Hawaii February 2015

lewroll

Hi,

Know this a little bit in advance but would like to pick people's brains on any hints, tips etc they may have about the optimum time to book flights etc and also what people consider the best route/airline to use and why. Accommodation recommendations etc also appreciated!

richardw

There are no direct routes from the UK, and lots of one stop indirect routings via US cities and Canada.
Perhaps avoiding valentine's day and school half term may show better prices because of lower demand.
If you want to fly from Manchester and avoid Heathrow, that'd limit your stop over choices.
So perhaps decide your preferences for stopovers first.

There's lots of code sharing going on, Virgin with Delta, BA with AA (and possibly US airways by 2015), United with Air Canada.

Alan_Bowen

Whatever you do, don't stay on the main island Oahu for too long. Honolulu is very similar to many US cities, skyscrapers and traffic, just with better weather. My favourite is Kauai with a second favourite being Hawaii, the Big Island with its volcanoes. Don't under estimate the distance from the UK, the first time I flew with only a 2 hour connection at LAX, it was 19 hours in economy and I was completely exhausted. The second time, in Business class with a night stop was much better. Maui is very popular but I thought it was grossly overdeveloped and rather spoilt. Did enjoy the Polynesian Cultural Centre on Oahu, run by the Mormon Church which is big in Polynesia and Waimea Falls on the north side of Oahu. Also visited Pearl Harbour which vividly shows mans' inhumanity to his fellow man, interestingly the Japanese are the largest group of overseas visitors to Hawaii now. You can survive without a car in Oahu but you will have to rent a car on all the outer islands.

Flights from the 'mainland' to Hawaii are considered 'domestic' and thus have virtually no in flight service at all despite being 5 hours or more long. Some of the smaller airlines, Alaska and Hawaiian, have the best service in my opinion. You can connect from virtually every west coast city from Seattle down to San Diego, you could choose to fly out via one city and back by another.

beluga

We went to Hawaii in January 2013 and and are off again this December. Last time we flew with Virgin from Manchester to Las Vegas, but we spent a few days there and then drove to LA and flew on from there. I think this route is now seasonal, so this year we're flying with BA from Heathrow to LAX, having a few days there then on to Big Island, Maui and back to Las Vegas before flying home (again via Heathrow).
Our domestic flights are / were with Hawaiian and Alaskan Airlines, Hawaiian were fine, you do get food on the flights out to the islands, but not on interisland flights. No seatback entertainment, but I think you can rent them. We took out own tablet and watched movies on that. Alaskan were also ok, but we preferred Hawaiian and found the service better overall. Check the prices for checked luggage, as we found it quite high, but noticed that they were pretty laid back on the hand luggage rules, and many people had several items.
Last time we visited Oahu, Maui and Big Island. Waikiki was fun for a few days, and a visit to Pearl Harbor is well worth it, but we much prefered the other islands. Highlights for us included Volcanoes National Park (Big Island), whale watching (Maui) and snorkelling (everywhere!).

We booked both our trips about a year out, check out any January sales on flights. The Hawaiian Airlines flights we had to book via email as they don't take international bookings online. You can use their website for prices and schedules though. Also check any airmiles you have, as we were able to use Virgin miles last year and got some interisland flights for around $5. On this trip we're doing more connections (LAX to Big Island via Honolulu and the same on the way back) as the prices were a lot lower than direct. The interisland flights are short (less than an hour) and in daylight the views are pretty amazing! You do spend a lot of time around airports though, but they are some of the nicest airports I've been in - often open air.

We loved Hawaii (enough to go back!) but it's not cheap. Accommodation really depends on your requirements and locations. We didn't do the big resorts as we wanted to get out and explore the islands, and this time have booked some condos to keep costs down.

Where do you want to visit, how long for and what do you like to do?

Sorry for rambling on, hope some of that helped!