Cheap saving: Ireland!

Dia duit! Welcome everyone John here with another analysis on saving a little for your wanderlust ventures to Ireland!.

Now just like my previous posts I am going to go over the cheapest sites for the cheapest deals when researching your ticket to your destination. I'll thoroughly explain my top choices of websites for Planes, Hotels, and Transportation expenses. 

Now lets get the ball rolling! 

The situation: 

• 2week vacation stay in Ireland
• Booking for April 1st-15th (Less tourist populated)
• Departing from San Francisco (It's mainly where I'm from)

FLIGHTS

1. Cheapflights UK

 USD conversion= $627.21

2. Travelsupermarket

USD conversion= $649.57

3. Lastminute

USD conversion= $651.29

4. GotoGate

USD conversion= $667.10

Here are my top 4 searches of the cheapest flights I found departing to Ireland. Some quick tips delete your cookies or go on incognito mode to have the freshest searches as you look for the tickets. I've read from other traveling blogs that travel companies will store search data therefore showing you the same if not more expensive prices. Also try buying them in their international websites since the conversion will save you a lil bit more. But be aware of the fees along with buying with your US credit or debit card for any conversion or transaction fees from your bank or the agency. 

Hotels/Hostels

For hotels and hostels, the cheapest listings I found are:

Hipmunk.com
booking.com
skyscanner.com
kayak.com
expedia.com
hotelscombined.com

Saving on living expenses would most likely be rooms that share with various people such as hostels. I've retested sites I found for previous countries and retained them since they hosted the better deals. Just providing the sites so that you may find a particular cheaper one of your choosing. Some of these travel agencies will post the same if not a little bit more than their competitors. Just to give you some close comparisons of which site is offering you the better prices. 

Transportation

For a short concise guide on transportation click on ricksteves in which he explains the best option for traveling within Ireland. I'll provide you with cheap options if you decide either train, car, or bus for transportation.

Trains/Buses

Options I found are:

Eurail.com

You can have the selection to buy a rail pass in Ireland which grants you the privilege to use as many train wherever it is valid on the days that you choose. For example if I bought the 3DAY pass I can pick any 3 days of the month and ride as much trains to different cities as I wish. The only limitation is that once I've used up the days I decide to travel or haven't use one or two days of the ticket but 1 month then the Eurail pass has expired and no longer in use. 

This would be great for those that want to have short spontaneous trips which can make traveling substantially cheaper if you're visiting multiple cities in that small window span of your trip.

translink.co.uk
eireagele.com

This site is another incredible to customize your type of traveling service whether through bus or train by offering fares and tickets similar to eurail pass. The benefits are almost the same in that the purchase of your ticket is unlimited traveling through a specified number of days. Also very convenient and substantially cheaper than buying a rail pass. But this only works within the northern parts of Ireland. I haven't posted any prices since selection and searching of the ticket is very extensive and abundant of various combinations. But an estimated price by rail would expect 3-day unlimited pass for about 11-30 euros, as for a bus ticket would be a range of 2-30 euros depending on how often you are using the bus to reach certain parts of northern Ireland. 

For metro bus fares within the city they also have a section to show you which buses and arrival times for the local routes, which is also dirt cheap. 

busireann.ie

Here is another city to city bus site which is amazingly cheap to travel within Ireland! I chose a route not too far away from Dublin airport just to test out the fare on which if the closest or farthest travel distance correlates with the price of the bus ticket. So from Dublin to Mullingar which isn't too far from each other revealed a relatively cheap ticket. Then tested Dublin to Mallow which was on the opposite side of the country and the price was twice the price of the ticket to Mullingar. Just be in mind some arrival destinations are very specific and may not be able to find you a price, meaning the bus route might not go through that area (which is kind of unnecessary to be listed) but guessing it could a reference point to go their destination. But this site is amazing for cheap traveling in Ireland definitely recommending this for those that need to save a little. 

Rental Cars

Sixt.com

Carrentals.com

(Don't be deceived, some websites will help rent out other cars from different rental services for a little higher price which are heckuva lot cheaper than other 3rd party competitors.)

Rentalcars.com

(I'll stop at this site since each rental services and 3rd party services spike their prices up about $2-50 up from here on out. *searched through 6 pages of google)

Total traveling expenses

Applying what we found here to our 2 week vacation and sum up our cost throughout the trip. 

