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The following comments are based on a trip we took to the Hawaiian Islands from December 16, 2007 to January 12, 2008
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My apologies:

Due to technical problems, I have been unable to establish hyperlinks to the websites given below. Should you be interested in looking at a website, I would recommend copying and pasting the website address into your browser.
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HAWAII - Preparing for the Trip

Barbara and I really enjoy each other's company.

Having said that, we do spend a lot of time apart.

During the last year, Barbara was away from home for 153 days due to work related travel and family visits to Montreal.

Her absences are a good thing because I probably spent just as many days away from home during the trips which I blogged. In addition there was a great trip to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas which I did not blog.

Ironically, very few of the days away from home, other than a short trip to Calgary and the Rockies, were spent together.

It would be fitting to have at least one big trip together before the year ended. Making it even more compelling was the fact that Barbara had some work related time off to be used before the end of the year.
The question then became - where could we go during a four-week period?

Under consideration were China, South America, Mexico, Costa Rica and Hawaii.

China was high on our list but was quickly ruled out due to the winter season. It may be cheap at this time of year but dealing with the winter weather in a country that is known for its notoriously poor heating systems was not that attractive.

South America was attractive because of its cheap prices and the weather. The southern hemisphere at this time of year is right in the middle of summer. However, the idea ed that I had been there twice before and somewhere new would be more appealing.

Costa Rica became a finalist in our selection process but I wondered whether four weeks would be too much time in Costa Rica and the air fare would be more than double the price to Hawaii.

Ultimately, Hawaii won out partly on the argument that we presently live on the west coast of Canada and Hawaii is in relatively close proximity.

Proximity is reflected in the price of the airline tickets - $550 return from Prince George, BC to Honolulu, Hawaii. It is also reflected in the flying time. It is seven hours of flying from Prince George - one hour to Vancouver and six hours from Vancouver to Honolulu.

An even more compelling argument had to be the exchange rate between the Canadian and American dollar. Who would have thought that at the time of making our travel bookings, the Canadian Dollar would be worth $1.10 U. S.

I remember all too well in 2002, spending four months in Troy, Michigan, feeling like I came from a banana republic because the value of one Canadian dollar was 60 cents U.S.. America in 2002 was riding the crest of success and the value of the American dollar reflected that fact.

A third factor in choosing Hawaii was my friends from Ottawa - Ed Ambrose and his wife Andrea.

When I think of Hawaii, I have to think of Ed.

As a fellow retired high school teacher from Ottawa, Ed also did a lot of traveling during his teaching career. While my destination of choice was Europe, Ed's choice was Hawaii. So for the last 35 years I have been hearing how great Hawaii is. I finally had to go and see for myself.

Ed is a unique individual. Upon his retirement as an Art teacher, he did not fade away. On the contrary, his career as a contemporary artist has propelled him to a leading position in his field in Canada and beyond. He has a great talent which took retirement from teaching to reach its full potential.

www.edambrose.com

Even more surprising is that during the same time that Ed's career blossomed, his wife Andrea, taking a page from the same book, established herself as a prominent designer and creator of jewelry.

www.originalsbyandrea.com

They continue to go to Hawaii, usually to Princeville on the island of Kauai, to recharge their artistic batteries.

When is the best time to go to Hawaii?

That question was raised when another friend from Ottawa, Wilf Schwarz, a travel agency manager with Handa Travel, informed me that "it rains a lot in Hawaii during the Christmas holidays".
Wilf is another retired fellow teacher who has done very well for himself in his post-retirement careers as a travel agent, real estate agent, disc jockey and gentleman farmer to mention a few.

Wilf's comment about the weather prompted me to refer to the internet for an answer.

The best time to go to Hawaii is in the summer months which is definened as May to October. Contrary to many places where it gets hot in the summer, in Hawaii the summer temperatures remain relatively temperate.

The summer season is also the dry season and it is also the least expensive.

So what do the websites say about the period that we had chosen to go - December 16, 2007 to January 12, 2008?

The period from the second week in December until after New Year's is the peak season for tourism in Hawaii. It is also the most expensive period as well as the most difficult in which to find reasonable accommodations and car rentals. Finally, it does rain during the winter season much more than the summer, and the temperatures seldom get near 30 degrees centigrade.

This is not what we wanted to hear.

If the beach is your priority, this is not the time to go to Hawaii.

Acapulco would be a much better choice due to its sparkling weather and hot temperatures.

