spots in the north shore to snorkel and you can watch people surf on the Banzai Pipeline. I also recommend going to Honolulu and hiking the Diamond Head Trail. It's not long, but when you get to the top, you can see the ocean and a lot of beautiful Hawaii.

I actually bought a book called Oahu Revealed like 2 months before we left and read the whole thing. It's only about $10- $15 I believe and it helped me a LOT with planning things and just knowing what spots I would want to see. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!

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Was that $3000 just for activities? Or airplane, place to stay, food, and activities??

Right now, I am between Oahu and Maui. I've heard Oahu is more affordable, but I want to check out volcanoes, the rain forest, beaches, and food mostly. I've heard Oahu is more like Florida and Maui is more of a Hawaii feel to it.

View Quoted Comment It was for it all! We spent $80 a night for Airbnb and $500 for a rental car. I dont remember how expensive our plane tickets were. We went in April. Honestly, I think Oahu is super beautiful! There are amazing beaches in Oahu! If you rent a car, make sure to drive around Oahu a lot to see the island! The east coast is GORGEOUS!! Lots of green mountains and it rains a lot! You can't go wrong on any island! The only spot you have to worry about in Oahu is Honolulu if you don't want a lot of traffic or tourists surrounding you. But I have heard Maui has awesome beaches and is less populated! Also, the Big Island has a volcano as well as lots of beautiful mountains. I think you'd love any island!

Our chase travel card really helped with airfare. After using it for a year, I had enough points to pay for 75% of our airfare, which was a lot because we’re flying from the east coast

My FH and I went to Oahu to celebrate our engagement. Luckily we stayed with family friends for free, but both of our roundtrip flights in March were about $1600 from Washington, D.C. (these are on the lower end for two roundtrip tickets, thankfully!) We were there for a week and half and decided to rent a car - that was close to $1,000. As PPs have mentioned island tax is VERY REAL. We spent more than $100 on like 5 or 6 grocery items our first night (we made quesadillas - so chicken, tortillas, cheese, sour cream, some sort of beverage). We mostly ate at home, but small things still add up. We also did two excursions and an inner-island trip to the Big Island. Those flights were $150 each round trip. Depending on how long you stay, where you're from, anything you do, I think $3000 is cutting it close. We ended up spending around $5000 the whole trip.

BUT I will say, it was WORTH EVERY PENNY. The car rental allowed us to explore the ENTIRE island of Oahu. The North Shore was definitely both of our favorite parts. That's where all of the big curl waves are for those big surfing competitions you see on TV. We did our engagement photos in Hawaii, too, so that was an additional $500, including tip.

We are going to Maui & Oahu for 7 nights, spending around $6,000. I think it can be done for $3,000, just mostly with free excursions. We booked through Southwest for flights.

I went to Kauai and Maui and Kauai is my favorite hands down. The Road to Hana was about the only thing I really enjoyed on Maui but we only had 3 nights there. We spent 5 nights on Kauai and had a blast hiking the Na Pali coast, catamaran ride, helicopter ride, snorkeling, etc. We spent 5k total including everything (all meals, flights to Hawaii, inter-island flights, rental cars, gas, lodging, excursions and souvenirs). I'm sure you could do it under $3,000 if you only stay on one island (no inter-island flight costs), don't go on the super expensive excursions like helicopters, catamarans. We ate lots of food from markets which was delicious and much cheaper than restaurants (we had lots of poke!).