3 nites in Waikiki 298.00 (hotel and air)

This sounded like a deal so I thought I would share the details. The only catch is you have to travel between 08/25/03 - 09/27/03, and book it by next Teusday.

3 nights Waikiki Leaving from LA or SFO
From $298.00

ROUND TRIP AIR & hotel
Valid for travel: Select Thru 08/25/03 - 09/27/03
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

http://www.pleasantholidays.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SpecialsDetailsDisplay?Special_SpecialOID=code__.__20032180019&CityOID=cityCode__.__LAX

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2003-08-17 14:25 ]

I've seen the advertisements from this company. Anyone ever actually book through them? Good experience? Bad experience?

Pleasant Holidays is a standard tour group offered by EVERY tavel agency. Very well known, they are usually on the pricey side, thats why I was so surprised to see the deal they had. I booked my last trip to the islands through this tour group, for a group of 6, and I used them daily when I was working (X travel agent) they are a very safe and reliable company to work with. I was very happy with the properties, if you call to make any bookings tell the agent what your looking for out of your vacation, they will find the best property they have that fits your needs. Obviously the more economical you go, the hotel wont be the most luxurious, but their most econo hotels are quite livable. I have stayed and seen alot of the hotels and condo's they use and liked them all.

I know someone who did the 5 day Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays vacation in Maui and stayed at the Kaanapali Beach hotel that was right on the beach (a crowded beach) and had numerous tikis on the grounds. It cost less than $1000 with air from SFO and car.

I would check which airline they are using because I have heard of nightmare delays with cheap flights to Hawaii. I would only go with Aloha or Hawaiian airlines.

If one books way in advance you can spend less by doing your own package and go and stay where you want.

When I went to Waikiki it cost $500 RT from Oakland on Aloha. A short flight from Waikiki to Kona was $60 more. And we were able to return straight from Kona to Oakland for no extra money.

We stayed at the Hawaiiana Hotel in Waikiki for around $90 / night for 3 nights. Then we stayed at a little hotel on the coast in Kona called the Tiki Hotel for a weekly rate that ended up costing around $50/night. Then we stayed 2 nights in Volcano for $75/night and 3 nights in Hilo for around $80/night (at Uncle Billy's Hilo Inn with ocean view lanai).

Total cost for 2 weeks and 2 islands:
air: $1120
car: weekly rate in Kona $150 and weekend rate in Waikiki $30/day x 3 = $100, total $250
hotels:
Waikiki $270
Kona $350
Volcano $150
Hilo $225

Grand total: $2365

So thats around $1200 per person for 2 weeks - about the cost of 7 days on one island through a tour company like Pleasant Holidays

P/H uses American, United, ATA (American Trans Air), and Aloha airlines. Air and 3 nights accommodations for 298.00, 320.00 for 4 nights, thats a deal in my book. I posted the info thinking it might interest someone on the west coast who might be in the mood for a quick romp to paradise. Like I said in my earlier post, I was surprised to find the deal from a company that usually is on the pricier side of travel companies. As far as Jabs friends staying at the Kaanapali Beach hotel which is a nice property, but alot of people do stay there, if solitude is what you after Kaanapapali area isn't where you should go. I think its fun to research and hunt out deals on the computer for cool interesting places to visit. After all no one knows your likes and dislikes better than you.

Dawn, $300 is a great deal! I wasn't trying to contradict that. I was just explaining that when I went to Hawaii I wanted to stay longer and stay in certain places which weren't offered by the package companies. Just my highly opinionated self :)

Please, more discussion about travel and tikis. The political threads are getting me down. Well, not very down as I'm damn excited about Exotica in Chicago!

Speaking of traveling, I just got this program called Microsoft Streets and Trips 2004. I wouldn't normally gush about a computer program especially one by Microsoft, but this one is a great buy for $25 (after rebate)!

It's somewhat like Yahoo maps and yellow pages but all the data resides on your hard drive (which takes up about 1G) so you don't need to be online to use it, and it's faster than web sites.

It basically has detailed maps for the entire world with data on hotels, restaurants, banks, museums, landmarks, ATMs, gas stations, and loads of other places. You can create travel routes by linking places with full directions and time scheduling. It also downloads any construction info about your route when your online.

You can search for places by name and it's fast - I did "tiki" and came up with all kinds of places around the world, some that I have never heard about. Even Tiki Gardens came up as a landmark! How cool is that? In Chicago it didn't have the Hala Kahiki (strange) but it did have Chef Shangri-la and all 3 Tong's locations and Malahini Terrace. Every place in the database has an address and phone number. It's a great tool to go with Tiki Road Trip. You can even import a database so if one were to enter all the data from Tiki Road Trip into Excel one could have a mapping database of tiki bars!

The only drawback is that it's not the most beautiful map, cartographically speaking, but I am impressed by the legibility of it at different scales.

I'm bringing my laptop with this on it during my trip to Exotica and on the road.

Jab...No worries here, I am just glad people were interested in the post!! :P I know what your saying about getting more bang for your buck! The longer I'm on vacation in far away distant land the better!