Post #144271 by Kono on Wed, Mar 2, 2005 5:15 PM

I went a year and a half ago. Had two $500 flight vouchers from being voluntarily bumped on an earlier trip. Late September flights from Orlando to Honolulu were $515 so the flight was $15. I work for the government and if you ask hotels for government rates you can get some good discounts. Hilton Hawaiian Village was about 40% off. We stayed in the Rainbow Tower with a view of the beach for around $135 a night. Found an online rental car promotion and got a Chrysler convertible for 10 days for around $425. Planning months in advance and hunting out our own deals by far beat out any package deal we saw advertised. Had a fridge in the room so we could go to the grocery store and stock up on sushi, tako poke and all kinds of good stuff cheap. Booze was pretty cheap compared to here which surprised me. Arrange your departure so that you leave late at night (this worked for Orlando, dunno about LA) and its like a free extra day. We checked out at noon or one but the HHV will give you a complementary room to use after check out if you have a late flight. Hung out at the beach and at the bar all afternoon and early evening, cleaned up and then went to the airport for a late night departure and slept on the flight.

Tikidug's place on the Big Island is a good deal IMO at $750 a week.