Hawaii and Chicago - please help us plan a trip

pstones578

We are almost at the stage of booking.

We can't decide on 3 nights Chicago and 8 in Hawaii or 4 nights Chicago and 7 nights Hawaii.

What would you do?

isplumm

Hi,

If it was me, I would spend more time in Hawaii .... Chicago is closer, so you could always go back .... whereas Hawaii is that much harder to get to.

We are going for 18 nights in May, via Dallas - going to spend all our time in Hawaii - Honolulu & Maui ..... no stop over, as I just find it easier ....

Mark

pelirocco

We are sat in SF airport waiting to come home , we did 5 nights SF 5 nights Maui , I night on a plane lol and 1 night back in SF. The 5 nights in Maui allowed us to do quite a lot but didnt give us much time just to laze in the sun , but then thats not our thing . The flight back from Maui was the most uncomfortable fight i have had , slight chaos at the airport , US airlines had cancelled a flight a few times and there were people there trying to get home for 5 days , and United had technical problems with the flight before ours so that was cancelled ...........Im glad we we had a stopover !

claire16c

pstones578 wrote: »

We are almost at the stage of booking.

We can't decide on 3 nights Chicago and 8 in Hawaii or 4 nights Chicago and 7 nights Hawaii.

What would you do?

Definitely 8 in Hawaii. And Id make the 8 in Maui.

pelirocco wrote: »

We are sat in SF airport waiting to come home , we did 5 nights SF 5 nights Maui , I night on a plane lol and 1 night back in SF. The 5 nights in Maui allowed us to do quite a lot but didnt give us much time just to laze in the sun , but then thats not our thing . The flight back from Maui was the most uncomfortable fight i have had , slight chaos at the airport , US airlines had cancelled a flight a few times and there were people there trying to get home for 5 days , and United had technical problems with the flight before ours so that was cancelled ...........Im glad we we had a stopover !

If I could get stuck anywhere for 5 days it would definitely be Maui :rotfl:

Its the busiest time of the year there though - xmas and early jan, so combine that with cancelled flights you can see why it would be chaos.

I like having a stop over too but as you always end up with about 12 hours in between flights on the way back anyway cos of the time difference, I just book a day room at a hotel to get some sleep on a proper bed for while and thats ok for me.

JOHN1982

Sorry for jumping in on this thread, just we're interested in doing the same sort of thing for our honeymoon next June and glad to see a couple of Hawaii experts here.

So far I've seen there's 3 "easy" stop-over options; Chicago, San Francisco and LA, with Chicago seeming to be the cheapest flight-wise.
We really want to maximise our time in Hawaii (Maui mostly), so were thinking of only stopping for one night on the way there ... is it worth it?

Also wondering if the OP has booked and what they decided on, and especially what they thought when the come back?

richardw

How many days/weeks are you taking for the honeymoon?

Where in the UK are you?

JOHN1982

richardw wrote: »

How many days/weeks are you taking for the honeymoon?

Where in the UK are you?

Was thinking of 10 nights away (maybe 14, depending on the cost difference).

I'm in West Yorkshire, but have family who live close to Heathrow, so we can stay there the night before / after flights for nothing.

richardw

I like Chicago, so would spend 2 nights on the out bound as a stop over, to enjoy the city and help a bit with the jet lag. I also like SFO, so would spend 2 nights there on the way back and perhaps treat myself to an upgrade to premium economy as SFO-LHR is an overnight flight.

claire16c

If you have 10 nights in total - as in including the 1.5 days it takes to get there and 2 days back, I would only stop for the 1 night, and go back to Chicago or LA/San Fran another time and see it properly, and max out your time on Maui.

But if you were to go for 14 nights, then Id probably go to whichever place you want to visit most, and maybe do 2-3 nights on the there or the way back so you could see a few things.

For accomodation in Maui you should look at vrbo.com

isplumm

Hi,

We are off to Hawaii in a few weeks, we have a few nights longer than you ....

But this is our plan ....

1 night in Dallas (reward flights, so we have to fly via there),
8 nights in Honolulu,
9 nights in Maui - including 1 night on the Big Island to see the active volcano.

I would suggest that if you have time, I would try & do Honolulu & Maui - also if possible fit a visit to Big Island ....

The chances are you will not be back, so try & visit 2 islands.

Mark