Hawaii family holiday - HELP!

Jay_E

Hi guys,

I am trying to plan a family holiday to Hawaii for Christmas 2016. There will be about 12 of us travelling (inc children)!

Can anyone offer any advice?

Ideally we would like to go all inclusive to make life easier with the kids.

Trying to plan it from now so that we can all save up.

Any help you can offer will be really appreciated.

Murphy_The_Cat

Firstly, get everyone together in one room.
Turn off the TV, the WiFi , iPods and tablets.
Get a pad of paper an each take a turn at what they want to do on holiday.
Next time around, each person gets to say what the holiday means to them and or what they want from the holiday.
Let the sprogs out.
Now let the adults writes down seperately how much they think the holiday will cost and then how much is the most they are prepared to spend.

Then put it all together and you have your starting point.

Good luck with your planning - I don't envy you one bit.

flea72

Tbh depending in ages of kids hawaii isnt really a family resort. Its somewhere you go to do lots of sightseeing and not a relaxing laze around the pool type place. Also its a 17hr plus flight time, with a stopover in LA, again not something that suits young kids, or adults who cant sit still for long periods of time. I get on great with my family, but 17hrs on a plane and then having to work out an itinerary that suits everyone, wld be a major headache.

Icequeen99

Jay_E wrote: »

Hi guys,

I am trying to plan a family holiday to Hawaii for Christmas 2016. There will be about 12 of us travelling (inc children)!

Can anyone offer any advice?

Ideally we would like to go all inclusive to make life easier with the kids.

Trying to plan it from now so that we can all save up.

Any help you can offer will be really appreciated.

I think you will be hard pressed to find all inclusive.

Do you have a budget?

Have you thought about which island you want to go to? Whether you want to go to more than 1 island?

What type of holiday are you looking for?

We have been to Hawaii 5 times, we love it. But unless you are really going to take advantage of all the islands have to offer, it is a long way to go and an expensive place. If you are after a beach holiday mainly, i would think there are nearer/cheaper places to go. Don't get me wrong, it is a fab beach holiday too, but i wouldn't travel that far or pay those prices just to sit on a beach for two weeks.

IQ

DUKE

I've went to Maui for a week & it was one hell of a flight, I'd swear I was jet lagged for months after! The hotel I stayed at didn't even do breakfast let alone AI, although there were places to eat out, & a supermarket where prices were OK. We travelled by bus to a few places, & flew to the Big Island. I actually won the holiday from a competition on here otherwise I'd probably never have gone, but I'd do it all again. Have a look on TripAdvisor to give you a better idea http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowForum-g28932-i36-Hawaii.html

PeacefulWaters

The BA sale in Dec/Jan this year was selling business class fare to Hawaii out of Dublin for c£1k. No idea if it would have included December 2015 flights.

Great thinking above I think!

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Firstly, get everyone together in one room.
Turn off the TV, the WiFi , iPods and tablets.
Get a pad of paper an each take a turn at what they want to do on holiday.
Next time around, each person gets to say what the holiday means to them and or what they want from the holiday.
Let the sprogs out.
Now let the adults writes down desperately how much they think the holiday will cost and then how much Is the most they are prepared to spend.

Then put it all together and you have your starting point.

Good luck with your planning - I don't envy you one bit.

I struggle with getting Mrs PW to agree anything. Let alone a dozen family members.

Jay_E wrote: »

I am trying to plan a family holiday to Hawaii for Christmas 2016. There will be about 12 of us travelling (inc children)!

Will you be able to coordinate the time off work?

Anybody working in retail may struggle in December.

Icequeen99

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

The BA sale in Dec/Jan this year was selling business class fare to Hawaii out of Dublin for c£1k. No idea if it would have included December 2015 flights.

Great thinking above I think!



I struggle with getting Mrs PW to agree anything. Let alone a dozen family members.

Will you be able to coordinate the time off work?

Anybody working in retail may struggle in December.

We always fly from Amsterdam and get fares in the BA sale. Didn't see them as cheap as 1k from Dublin, but we paid £1700 each from Amsterdam which we were very happy with for club world/business (american airlines return).

IQ

PeacefulWaters

Icequeen99 wrote: »

We always fly from Amsterdam and get fares in the BA sale. Didn't see them as cheap as 1k from Dublin, but we paid £1700 each from Amsterdam which we were very happy with for club world/business (american airlines return).

IQ

A few other cities offered value for these too.

http://www.headforpoints.com/2014/12/24/british-airways-hawaii-ex-europe-cheap-ticket/

They didn't include December departures this year though!

Murphy_The_Cat

If its helpful to anyone, during the BA sale in Christmas 2014, I was pricing up for Summer 2015 (as a guide for me for Summer 2016) the following
DUB-HNL (typically DUB-LHR-LAX-HNL), then HNL - DFW (direct), AUS - DUB (typically AUS-ORD-DUB, or AUS - CLT - DUB) for 2 adults & 2 children and the price was around £4000 -£4200 Business Class flying on a combo of One World airlines.

MasterPoo

OP, how exciting!

Spreadsheet/Word doc with checklist and deadlines is how I'd approach this.

Passports
Are you all UK passport holders, if not, does anyone in your party require visa?
I'd start looking at the dates you this year for next years prices for guidance.
Research hotels
Maximise reward points.
Set deadlines for X to be paid by X time
Excursion checklist
Read up on Forums for info/to ask specific destination questions, e.g. Tripadvisor forum link already provided.

Split it into Families on one spreadsheet.......

Have fun organising it! I'm already planning my 2016 holidays.

MasterPoo

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

If its helpful to anyone, during the BA sale in Christmas 2014, I was pricing up for Summer 2015 (as a guide for me for Summer 2016) the following
DUB-HNL (typically DUB-LHR-LAX-HNL), then HNL - DFW (direct), AUS - DUB (typically AUS-ORD-DUB, or AUS - CLT - DUB) for 2 adults & 2 children and the price was around £4000 -£4200 Business Class flying on a combo of One World airlines.

I'm going to fly out from Dublin for my US flights this time next year, planning on buying in the sale as I want Business class tickets.

I should be able to bag all my US flights in one go as we will be going twice next year:

Easter 2016: DUB - LHR - MIA - LHR.
August 2016: DUB - LHR - BOS - LAX - LHR