3 nights in Dublin

Round trip flight= $627.21

Hostel= $138.78

Car= $206.64

Total= $972.63

3 nights in Galway

Hostel= $132.26

Gas= $30

Total= $162.23

2 nights in Kenmare

Hostel= $88.87

Gas= $40

Total= $128.87

2 nights in Doolin

Hostel B&B= $138

Gas= $30

Total= $168

2 nights in Belfast

Hotel= $119

Gas= $30

Total= $149

Last 2 nights in Dublin

Hostel= $82.40

Gas= $20

Total= $100.40

GRAND TOTAL= $1681.13

I mainly used hipmunk and booking hotel websites to find the cheapest hostels and hotels. I chose a car since much of Ireland's attractions are very rural areas and by taking buses or trains would mean a whole lot of walking which would of save me maybe 200-300 more bucks. Again this doesn't include food and miscellaneous items since that can be very subjective in pricing. Ireland is a pricey vacation more so than Germany for a place filled with scenic views and delicious pubs. All of this is just a simulated guide on how would you save and spend on your trip to Ireland, thank you guys for reading and keep with my next post! 

บาย! (Guess this language!)

Cheap saving: Germany!

Hallo! Next stop on our list is Deustchland! So just like my other post on Italy i'll go over another research and budget analysis on this trip. I'll be going over ways to travel within Germany while being monetary conscious. I try to use other resources and search for new websites to add to my list. Figured that not all sites are created equal some won't be consistent so to prevent that I again will post my findings. Let's begin!

The situation: 2 week vacation in Germany for the weeks of July. Dates: March 15th-29th, 2016

Let's book some flights!

Flights

I will test out my other websites I found and see if any prove to be consistent if not then i'll list them on here. 

The list are flights for a roundtrip per person.

1. Travelsupermarket.com

This site helps you generate cheap flights by directing you to other travel agency pages such as: 

Gotogate.com

USD= $722.09






Omegaflightstore.com

USD= $729.77







ebookers.com

USD= $738.84

Even though they are priced at euros the conversion turns out to be cheaper than other websites I've search in the past. Especially for a flight from San Francisco to Germany is incredibly cheap. I'm constantly finding ways to get the cheapest flights and budget as much as I can for the sole purpose of this blog. This was quite a find to get tickets below a grand. Lets see what their American counterpart can come up with. 

2. StudentUniverse.com

The mecca savings for students. From here you'll find flights from a great range from $899 to $970 with $10 increments in between. All other mainstream travel site are mostly priced at $994 which is damn near close to a grand. But for I want to dig deeper and spend alot more less than that.

3. Hipmunk.com









4. Kayak.com










5. Faredepot.com








Somehow Kayak.com was able to make it to the list even though I try to maneuver away from big name agencies but they finally caught my budget attraction. So far these websites were able to produce less than a grand flight tickets which is awesome and a money saver to explore Germany. Also added new sources to the list to expand more options on air tickets. Now that we have a quite selection pick out for Germany let's go find places to stay.

Hotels/Hostels

Okay from what I found hostels and hotels in Germany are pretty damn expensive. So flying into Frankfurt I found places ranging from $20/night to $70/night. So I'll just list the sites that I was able to seek for the cheapest yet a quality stay. I usually don't post pics of the hotel names and price reason that most people get pretty picky on what hotels or hostels they want to stay in. Therefore, I would gladly help provide the websites that bridge to the purpose of budgeting a cheap hotel. 

expedia.com
booking.com
agoda.com
ibis.com 
hotelclub.com

The last three websites I included are the new sources that hopefully can assist your plans for cheap stay. But for some reason expedia.com and booking.com were the cheapest one so far with prices of $20-$40 a night. But the last three range from $40-$80 a night. So depending how much you want to budget and quality but for me being a student I don't mind taking $20 a night since the purpose is to sleep and all the wonders are outside of the room. 

Transportation

Traveling within Germany I have came across few wonderful blogs explaining the best and cheap options of transportation. These prices are based on the total of the 2 week stay in Germany. The cheapest are the mini compact or smart cars which some are priced above and below $20 a day which is not too shabby. You could potentially spend at least $100- $150 a week.

