Hawaii - where do i begin????

lp5942

I know for sure that my fiancée and I want to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon... but I don't know where to begin deciding on what islands to go to, whether I should use a travel agent , where to stay etc.  I would LOVE any ADVICE or INFO!  Thanks!!!!

tinydancer842

I ended up buying Fordors 2010 Hawaii guidebook (or you can just grab a coffee & read it for free at Barnes & Noble) & going through it & flagging everything that sounded interesting then I went to different websites for hotels/tripadvisor.com to look up reviews & more pictures. From there I came up with a basic itinerary & asked my TA to get some prices for me.

mandybear7

We went to Barnes and Noble, bought a coffee, and read tons of Hawaii books. We narrowed it down to two islands (you don't want to island hop too much, based off of your timeline, wasting time checking in, checking out, and the island to island flights are not cheap). Then, I spent a ton of time researching hotels/condos from tripadvisor and wizardpub.com (from the people that write the Revealed books, which I recommend). After that, we figured out flights, booked everything on Expedia and vrbo.com, and made our itinerary. We didn't use a travel agent.

Good luck!

daveandlaura2009

We absolutely loved our Hawaiin honeymoon last year! we asked many friends and coworkers who had been there about the islands, and we decided similar to previous posters by researching on books and websites. I recommend a travel agent because ours helped us save on combined companies on both islands. We did Maui and Kauai, stayed at Hyatts. I would recommend this trip in a heartbeat!

girl2bewed

Definately research it as each island has something different to offer. I've heard the big island and Maui were amazing. Oahu is more touristy but has a lot more activities, we chose Oahu we also want to see pearl harbor here.

You can also do island jumping if you want to explore more then one

benmel31

We chose Hawaii too!  I did all my own research using the Internet and some guidebooks.  We decided on Oahu and the Big Island.  We wanted some of the touristy Honolulu things but we also wanted to explore.  We are not big beach people, but we love the water.  If I were deciding now, I would probably add Kauai to our trip.  Flights between the islands are about $70 one way, so you could island hop easily.   

A friend who has been to Hawaii twice recommended this website and theirguidebooks.  They are cheap on amazon.com.

www.wizardpub.com

HTH!

knj92107

The Hawaii Revealed books are AMAZING.  I highly recommend them.  I would start by reading about each island and seeing which appeals to you. 

strlzfan11

NCL has a 7-day island hopping cruise if that is something that might interest you.

I also found this travel agent that specializes in Hawaii.  There are a variety of options to visit just one island, two islands, or 4 islands.
http://www.all-inclusive-hawaii.com/

calvinknight03

We just booked our honeymoon in Hawaii through Rhonda at VIP Vacations. We asked her a ton of questions and she seemed very knowledgeable about everything. And it doesn't cost any money to have her help you. Only downside is that sometimes it takes awhile for her to respond to her emails (never more than a week) but maybe I'm impatient. She doesn't mind if you call her either. I thought she was very helpful and easy to work with. Here's her info, halfway down the page: http://www.travelbyvip.com/specialists/. We will be going to Hawaii for 10 days and visiting Maui, the Big Island, and Oahu. Can't wait!!!! Also, we looked into the NCL cruise for 7 days and it ended up being cheaper to do it this way, by a couple thousand dollars. That's another good thing about Rhonda, she'll work with your budget. Good luck!