Hawaii family holiday - HELP!

Tygermoth

I agree, Sorry OP we are going to Hawaii/Kauai in September and due to the flight time and comments how rough the journey is we have upgraded the seats which added a chunk of change to the budget.

We did not see a single AI resort at all when looking and the accom is ahem, more expensive for what you get. in most places you are getting 2* accom for 4* money. (in my very humble opinion)

As such the eating out budget will be huge. The beaches are lovely but i do believe over the winter most are not recommended for swimming so you are going to most geograhicaly remote location in the world to sit on a beach that you cant swim in. As such you are going to be stuck in resort, at a pool... why take a massive expensive flight to do that? when you could get more for your time and money closer to home. (I appreciate you could do excursions out but with the size of your party it would be eyewatering expensive!)

There is just two of us going and i kid you not this holiday is going to be most expensive i have been on with the least frills at this rate we are going to be eating beans on toast every day we are there

A week will just be lost.. you need two or three at least!

In your situation i would do a lovely AI family centric holiday closer to home as a celebration with your mum then chip in with the rest of the family to send your mum to Hawaii with a friend/reli and let her have the relaxing holiday she wants

Everybody wins

richardw

flea72 wrote: »

Still a really long flight for a week tho, as you loose a day either end

How's that then?

If you arrive at 2pm on a Saturday and leave at 6pm the following Saturday, that's a week, where's the loss?

Murphy_The_Cat

richardw wrote: »

How's that then?

If you arrive at 2pm on a Saturday and leave at 6pm the following Saturday, that's a week, where's the loss?

Depending where you are flying from, it's going to take you about 20 hours to fly from A to B, plus transfers to/from airports, security etc.

The way that you see it, a 7 night holiday will be 7 nights in Hawaii, plus travelling time on top. I suspect that other people are looking at a 7night holiday INCLUDING travelling time.

richardw

I agree a flight to HNL is too long for a week, but a direct flight to CUN isn't for a week.

duchy

Realistically if Mum doesn't have great health then two twenty hour journeys in a week simply isn't going to be wise.

For what you'll pay with inflated Christmas rates -you could effectively take her for "free" for two weeks at another time of the year, be less likely to be subject to flight delays and be able to make it a trip with a couple of days stop-over in each direction.

FWIW US destinations don't do AI so Caribbean, Cuba, Mexico or cruising would be a better option if you want AI.

You can cruise around the Hawaiian islands but it's expensive.

Jay_E

blindman wrote: »

Quite a few problems here that will ruin this holiday.

1 You are trying to give ONE person a holiday and dragging along 10 others..
2. You are going almost halfway across the world for one Week:eek:
3. You're a novice at big family holiday planning.

4. Dec in Hawaii is not cheap! Flights nor hotels.

5 Hawaii is not really an AI place.

Alternatives.

Cuba

Thank you for the suggestion of Cuba, we are looking into there.

Just to point out I did say we are planning from now to save up; we are aware it's not going to be cheap!
Also everyone had a choice on whether they wanted to come or not, nobody us being dragged anywhere.

Jay_E

Thank you all for the responses.... lots to consider!

What I'm getting is Mexico or Cuba? Will look into both.

Many have been saying it's a long way to go for a week which I appreciate. When I said a week I meant 7 nights so not including travel time.
AI is not a must but would make life easier in terms of catering to all.

Long haul us not an issue. As I said before my family are from the Caribbean so we travel to the islands quite often.

Please keep the suggestions coming.

Thanks x

flea72

richardw wrote: »

How's that then?

If you arrive at 2pm on a Saturday and leave at 6pm the following Saturday, that's a week, where's the loss?

When most people say a weeks holiday, that includes travelling. The flight to hawaii is 17hrs. So nigh on 24hrs travelling time, which means only 5 full waking days in resort. Factor in jetlag amd just the tiring nature of travel and it will feel like even less time

The OP has now confirmed they will have travelling time on top of the week, so yes, hawaii is doable. But personally having done cuba and mexico (both way less travelling time than hawaii), i know that 7 nights is nowhere near enough time to relax and catch up from the travelling

Murphy_The_Cat

flea72 wrote: »

When most people say a weeks holiday, that includes travelling.

It depends if you're talking package holidays or DIY bookers.

Archergirl

How about Egypt? Lots of All inc there, nice weather and a 5 hr flight.