Car rentals

1. Dollar.com

USD= $174.01

USD= $184.06

2. Travelsupermarket.com

USD= $193.04





3. autoeurope.com

4. travelocity.com

So if you do want to rent a car it's pretty damn cheap for a couple weeks vacation in Germany. Even better if you bring a friend along to cut the cost by half or more. Dollar.com reigns the top competitor in low cost rentals given that it has appeared in other travel agency sites on this list. I tried to look at German rental websites but only ended up finding prices up to $300 and above which is a big no no to budgeting. 

Trains

Trains in Germany are priced considerably high from going to big city to city which is why I was only able to find two really great websites for purchasing train tickets. I would say traveling through may not be the cheapest way since most tickets are somewhat costly depending on what day, time, and city you are heading too. Also searching for the cheapest ticket may not be the best plate for your traveling especially if you're going to be using train multiple times. And according to couple budget blogs, trains do charge reservation fees which adds up to the ticket price if you book in advance. 

1. loco2.com









2. reiseauskunft.bahn.de/

3. Raileurope.com

These are prices for 1 person, I couldn't quote the price for March since train agencies allow booking is too far into the future. There are rail passes that go from 150-300+ euros that can be bought for a group of 5 that may save alot of money traveling through a pack. 

Buses

Reading through budgettravel.org the bus system is the cheapest route to explore Deutschland. Traveling to city to city you get bus fares as low as 1 euro through bus companies like megabus, IDBUS, BerlinlinienBus, Mein Fernbus, and so much more. Check the website for all other city to city travel. 

For traveling within Germany I have came across gettingaroundgermany.info/  for guides into utilizing the buses, trams, and subways.  Fares are really cheap costing to 1-4 euros depending on how far your away from your destination and what zone you are entering in. 

Hitchhiking/ Cycling 

These are also options to roam the rural and vast areas of Germany. Hitchhiking is totally free but quite precarious not knowing who the person you're going in the car with. Good thing there are apps and websites that promote rideshare opportunities such as blablacar, iThumb app, and Rideshare4less. If that's out of your comfort zone then buying a bike for your exploration is definitely an eco-friendly and economical way to go. Germany has tons of bike routes for all traveler looking for a healthy alternative. 

Total traveling expenses

Let's total up our expenses and see where we can come up. BE IN MIND prices are subject to CHANGE.

3 nights in Frankfurt
Plane ticket roundtrip- $722.09
hostel- $91 (booking.com)
bus/trams- $13.41 (3 days)
train to Berlin!- $40.24

TOTAL= $866.74

4 nights in Berlin
Hostel- $58 (booking.com)
bus/trams- $13.20(4 days from berlin.de)
train to Munich!- $32.42

TOTAL= $103.62

4 nights in Munich
Hostel- $95
bus/trams- $20.90 (4 single day tickets from munich-touristinfo.de)
train back to Frankfurt!- $32.42

TOTAL= $148.32

2 nights in Stuttgart
Hostel- $72
bus/trams- $19.11 (2 day from vvs.de)
train to Frankfurt- $21.24

TOTAL= $112.35

Last night in Frankfurt
Hostel- $84 (hotel next to the airport)

TOTAL= $84

GRAND TOTAL OF TRAVELING EXPENSE= $1315.03

Say instead of using the buses and trains of transportation and rented a car from dollar.com
then we would be saving about $19! Total commute cost=$192.94 Total rent-a-car cost=$173.75 but then again that does not include gas! So be wary that 19 bucks towards gas for all your trip won't be enough. You can still decrease the commute cost and mix and match by taking long distance buses and bicycles throughout your journey. 

And again these were the prices I was able to find today so the whole purpose is to provide you the resources and selection to better you plan of budgeting. You have alotta room for other food and miscellaneous cost so it's always better to plan it out. Some tips that help me were to use key words such as "Super/mega cheap" but then again website are notorious for large bold "cheap" titles to grab your attention. Then you ended up looking at not so cheap options which everyone dislikes. So hopefully this budgeting info/guide may serve you an amazing vacation through Deutschland! Thank you guys for reading and i'll be getting you people ready for my next post!

Bis zum nächsten Mal!

Cheap saving: Italy!

Benvenuto! I'll be listing my future destinations and processing budget plans throughout my whole research. Setting up hypothetical dates and places plus I will post actual prices to show you tips and hacks to get the best possible deals within spending limit. So lets begin with booking flights, transportation and hotels!

