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| 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 $$$ try renting out cottages/guesthouses where you can book prices for less than a 100 a day and splitting that with friends comes out to alot cheaper. Sites such as flipkey.com or affordable-paradise.com help generate a beautiful list of vacation rentals. Don't be bummed out expecting your cottages to be lavishly gorgeous and besides all the fun and adventure is outside of you bedroom until dusk falls if you know what I mean...
If I were to book one of these houses I would look into the area and see what surrounds your vicinity such as places to eat, shop, outdoor activities and how far you're away. The closer you are the better. Me getting out and casually walking to stores while smelling the fresh breeze are all the natural amenities I would prefer.
Don't mind sleeping with strangers? Check into hostels around your area. Living with another individual might be a little uncomfortable for some but if you do enjoy meeting new people and sharing space then your looking at a price range of 20-50 dollars per person per night. So say you want to stay for 5 days you could possibly spend 125 dollars for yourself versus paying 100 dollars for 1 night at a hotel.
Sites I looked into...
Hotelbookers.com
hostels.com
hostelworld.com
If you're vacationing outside of Waikiki then my suggestions which pains me to mention it but use Uber, taxi, shuttles, or call in a friend/family to help you reach the airport. Won't guarantee these options will be cheap but it's probably your only options. Possibly next time might have to pack lighter to squeeze into the buses in Oahu.
... if you really want to save money $$$ 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.
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.
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.
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| 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...
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!
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