Holiday to Hawaii

blindman

DesperateScousewife wrote: »

My aunt wants a holiday in Hawaii. This would include a trip to Pearl Harbour. I know it’s not going to be cheap but does anyone have any recommendations of good travel agency’s, tips on travel, best time to go etc.
This would be for two over 60s.
TIA.

Hi

I would query her as to why she wants to go to Hawaii

If-she is like my in-laws- she is thinking of Hawaii 5 O scenario then you need to educate her on the reality of going that far to see a non-fictional TV show.

Pearl harbour is a war grave and is interesting but you need more to fill your time.

Easy to DIY so you do not need a Travel agent :eek:

As has been said visit at least 2 islands with Oahu as a 3 day max and then move onto others.
We did Maui when we went years back.

Accommodation
Look at VRBO or Airbnb as hotels are ludicrously expensive.
Possibly look at Priceline-though I have not used them fro a while now.

Hire a car and drive around Maui and DIY the Road to Hana

Murphy_The_Cat

DesperateScousewife wrote: »

My aunt wants a holiday in Hawaii. This would include a trip to Pearl Harbour. I know it’s not going to be cheap but does anyone have any recommendations of good travel agency’s, tips on travel, best time to go etc.
This would be for two over 60s.
TIA.

from my experiences of going to Oahu last year -- it just didn't "do it" for us.
I'd suggest that she spends a lot of time working out why she would like to go and what she would like to do when she gets there.
Its a long old journey to get there and its going to cost her mucho £££'s.

I appreciate that my opinion differs from others :beer:

novelty-socks

I've visited Hawaii twice. The first time was for a friend's wedding. We went in with fairly low expectations (it's not a place I'd ever aspired to visit). It's since become one of my favourite destinations. I'm sure we'll return in future.

In terms of what to see, my thoughts would be:

- Oahu is VERY touristy, particularly Waikiki. That said, it's a good place to start the trip and get over jet-lag. If you've not experienced large numbers of Americans on holiday before, there's good people-watching to be had too. Depending how long you have, it's worth spending a few days there. Pearl Harbor is a short drive (although traffic can be terrible). You can also check out the North Shore using Waikiki as a base.
- My favourite island is The Big Island, by far. It has an amazing mix of climates, from great beaches through to rainforests and the cold summit of Mauna Kea, which has some of the clearest skies on the planet. I would make this a must-visit island - be sure to go up Mauna Kea (either hire a 4x4 and drive, or get a tour), explore Volcanoes National Park and ask locals whether it's possible to view flowing lava anywhere.
- People rave about Maui, but I thought it was busy, cliched and hard to find decent accommodation without blowing a fortune. The Road to Hana takes forever to drive and is massively overrated.

In terms of flights, I don't agree entirely with other posters. Flying without a night or two stopover is completely doable. You can catch a flight from Heathrow, connect in LA or San Francisco, and arrive in Hawaii late on the same day. You can then go to bed and wake up the next morning with a head start on beating your jet-lag.

(I'm not saying don't stopover, but don't dismiss doing it all in one go if you have limited time to take off, or other time constraints.)

Also, keep in mind that the flight to Hawaii will be classed as an internal US flight, even though it's likely to be 6+ hours. This means:

- You need to clear immigration when you land at the connecting airport.
- You need to pick up your luggage then drop if on the connections belt.
- And, most importantly … the flight to Hawaii may have cramped economy seating, no free food or drink, and generally be a fairly uncomfortable experience!

Let me know if you have specific questions - happy to answer. You'll find heaps of info online though, as it's a very popular destination for US tourists.

richardw

novelty-socks wrote: »

....Flying without a night or two stopover is completely doable. You can catch a flight from Heathrow, connect in LA or San Francisco, and arrive in Hawaii late on the same day. You can then go to bed and wake up the next morning with a head start on beating your jet-lag......

The UK GMT is 10 hours ahead of Hawaii.
The earliest arrival flying via the US is 19.48 local time, which is 05.48 GMT the next day, so your body clock would be waking you up instead of falling asleep. You'd probably need medication to get you to sleep.

iltisman

Another way of getting to Hawaii is going East . Direct to Singapore then on to Honolulu and returning via a stop in the US. There are lots of variations on this I included Guam and some really tiny islands in the Pacific.

nickcc

We flew to Hawaii from LA and had no idea of the flight time, almost 6 hours as novelty-socks advised. There was no food or drinks of any kind on the flight, regular travellers had brought their own hot food and drinks which was fairly nauseating when you're sat next to other passengers filling their faces with mountains of burgers and fries etc. Our holiday was part of a tour where we added the extra week to Hawaii so our luggage at LA was handled for us on the return to the UK.

novelty-socks

The UK GMT is 10 hours ahead of Hawaii.
The earliest arrival flying via the US is 19.48 local time, which is 05.48 GMT the next day, so your body clock would be waking you up instead of falling asleep. You'd probably need medication to get you to sleep.

Everyone’s different, but this isn’t generally my experience of long-haul travel. Typically I’m so tired after a journey like this that sleep isn’t a problem. Sometimes the second night is a disaster, because I’m less tired but my body clock hasn’t adjusted. But last time we visited Hawaii we bounced back pretty quickly.

You’ll likely be jet lagged whatever, of course. If you stopover then you just get a bit of a headstart on recovery before reaching your final destination.

I just wouldn’t rule out flying without a stopover. It’s doable and it does get the airport hassles out of the way nice and quickly.

(Actually, to contradict myself, if I were to return, which I probably will, I quite like the suggestion of going the other way round with a stopover somewhere that’s not the US. Not sure if the implications of crossing the dateline for jet lag though!)

richardw

Air Canada rouge operate a direct flight from Toronto to Honolulu AC1823 on a Sunday, the timings are 17.55-23.20, if you can sleep on planes, you'd probably sleep on this flight if your body clock is still on GMT.

Nick_C

I'm It is possible to fly to HNL via New York or [STRIKE]Denver[/STRIKE]Dallas, avoiding the West Coast entirely.

Economy class on US domestic flights is terrible though.

You occasionally get very reasonably priced business class fares when the sales are on, if you can start in Dublin.

I would say the outbound journey is fine without a stop over, but stop over on the return.

You can fly direct to several islands from the West Coast, avoiding HNL.

If you are island hopping (and you should) price up diifferent routings.

If you are splitting tickets, a stopover is essential for contingency.

richardw

I fancy Hawaii as part of a RTW trip flying east, so London-Japan-Hawaii-Vancouver-London in June.