Flights

The Situation: Booking a flight for 1 person departing June 10-30, 2016(summer vacation) from SFO to Rome...

The results of my research were pretty amazing. If you read my first blog post on Hawaii I mention about skiplagged.com and how it was able to produce one of the cheapest  prices for the flight but this time didn't serve me to well. But luckily using the same process as my last post I did my extensive research. 

So here are my findings... But keep in mind all prices are subjected to change. Also planning 8 months in advance may not be the optimal way of budgeting. Airlines tend to cut prices 2-3 months before you book your flight so try not to be too hasty prices will drop if you wait the perfect time. But that's a whole other topic to discuss. Now let's get back to cheap flights I have came across if I were to buy it now.

1. hipmunk.com

2. justfly.com

3. airfare.com

4. vayama.com

5. cheapoair.com

Sometimes the big popular websites may have a chance to offer better deals than other small travel agency websites. Even skiplagged.com didn't even make it on the list. Expected to be the first was now a slight disappointment but luckily I was able to find the cheapest one so far. This search took me about 30 min to find so it wasn't that hard to find the lowest prices. Now that I am able to share it to help fellow wanderlust travelers like myself serves me to help save a lil bit more money on the vacation. So the winner of this battle of cheap flights belongs to hipmunk.com adding more resources to the table. But REMEMBER timing is key! Don't wait too long nor too early just wait enough to see airlines begin to compete for lower prices then that's when you jump in the arena. Now that flights have been settled lets go to transportation and get out of the airport.

Transportation

So how do we venture without spending unnecessary amounts in Italy? Alright hypothetically we'll be arriving in Leonardo Da Vinci airport so most likely we would want to find our hotel/hostel or whatever once we land. So possible options of transportation I found is the use of the most economical way which is the bus transit and others include the train, shuttles and car. So lets dive into how to use the bus for money saving adventures.

Bus-  Definitely one of the biggest slice of savings is taking the bus around Italy. Specifically in Rome you can ride buses depending on which ticket you buy you can either get a 75min, 1 day, 3 day, 1 week or 1 month bus tickets. Relatively inexpensive, the cost ranges from 1euro to 30euros which can save a whole lot of money for lavish romantic dinners in Rome. So if I were explore Rome, possibly I would purchase the 3 day ticket and the duration may be long but it won't hurt sightseeing through the beautiful city. For more information go to slowtrav.com.

Trains- When it comes to city-to-city travel I stumbled on walksofitaly.com they have greatly written a detailed organize article on train traveling but the post is 4 years old so prices may look cheap on their website.But they have the step by step sequence on what to do in the train station. So I am going to update on prices and keep our wallets fat as a cat. So a brief summary and my research I have came across another site seat61.com which provided train sites to purchase your tickets. First lets set up the destination, going from Rome to Florence on Oct 1st(I tried finding June 17th but it was too early to book so for price comparison I choose this date).

loco2.com

italiarail.com

For italiarail.com you would want to scroll down to look for cheaper prices or just click the lowest price category and sometimes if you're lucky enough find these tickets. 

trenitalia.com

Definitely try considering these sites for traveling city to city in Italy. Most economical way to save money off of gas and time since from Rome to Florence by car will take longer than the train. Another excellent way to get around the country. Also you won't have to worry about popping out the GPS since trains literally take you from point A to point B.

Cars- I've read many websites that renting a car is a big no-no on a budget travel vacation. That's why I won't get to deep in this subject that face you'll be facing problems such as high gas prices, confusing violations, and long distance rides. Most likely I would steer away * pun intended from renting a car. Cars may induce high amounts of stress and anxiety on the street of Italia so to avoid paying over your budget do not get a car. It might seem a good idea if you are traveling on the countryside but for tourist it will obliterate your savings.

Hotels/ other living areas

Flying over to Europe U.S. dollars will be useless so now the current exchange rate is $1 USD is equal to .88 EURO which is pretty low to how much your getting every dollar. But lets see how we can budget this. 

Since this vacation is set for a 20day vacation I would definitely try to mix and match hotels and hostels since given a long period of time you would possibly make like a banana and split through various locations for about 4-5 days. So digging deeper I found hotels from booking.com costing from $200 bucks for 5 days which by dividing that by 2 people you would be paying at least a hundred bucks. 

