Try Another Island … but Wisely!

It happens all the time.  You plan your Hawaii vacation; plan it carefully.  You’ll be here in the islands for a couple of weeks.  It’s your first visit so you figure you’ll spend them in Waikiki and take a couple of exploratory drives to see the rest of Oahu.

Then, one night after dinner after you’ve been here a week, you meet a couple who just came to Oahu from Kauai.  You tell them what you’ve seen and done in Waikiki, and a little about your drive to Oahu’s North Shore, where you saw the Polynesian Cultural Center and the town of Haleiwa.  Then they take over the conversation.  They gush over Kauai’s Waimea Canyon, Poipu, the Napali Coast, the Hanalei Valley Lookout …

“Hmm,” you think.  “Maybe we can take a couple of days and explore Kauai, or Maui, or the Big Island.  We can check out of our Waikiki hotel early, make new hotel reservations and book an inter-island flight, book a few side tours, then re-book our flight home.”  You get on the Internet, make some decisions and re-tool the rest of your vacation.

Okay, there are some things you could have done better.

To begin with, you should have planned your entire vacation with a travel agent who is based in Hawaii and who knows the islands intimately.  That would be us – Hawaii-Aloha Travel.  We encourage most of our clients to see more than one island, if time and budget allow.  We discuss with you your interests and we make recommendations accordingly.  When it’s clear what you would like to see and do, we book everything then, before you leave.   Doing so is going to save you a bunch of money.  An open secret among travel agents is that we can get better deals – save you more money – if we package everything you do.  That takes planning and reserving up front, and it’s worth the effort!  Otherwise, you’re doing everything ad hoc, buying everything a la carte, and limiting your options because some things you’d like to do are unavailable when you want to do them.

Even if you decide on a neighbor-island visit after you arrive, call us (1-800-843-8771) or contact one of our agents on line (hawaii-aloha.com).  We can still make sure you get to see and do what you want, and pay as little as possible for the experiences.

These islands – each and every one – are filled with wonders and adventures.  Enjoy as many of them as you can without wasting your precious time and money.  That’s what we’re here for.

5 comments July 1st, 2008