HoneyMOon in Hawaii

SG+CD

Hi THere,
My fiance and I are desperate to honeymoon in Hawaii - Wakiki Beach, However we are on a budget. DO you think 2k is doable for air and hotel for 7 nights in October?

I am looking forward to your suggestions.

Do you reccommend a travel agent?

amymaysa

We are using Colleen from Simply Honeymoons in Beverly MA (but did it all online or via phone). She's great!

Based in what we were quoted for November, 2k from Boston for 7 nights will be tight. I would contact her. She'll let you know what's doable or not!

Good luck

Summer2011Bride

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_honeymoon-in-hawaii?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:11Discussion:29f4bfcd-4a5b-4e91-9965-df29e7597881Post:f8f00276-5393-4153-9b17-d0faf985b6d0">HoneyMOon in Hawaii</a>:
[QUOTE]Hi THere, My fiance and I are desperate to honeymoon in Hawaii - Wakiki Beach, However we are on a budget. DO you think 2k is doable for air and hotel for 7 nights in October? I am looking forward to your suggestions. Do you reccommend a travel agent?
Posted by SG+CD[/QUOTE]

I don't think that is doable, sorry. We went to Oahu for our HM and stayed on Waikiki. Granted, we were there for 9 days and upgraded to ocean front, but our airfare and hotel was over $6000. Even staying 2 less nights and not having ocean view, we never could have gotten it below $2000. Airfare to Hawaii is super expensive. Plus you are flying from across the country and further than we did (we flew out of O'Hare).

If you can live with not being right on Waikiki, I would check airbnb or vrbo.com for vacation rentals. I was looking into Maui for a future trip and found some for $800-900 for the whole week. I'm assuming on Oahu they would have something similar. If you plan on renting a car (recommended), you could rent a place up on the North Shore by Sunset Beach (wonderful beach and nice surrounding area) and drive into Waikiki (only about an hour's drive) a few times. Then it would just be making the airfare work into your budget.

Regarding the travel agent, I don't think it's necessary. If you end up doing the vacation rental, you'll probably book air and hotel separately, which you can easily do yourself.

ETA: Just remembered we got a package with every 3rd night free, so actually we ended up paying for only 6 nights at the hotel and it was still that much money. Plus the price we paid was for partial ocean view with a free upgrade to ocean view.

SG+CD

Thanks for the feedback ladies. 2k would not include excursion or food.  Please keep them coming.

smilanese

Hi,
We paid roughfully 2k for airfare and hotel for a 10 days stay so it is possible! Check out KaanapaliBeachRentals.com  they have great deals on condos in Maui. We booked through Hotwire for airfare and paid $435/person flying out of California. Keep looking for deals and you will make it happen! GOOD LUCK!

laura0862

Just throwing in my two cents... I'm coming from Boston and we paid $1,000 each for our flights, so that's your budget right there. We rented condos from VRBO and Home Away and, the condo that we have for 7 nights is 1,100 total. It's a GREAT deal but still over your budget. You don't want to worry about money on your honeymoon so maybe try a carribean island where you can do an all inclusive? That way you can expand your budget a bit since food/drink is included in the price.

Summer2011Bride

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_honeymoon-in-hawaii?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:11Discussion:29f4bfcd-4a5b-4e91-9965-df29e7597881Post:2e864a23-c198-4d3e-a6d8-a81262e4fb2a">Re: HoneyMOon in Hawaii</a>:
[QUOTE]Hi, We paid roughfully 2k for airfare and hotel for a 10 days stay so it is possible! Check out KaanapaliBeachRentals.com   they have great deals on condos in Maui. We booked through Hotwire for airfare and paid $435/person flying out of California. Keep looking for deals and you will make it happen! GOOD LUCK!
Posted by smilanese[/QUOTE]

Well OP says she wants to go to Oahu, and regardless of that, flying from CA to Hawaii is vastly different than flying from Boston (across the country) to Hawaii. It is a little suspicious that this is your one and only post and you are promoting a vacation website. If you are truly not a vendor trying to rent a condo, I'd just be careful to not come across as one, especially with such a low post count. Just an FYI.

xctennis

No.  Your flights alone from the east coast will cost $1,700 minimum.  Even if you did a less expensive vacation rental you would still be paying a minimum of $100/night and I would definitely recommend a car rental for staying on Oahu. 

For your budget I would look at the carribean, the flights will be half the cost and the travel time is close to 3 hours instead of 12 hours.

AllyG303

Any chance you'd want to wait until December?  Flights are much more affordable then. I don't think 2K is enough.

KBSK12

We booked our HM to Hawaii on expedia, and with flying out of Philly, our total (flights, hotel, rental car) was round $3,200.

jemmini6

Oahu is definitely the cheapest island to fly to, but Waikiki is one of the most expensive places to stay.  Perhaps you could do 2 nights on Waikiki beach if you are really set on it and then relocate somewhere on the North Shore (my ILs stayed at Turtle Bay last year and it's a much nicer hotel for the same price as what you could get on Waikiki).  Not to mention that if you rent a car, you will pay $30+ per day for parking on Waikiki.  Plus, it's kind of overrated IMO, like I said, good for about 2-3 nights and then it gets to be too much.  There is soooo much more to Hawaii than a crowded tourist trap.

Even then though, I'm sure flights from your location will set you back a pretty penny.  Even a direct flight from AZ is usually in the $400 - $600 range, which doesn't leave very much in the budget for a hotel.  From Boston you are probably looking at $700 - $900 range which leaves almost nothing for hotel.

You can keep an eye out for deals, but unfortunately, I don't think $2K is very realistic.  If you are flexible with where you stay on the island, and look into renting a condo on VRBO instead, you might be able to do it, but that's something you are going to have to look into.

Soxchick1

Hi,

I just booked JFK (NY) to Hawaii direct through Hawaiin air round trip for $700 a person. They're running deals right now because they just started that route.

From what i've found for hotels - they've typically been $250 - $300/night for Sheraton type hotels and almost $400+ a night for Hyatts.