There are many hotels/hostels that offer shared room or dorms which you can get about $20-25 bucks a night which is decently cheap. Great for travelers in groups, roaming with friends can significantly cut cost low for hostels. Depending how long you stay you can find really cheap places. From hostelbookers.com they can give you the best cheap rooms in the location you are looking for. Price comparison I found small discrepancies but this site won't have much variety but you'll still be able to get good deals. ALWAYS read the customer views sometimes the cheapest ones won't be as bad as if you would pay for a regular hotel. Some people have different views. If you find more positive reviews outweighing the negative then go right along and book it! But be warn you will get as much as you paid for so don't fuss and complain. Won't hurt to spend couple more euros for a comfier stay. 

HotelsCombined.com generates the cheapest options for you night in Rome. A little similar to booking.com but luckily scavenging through this website made searching a lot easier. The moment when this site post pictures of big name travel agency comparisons can really shed light for savings. Looking through this site greatly enhance what I was looking for. Easy to spot cheap hotels and places so conveniently almost puts me at a disbelief. It tells you the total of price as well as the amount of stay at the hotel. Making it easier when you travel with another party or group and just divide the amount with the number in your party. They literally spit out stupidly cheap hotels for your choosing I highly agree to check this website out and browse your selection.

Total traveling/living expenses

Alright so far we've searched a bunch of cheap websites for our plane, hotels, and transportation... let's tally up our cost and begin to estimate our budget. Using the resources above let's see what we can come up with. 

5 nights in Rome

Plane ticket roundtrip-$1264.40

Bus fare- 11 euros

Hotel- $167

Train to Florence- 14.30 euros

Total= $1459.7

Off to Firenze!

5 nights in Florence
3 day bus fare- 12 euros
Hotel Villa- $97
train to  Venice- 14.30 euros

Total= $126.32

Now let's sail to Venezia!

5 nights in Venice
2 day ferry ride- 28 euros
hotel- $66.80
train back to Rome- 21.90 euros

Total= $122.42

Last nights in Rome...

5 nights in Rome
3 day bus fare- 11euros
hotel- $93
train to the airport- 6 euros

Total= $111.95

So the grand total for all living/transportation expense= $1820.39

This doesn't include food and other items such as gifts, clothes, etc. so to be in the safe zone I would possibly bring at least $2500 to cover those expenses. Keep in mind that these prices are NOT set in stone and they will fluctuate. Also if you have more money left after you planned your whole trip try to increase one of the values of your hotel or adjust areas where you may want to spend more to get more of your vacation. It's always better to plan and predict how much you are going to spend so that you have a good idea of what you need to bring. Well I really hope this helps some of you guys... I'm just a person who loves to save and have fun so thank you for reading and I'll be back with more business and traveling posts! Stay tuned!

Any questions or comments please do so I would love to hear more tricks on money saving on trip and websites that you guys got for cheap!

Cheap saving: Hawaii

View of Waikiki from top of Diamond Head

Hi welcome to Rich Bucket list blog where I go over my research and experience to have the best possible methods on enjoying a vacation on a college budget. 

Before we go into detail on my trip to Oahu, i'll share a little background information about myself. I'm your average college student with a minimum wage salary. Doesn't take much to travel. It took my girlfriend and I to plan this 3 months in advance to book our hotel and flight together. We invested quite some time to find a decent package deal. Getting package deals was way cheaper than having to separately pay for hotel and flight. We first looked through hawaiiarilines.com which was the typical website to find our deals. This was a good site to budget your travel but not the best site to have a college budget. I also noticed how volatile the prices were each day we waited. And we figured that the Mon-Wed the prices for the deals were at it's lowest and Thurs-Sun were at it's highest. But each week we waited Mon-Wed prices were gradually increasing. So we took an alternative route for our package deals. 

Here i'll go over a step by step on how we were able to book nearly $1000 for a 5 day trip in hawaii. 

1. Do extensive research

Booking hotels/guesthouses/hostels

Our budget was to spend a range between 800-1k for a package deal since we took the typical tourist approach in snagging hotels on Waikiki. I didn't mind but i'll share other alternatives if you decide to stay in hotels or some other type of living space. 