Wilf has been going there for 30 years and it is a beautiful place. He stays in Puerto Marques located on a beautiful bay just south of Acapulco. It has stunning beauty without the hustle and bustle of Acapulco.

www.puertomarques.net

Rain or no rain, we rationalized that our priority was not the beach and that we could explore Hawaii in good weather or bad.

The next question that we had to address was how were we going to travel in Hawaii?

Given my long history of independent travel, I was not yet ready to give in to the urge to go on an organized group tour.

To put it another way, not so long ago, I completed a five-week Alaska tour which I did independently without spending one night in a hotel. The end result was an exciting, incredibly inexpensive trip. My habit of relying upon yogurt and raw oatmeal as a staple also helped in keeping the cost low. (well, at least it wasn't "poi" the staple of Hawaii)

I knew that Barbara would not be impressed with this way of traveling and despite my best efforts to vaunt the advantages of camping I realized it would be a no go. Furthermore, the argument - "This is our only holiday together, we should do it right" was hard to dispute.

By traveling to Hawaii, I was out of my league in so many ways.

In my travels, I can't remember the last time I reserved anything other than airline tickets.

At this time of year, Hawaii is hardly a place to go without reservations.

This was contrary to my nature but Barbara embraced it big time. My enjoyment was watching the enjoyment that she got out of arranging the details of this trip.

Sometimes, while being on the Internet, immersed in making the travel arrangements, she would just be overcome by the anticipation of going to Hawaii. That is when I would hear a squeal of joy coming out of the living room.

I like traveling but I don't get excited about it. Nevertheless, it was fun watching her get so much pleasure out of the preparation stage.

Barbara launched herself into the search for relevant information about a month before our departure.

We rejected cruises and escorted tours as a means of travel due to: cost, shortness of stay and philosophical opposition on my part. We found that with cruises or escorted tours, thirteen days was about the maximum stay at a price that we hoped to pay for our independent 27 day tour of the islands.

For example, with Trafalgar Tours, the all-inclusive (including meals and tours) "Hawaii Four Island Adventure" - 13 days" was $3,385 per person

Invitingly, it involved four easy steps:

1. choose where you want to go
2. choose how long you want to stay
3. choose when you want to go
4. then Dream. Pack and leave the rest to us.

Princess Cruises has a 14 day cruise from Los Angeles at about $2,000 per person (without air fare). If you like it, cruising is an extremely convenient way of seeing beautiful parts of the world while grossly overeating.

Of course at these prices, everything would be top notch. Money has its privileges.

The next thing we had to decide was how to divide 25 days (not including day of arrival or departure) in the Hawaiian Islands. After searching internet sources and travel guides, we decided on an almost equal division of time on each of the four main Hawaiian Islands (there are eight islands).

This required looking at the possibilities offered on each island and creating some type of itinerary for each.

Frommer's Hawaii 2008 Guide was helpful with a short section entitled "A week on -------- "(each of the four islands). It provided a starting point but the final outcome was quite different.

Oahu - six days (4 days at start of trip plus 2 at the end)

Hawaii (Big Island) - seven days

Maui - six days

Kauai - six days

Remember, the better part of a day is lost in inter - island travel by air.

The most useful website that Barbara seemed to be using was that of Aloha Airlines

www.alohaairlines.com

click on Vacation Packages and pick the option "Flight, Hotel and Car" and fill in the places and times to get a price on the entire package including inter-island air travel, car rental on each island and accommodations.

We cannot emphasize that the earlier the booking takes place, the better.

Unfortunately, Barbara cannot say this with 100% certainly, but it seems that the first quote she got on this site was for approximately $1,600 per person for the all-inclusive package of inter-island flights, car rentals and hotel accommodations.

As a point of clarification, that did not include our flights with Air Canada from Prince George, BC to Honolulu ($550 per person, including taxes) or the accommodations or car rental in Oahu. Originally, we had not planned on renting a car in Oahu as we read about the cheap and extensive public transit system operating on the island.

Unfortunately, we did not book at the first opportunity. Instead, we kept procrastinating and watched as the prices on the same package continued to increase. By the time all the stars were lined up correctly and we were ready to book, the price had gone to $3,300 per person.

When I say the "same package", it may in fact not be the same package. The earlier price may have been with cheaper hotels. As the cheaper accommodations fill up, the accommodations may be replaced by more expensive accommodations thereby increasing the price.

