Hawaii Honeymoons

Hey Rebecca, I have -sadly- not been to Hawaii, my parents honeymooned there but their advice isn't going to be very relevant now! There are lots of travel agents in the WW vendors tab that should be able to assist you. Otherwise what I might suggest is changing the title of this thread to something that mentions Hawaii honeymoons, that might attract more members who have personal experience to click on it. I hope you find some good advice, sorry I can't be of more help myself.

Hello Rebecca,

We plan several Hawaii trips every year, so I am happy to give you some advice/suggestions. Hawaii can be done in several ways. Considering how long it takes most people to simply get to Hawaii, we often suggest spending no less than 7 to 10 days. I am not sure where you are flying from, but airline tix, on average, run around $1k per person.

Once there, most people want to see more that one island, as each island has very different things to offer ( if you visit just one island, I compare it to just visiting one state on a visit to the United States). The inter-island flights are surprisingly affordable ($70-$100 per person), so I suggest visiting at least two islands during your visit, no matter how long your stay. My clients often start in Honolulu for one to two days to experience Waikiki Beach and visit Pearl Harbor. Then they will take a very short flight to Maui, Kauai, and/or "The Big Island" for the second portion of their honeymoon.

Unlike most tropical destinations, the weather and, consequently, the hotel prices stay fairly consistent in Hawaii. Expect to pay at least $250 per night for a three star-moderate hotel. Luxury hotels will be closer to $500. There are no all inclusive accommodations in Hawaii, but many of the hotels will offer a free breakfast buffet. Considering meals average around $40pp, a free daily breakfast will help with costs tremendously.

I always suggest renting a car in Hawaii, as it is not much different than driving on the mainland and all signs are English. If you do not want to drive yourself and/or feel uneasy about following a map or GPS, you can pre-pay for excursions that leave from most hotel lobbies. These tours and excursions will provide transportation, but expect to pay a premium for these services.

For a great 9 to 10 day trip to Hawaii that includes flights from the mainland, two island stops, 4 star hotels, car rentals, some tours, and inter-island flights, you can expect to pay at least $7k.

Good luck...and congratulations!!

We went to Hawaii, but our honeymoon was a gift from FHs parents so I don't know what we spent on airfare and hotel. I can tell you that for 7 days we budgeted about $1000 just for meals- food was very expensive. We did a few excursions- dolphin/snorkeling excursion, parasailing, kayaking, and then we spent a day at Pearl Harbor (we stayed exclusively in Oahu). On those I'd say we spent close to $650...but it was months ago, so that number might not be entirely accurate. We also rented a car, which was about $450 for us (but we are both under 25, I think the cost drops when you're over?).

5 days on Oahu. $1,600 plane tickets, $1,800 hotel. Total about 5k...so 1k per day. Estimate about $850/day you spend and you'll probably have a decent estimate.

We went to Hawaii about 6 days on the Big Island (Hawaii) and 6 days on Maui.

It was expensive.

Oh, and it might be cheaper to book flights from where you are to LAX and then from there to Hawaii. Our tickets were gifted so the $1,600 was for direct booking from our home.

I went years ago, and stayed in a time share that my aunt rented. Plane fare was 800 from Orlando but it may have gone up. It was through Alaska Air and they were really good.

We spent one week on the big island and one week in Kauai.

One money saver was since we were in a condo we cooked in quite a bit. We went to Costco to shop. We also bought booze and brought it to the pool and/or beach. We also found local bars and restaurants when we went out as opposed to touristy places. It's more our style too.

Excursions from the hotel were way more expensive than from other places. We did a kayak rental based out of a gas station that came with a tour guide to a secret waterfall and it was half the price of the condo offer. Horseback riding and zip lining were around $100 each. We spent $120 on a luau with open bar and it was really fun.

I just got back from our 9 day Honeymoon on Maui. It was fun, but it was extremely expensive. That was our choice, we wanted to "go all out" as we rarely get to take trips and saved up for it. We weren't trying to save money. So my budget may not help you very much. (We did come in under what we thought we would spend.) But I can tell you what we learned?

Flights are expensive, and long as hell. We started shopping for our flights ridiculously early. We knew we wanted first class for those really long flights. (For shorter flights we usually fly Southwest or whatever) Because we started eyeballing flights so early, we were able to get first class seats really "cheap". We actually paid less for our first class seats than the price that coach seats were about a month before our trip. We had nonstop flights and it was about an 8 hour flight each way. (We drove 4 hours to a different airport from our hometown to get non stop flights. It was also cheaper than flying from the airport closer to us for whatever reason.)

I think our flights were $5000 total.

We stayed on Maui, at the Montage in Kapalua Bay. It was amazing, but ridiculously expensive. Again, we just stayed there since we were splurging. We actually scoped out cheaper/comparable hotels on Maui while we were there for future trips.

*Kapalua is one of the windiest areas on the island. And rainiest. It literally rained every day off and on the whole entire trip. The rain is unpredictable too, forecasts are just all over the place! Lahaina and Kaanapali are much warmer and less rainy, but more crowded and touristy. We went back and forth between those areas all week. There's cool stuff and yummy food in both areas, it just depends what your hotel budget is as far as which area you're going to pick. Btw, the Ritz in Kapalua was really overrun with kids and families. And we preferred the beaches near Kaanapali and Lahaina.

We rented a car. It's a must. You literally cannot get around renting a car. There is no public transportation and all of the different areas are spread apart. I think our car rental was about $400.

Food is ridiculously pricey there. We had some serious price shock!

So budget a lot for food. Take what you think you will spend, and then double that.

We could've saved money by hitting a grocery store and having food in our room. I recommend doing that. Bottled water too. Our room had a kitchen, we were just lazy.

We did a catamaran dinner cruise with Trilogy Excursions, and we loved it. We liked them so much we did a daytime snorkeling and Snuba excursion with them. They're a great company and have great crew members that make the trips super fun. We also did a Blue Hawaiian helicopter tour. My husband loved that! It was SO COOL. We flew over huge waterfalls and saw so much more than if we had just driven around. We also played golf at the Bay course in Kapalua Bay, which was really neat if you guys are into golf. The views on the golf course are stunning. We did some spa stuff that was amazing, and hit all the high rated restaurants. I'm fat now : )

We did go to a luau (Feast at Lele), and it was dumb and cheesy and the food was gross/inedible. So i don't recommend that.

Other thoughts... Dole Whips are gross. And I packed way too much clothing. Bring less and do laundry!!!