First lets start off with hotel/flights... I looked over numerous websites by literally typing "best cheap Hawaii package deals"

Priceline.com

Expedia.com

Hawaiiairlines.com

cheaptickets.com

These were all great sites! Some even help differentiate prices against other traveling sites. But all of them didn't fit our requirements. We wanted to book a 3-4 star hotel for nearly a grand. Sounds a little too much to ask for but me being really really cheap and getting out the best of the deal I was determined. So I kept researching. Some important factors the had major influence were also disrupting our vacation like which hotel and how many months in advance do we need to buy. I had to read tons of reviews of hotels and wait for prices to drop which almost destroyed my patience. We were growing frustrated...

At the time we were searching packages through July 2nd to July 7th so prices were steadily increasing week by week and these websites were way over our budget. Deals were going from 900 to 1500 just for 2-3 star hotels. Also we planned this during April so we thought buying 4 months in advance would get us the best possible deal... but we were WRONG. Each week we would wait every Monday to check if prices were at its lowest since buying 4months in advance was a little too early. (also search what's the optimal buying period for cheap deals in which I've read was 47 days in advance from cheapair.com) We clearly didn't follow this advice since we were first time tourists. We were blown with excitement and impatience to buy tickets for hawaii. And so by the time we would lose all control of picking our first choice which was using hawaiiairlines.com for 1100(including flight and hotel) for each person I happen to stumble upon a site that soothe our anticipation.

Tripadvisor.com

The site incredibly help us out greatly! I found a deal for $1012 or some where around that and it's per person so definitely the range we were looking for.We were able to book Hotel Renew which is a 3 star boutique style hotel. For 5 nights, continental breakfast which was just coffee and small pastries/sandwhiches, free movies and a king size bed! we were happily with the deal and booked it at that moment. The point of budgeting is to STAY WITHIN YOUR BUDGET so don't suddenly be irrational and buy something out of your range if hotels isn't in your budget then go down to some place lower which ill share here...

... if you really want to save money $$$ try renting out cottages/guesthouses where you can book prices for less than a 100 a day and splitting that with friends comes out to alot cheaper. Sites such as flipkey.com or affordable-paradise.com help generate a beautiful list of vacation rentals. Don't be bummed out expecting your cottages to be lavishly gorgeous and besides all the fun and adventure is outside of you bedroom until dusk falls if you know what I mean...

If I were to book one of these houses I would look into the area and see what surrounds your vicinity such as places to eat, shop, outdoor activities and how far you're away. The closer you are the better. Me getting out and casually walking to stores while smelling the fresh breeze are all the natural amenities I would prefer. 

Don't mind sleeping with strangers? Check into hostels around your area. Living with another individual might be a little uncomfortable for some but if you do enjoy meeting new people and sharing space then your looking at a price range of 20-50 dollars per person per night. So say you want to stay for 5 days you could possibly spend 125 dollars for yourself versus paying 100 dollars for 1 night at a hotel. 

Sites I looked into...

Hotelbookers.com
hostels.com
hostelworld.com

Booking flights

This one is a little tricky one to budget. In the eyes of a college kid I saved the hassle of booking a flight with my hotel. Since it was already included I didn't have to do all the work of finding a flight. But let's go over a hypothetical case where I book a non-package deal by settling for a nice cheap cottage house. I would need a flight to the island (let's pick oahu). Let's do our RESEARCH for cheap flights...I would plan this maybe 1 or 2 months in advance.... 

So websites I found are...

skiplagged.com

onetravel.com

cheapflights.com

orbitz.com

The best one was skiplagged.com, for me traveling out of San Francisco to Honolulu I would have to spend $475 w/ taxes not bad flying out of the most expensive city in the US. Then again I would have to pay a little bit more if I were to book for summer. I've also notice by checking hawaiiairlines, orbitz, kayak, expedia all show United Airlines with the same price of $538 w/ taxes. So my final call would buy the $475 flight after searching 5-7 traveling sites and make sure I didn't miss a flight cheaper than the one I found. What's really cool about skiplagged.com it searches all the cheapest airlines and shortest flight time in order! But the tricky part is you sometimes have to pay for 2 different airlines but overall you'll be saving more money than buying from 1 airline. 

Doing the research takes a whole lot of time and patience and a little cleverness in your keyword searches but in the end knowing that you saved money that you could use in Hawaii is definitely worth it. 

