It is a cold time right now in Canada! When it's like this it's fun to think about warm places! It's even more fun to go there!(Thanks Heather for the beautiful picture!)As I said in an earlier post we are headed to a warm place next year. We are going to the Hawaiian island, Oahu. How did we get to the point of going and totally prepaying it?
1. We planned it, 2 years ago
2.We broke it down into smaller monthly "payments" to our self
3.We tried to cut costs on the big things
A. Flights:We tracked that typically Hawaii flights go on sale in the fall. The website www.airfarewatchdog.com can be customized to send you alerts on your favorite destinations. We ended up getting our flights at $500 return all taxes in.
B.Accommodations:This is a biggy as we are staying for 3 weeks. We wanted to stay in a condo so as to help cut cost on eating out. We ended up renting through a referral from my brother (who goes regularly to Oahu). We were willing to stay outside of the main tourist area. Our condo, all taxes,cleaning, etc in is right around $100/night.
C. Car rentals:In a previous post I explained how we ended up getting our car, cheap.
D.Food:Food on the island can be pretty pricey. To combat this we will:
A) carefully menu plan, so to be able to sit down to an already made meal, when we get home from the beach!(and so we aren't tempted to eat fast food).
B)We will plan our meals out and use coupons from our Hawaii entertainment book(right now they are $19.99US no shipping).and the coupons from the free papers This Week Oahu(Hotel lobbies, ABC stores), The Best of Oahu, 101 things to do on Oahu,can all be found in The Midweek or Oahu Gold free newspapers.
C)We are told that convienence snack type foods are very pricey and as crazy as it may sound we are going to use some of our checked baggage (2 bags 50lbs each)to pack boxes of food stuffs.Things that we know will cost us lots there and since we can get them cheaply here, why not?(To see what you can and can't bring go to www.catsa-acsta.gc.ca/english/ )
D)I will prepackage some mixes that I know we will want to make.
E)Entertainment:We are planning on doing a few touristy attractions,they will be field trips for us(our learning program pays for it). Mostly we will explore the island as that is the kind of family we are. We have spent lots of time on google earth(which is amazing!)and we plan on having it on the laptop so we can see where we want to go next. Laying on the beach, thankfully, is FREE!!!(We plan on having a cooler in our trunk with all our lunches and snacks prepacked!)Again our Hawaii entertainment book will come in handy for eating out.
F)Gas:We are told that Costco is the best price for gas. We plan on bringing and using our gps to save us from being lost!and wasting gas!
G)Wireless:There are many WiFi free spots. www.wififreespot.com
Any comments, suggestions???
2 comments:
My husband and I went to Oahu about 3 or 4 years ago, and as long as you aren't going during the Valentine's time, they had lots of coupon books for free on Waikiki Beach - many buy 1 get 1 meal free. We ate at the best restaurants ever for really cheap. It is pricey, but I think it if you had to splurge on one thing while on Oahu, and had never been there, I would recommend doing a whole day at the Polynesian Culture Centre and seeing the dances from all the Polynesian islands. It is the best luau you will see on Oahu, it is very educational, the meal is fantastic and it really gets you into the Hawaiian atmosphere.
Also, a reminder that parking is very expensive and can also be very hard to find in Waikiki. If you have to do Fast food - Jack in the Box is much cheaper than McDonalds on Waikiki Beach, and fast food places are much cheaper outside of Waikiki. Also some fast food restaurants charge an eating in, or a takeout fee - so beware!
Thanks Barb!! Really appreciate the tips.
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