With this system of booking, the traveler has no idea which hotel or car rental company is providing the service.

My reaction to the $3,300 per person price was, "we can do better than that". The translation of that phrase was "Barbara, you can do better than that".

The truth of the matter was that the enormity of the task was such that it took both of us to get this trip off the ground.

For accommodations we relied upon Expedia.com and Travelocity.com. Of great help in choosing between accommodations were the comments of other travelers on the websites.

The car rentals I booked through Discount Hawaii Car Rentals:

http://www.discounthawaiicarrentals.com

I was attracted by their cheap rates of about $29 per day for a Toyota Yaris. The Yaris is a relatively small car but it has a Five Star crash rating.

The above website acts as an agent for established companies such as Budget, Alamo or Avis.

In each of the three islands, our rental car was not a Toyota Yaris. Furthermore, none of the companies even had the Yaris available as a rental car - so much for truth in advertising.

We ended up twice with a Chevy Cobalt and once with a Subaru Imprezza.

Cheap cars are not what they used to be - they are so much better.

The Chevy Cobalt drives great while the Subaru Imprezza is a "rocket" (that must be kept in context as coming from a retired teacher).

One more word about car rentals - avoid the two-door Chevy Cobalt. The doors are huge and heavy and the rearward visibility is nil. As a matter of fact, I would avoid any two door car.

On every rental car there is a big sign inside the trunk saying "Do Not Leave Valuables in Trunk". Rental cars are not identified by company sticker but the magnetic code strip in the front window of every rental car, easily gives them away.

For inter-island air travel, Barbara discovered "Go Airlines". It is an airline which started operations only about a year ago and which has revolutionized inter-island air travel by having a low rate of $39 on some of its flights. This has not only allowed many locals to travel widely but has also triggered huge losses for Aloha and Hawaiian Airlines.

The website of Go Airlines is

www.iflygo.com

I notice now that they also offer the option of "Plan Your Own Vacation" like the Aloha site. It would have been interesting to make a comparison of prices between the two sites.

What was the end result of our independent approach to Hawaii? Were we able to beat the $3,300 which would have been our cost on the Aloha Airlines website?

Yes, we were able to do it for about $1,800 per person with accommodations taking up the biggest chunk of our expenses. The price is an improvement but we should have acted on the very first price we got from Aloha Airlines. In retrospect, we should also have compared prices with the Go Airlines site.

Should you look to this site now, you may find much lower prices but don't forget we went in high season.

In general, we were able to keep accommodations in the neighbourhood of $100 per night. The exception was Maui, billed as the world's most beautiful island. The cheapest accommodation available was an apartment hotel in Honokowai (just north of Lahaina) where the price was - "ouch" - $150 per night.

Barbara then created a spread sheet outlining the essentials of our trip organized according to dates. At a glance we could see on any given day where we were and what we were doing.

That was the first page of a binder which was divided according to islands.

For each island, we had the relevant maps and the printed confirmations for flights, accommodations and car rentals.

The confirmations were also electronically backed up in a "Hawaii Reservations" folder in our e-mail accounts, in case the binder was lost..

Everything we needed to know was there in that binder - now let's go!

Final words of advice for the independent traveler

- book as early as possible
- avoid the holiday season if you are trying to keep your costs to a
minimum
- if the initial price for the Vacation Package at Aloha Airlines is good, go for it before the prices go up as cheaper accommodations fill up
- if you want to choose a particular hotel or car rental company, the Aloha website is not for you as that detail is not known at the time of booking
- we opted for the cheapest accommodations we could find through Expedia.com which twice turned out to be the Seaside chain of hotels - the Hilo Seaside and the Kona Seaside
- in both cases they are older, well maintained hotels which would not necessarily be first choice but when compared to the hotels across the street at $250 a night, they are quite adequate
- in the final analysis you get what you pay for
- the way we travel, a hotel room is, after all, just a place to sleep
- on the other hand, as Yogi Berra might have said -"if you can afford it, just pay for it"

Real Time: January 26, 2008

As I write this blog, I am listening to a CD from "IZ" (more about this great Hawaiian later) and there are moments when I can feel tears welling up as his melancholy songs reconnect me with the wonderful land that is Hawaii.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I am off to Vancouver and Victoria for ten days.

If I want to spend some time with Barbara, going to Vancouver is the sacrifice I have to make. Part of her work now takes her to Victoria and Vancouver.

Coming Soon: Hawaii - How Not To Leave On a Trip