2. Budgeting in Hawaii

Transportation

I'm going to rely on experience for this. Our originally method of transportation was to rent a car from Thrifty's which was notified in our package deal. But due to unfortunate circumstances we weren't able to get the car. We were suppose to pay about 400 for 5 days of using the vehicle so it come out to be little above 200 dollars each which wasn't bad at all. We were paying for the convenience of using the car to go explore. Since we were unable to retrieve the car we resorted to use Uber fro the airport to the hotel. Which I personally don't like Uber since it can get expensive when driving long distances. Paying 70 bucks for a Uber ride versus 2.50 bucks bus ride sounds a helluva lot cheaper just the ride duration is what differs. 

Residing to bus was actually the biggest money saver of our trip. We utilize the bus system for a full 3 days. So in total bus expenses were an estimate of 50 dollars. Saving 350 dollars from not buying the rental car. That's 350 dollars for FOOD and etc. Plus the bus trip was pretty worth it since we were able to experience the full Hawaii exploration by going through communities, neighborhoods, and local areas. Also meeting locals along the way made our day a bit more richer. The bus drivers majority were really nice and respectful and showed no attitude to us tourist which I was expecting. Unfortunately we did witness one irritated bus driver as we ventured to Koko Head and Hanauma Bay.

View from Koko Head overlooking Hanauma Bay

Bus routes and timing was relatively easy to follow since I used Google maps and hawaii app "DaBus." You might argue why don't just use Google maps since it does both well you are correct my fellow reader but unfortunately we ran into difficulties with Google maps and its time and bus route accuracy. It wasn't accommodating to the current bus schedule so a solution for this problem I downloaded DaBus which is free and gives me on time bus schedules. So kinda seems alot of work using 2 apps but that's how we were able to navigate all throughout hawaii. I used Google Maps to produce routes and DaBus for bus schedules. Just in case you run into this mishap.

Now say that you have finally reached the dreaded day of flying back home after your fantastic vacation and you want to find a cheap way to get to the airport...well if you decide to take bus you might just run into a dead end corner according to bus policies they disallow passengers carrying oversized luggages which majority of tourist usually have. Which is funny since they have 1 bus that takes you all the way to the airport. Try contacting the receptionist at your hotel or any nearby hotel if they can help book a shuttle to the airport. We were on the verge of taking Uber and earlier in this post I've mentioned how we spent $70 from the airport to our hotel so we didn't want to pay another $70 going back. So then we asked for a shuttle and paid only $24 for 2 people. Alot cheaper than take uber that's for sure. BUT this maybe amicable if you and your company are residing around Waikiki resort...

If you're vacationing outside of Waikiki then my suggestions which pains me to mention it but use Uber, taxi, shuttles, or call in a friend/family to help you reach the airport. Won't guarantee these options will be cheap but it's probably your only options. Possibly next time might have to pack lighter to squeeze into the buses in Oahu.

Food

The most decadent topic of this post. I'll list the places in Waikiki that we dine and snack while maintaining a budget.

Rainbow Drive Inn- Local hawaiian fast food that you can never go wrong with

Hi Steaks- This was my last meal of Hawaii, never to stingy about their steaks order extra                       meat and by god you will fed holy.

Foodland- A grocery store that has one of the best Poke I ever had and really good spam                      musubis

Island Snow- The best snow cones in Oahu but this one is located next to Lanikai Beach                             which might be a greater distance from where your located. But if that's not                           problem I HIGHLY suggest to get your desert fixed and come over to this spot.

The Lovin Oven- Really convenient if you don't want to get out of your hotel or hostel since                               they do deliveries. Definitely a pizza size for 2 people taste great!

The Hard Rock Cafe- The only place we decided not to budget since we wanted something                                      a little fancy. But my goodness the atmosphere is thrilling. Order the                                      RIBS! you will not be disappointed.

Yogurtland- Don't need to really explain this one. 

And these were mainly dinner type foods except Island snow and Foodland. So throughout our exploration we would stock up on spam musubis in between our trips then save our appetite for dinner when we got back to our hotel. 

I really wished we had pictures to show but towards the end we turn into hungry monkey savages where technology is nonexistent in our starving minds. 

...AND there we go! Hopefully I've provided some insight on how to book hotels/flights, picking out transportation, and a taste of my food journey along the way and simultaneously save money throughout your trip! Mahalo!