Hawaii Vacation: Oahu

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One of my favorite things to do is travel, and after more than two years, I finally got to travel again! We took a trip to Hawaii over spring break that I wanted to share with you. We took four people and a baby, and flights and accommodations were only $65! Can you believe it?!

I would consider myself an experienced traveler yet I’m always interested to hear how others travel on a budget, too!

While I write more specifically to personal finance topics, I do also encourage people to include fun and/or travel within their budgets. I want to share some of our travel experiences to demonstrate that you can travel, even as a family, without wrecking your finances.

So let’s get to the good stuff!

The Flight To Hawaii

For most of our larger trips, I use my credit card miles to book flights. On this trip, I was able to to stretch the miles we had into four plane tickets (baby sat on our laps for free) that only cost us $45!! Holy cow, I still can’t believe that!

We got these tickets for 30,000 flight miles each. This was cheaper than normal for flying to Hawaii, based on our past experience. Here’s how we were able to have enough points that worked for us:

• We were able to accumulate so many points because we hadn’t used our points for a couple of years. I was extremely busy with work while I was pregnant, and then wasn’t planning to travel with a baby during his first year of life. Oh, yeah, and then we had a pandemic during that time, too, so before you know it, over two years had gone by.
• I think the fact that airlines are hurting right now, tickets are less expensive than they would normally be. This is especially true in our situation, considering it was spring break and a peak traveling time.
• Most experienced travelers will tell you that whether you buy your tickets or you’re able to use points, try to be flexible in your travel dates because it can save you some serious money! One of the most expensive times to fly is Friday and Sunday evening. If you must fly over a weekend, check out prices for a Saturday morning, because they are cheaper. For us, we left on a Thursday and and returned the following Thursday. So, yes, we disrupted our schedules over two weeks instead of one, but this was equivalent to savings hundreds of dollars (points, in our case). It was definitely worth it!

Flying With A Baby

For those of thinking about taking advantage of the “kids under 2 fly free”, let me reassure about flying with a baby. I admit, with a walking 16 month old baby, I was nervous to fly with him.

Travelling with a baby requires more equipment, for one, so that was something new to figure out. And we chose to just have him sit on our laps (because it’s FREE), which also made me nervous since we would be flying during his normal bed time. I found out that the airlines (Alaska, anyway) will let you check your car seat and stroller for free, and you could check them both at the point where you actually board the plane! This was welcome news, and I’m sure glad we had that stroller for our trip.

I also brought new toys and more snacks on the flight to help keep your the baby occupied. This certainly helped, also. Baby did very well falling asleep on us, only minor fussing. When he was asleep, my husband and I put our tray tables down and laid him on that. It worked great!

Quick Notes About Flying To Hawaii During COVID

At the time of this writing, you still had to present negative COVID-19 test results in order to avoid the 10-day quarantine upon arrival in Hawaii. Even my poor little 16 month old baby had to get one, which was sad for me. 🙁 Thankfully and fortunately, we all tested negative.

You have to upload your tests to this site: https://travel.hawaii.gov/#/welcome. You create profiles for every traveler, add a photo of the traveler, upload your negative test, and possibly do daily check-ins. For some reason, I was considered an “exempt traveler” and did not have to do the daily check-ins, but the others in our group did. I also had to send copies of these test results to the property where we were staying before we arrived. As if I didn’t have enough to think about when traveling, and with a baby, too!

We carried the copies of our negative tests with us in case we needed to present them.

I also carried a copy of my baby’s birth certificate, in case they wanted to verify that he was less than 2 years old. We have until then that he can fly without requiring a ticket!

Our Hawaii Residence

We stayed in the Aloha Towers, which is a few blocks from Waikiki beach. That area actually has very tall buildings with only a few properties that are right on the beach. Our place also had a heated pool, hot tub, and BBQ areas!

We were able to get a 2-bedroom condo that actually had an ocean view! The Mariott had rooms directly in front of us that didn’t even face the ocean so we were feeling pretty good with our place. Here again, I think the pandemic probably had something to do with a condo of this size being available during this peak traveling time. Yay for us!

If you’ve seen any of my other family travel posts (like when we go to Sunriver), I highly recommend staying in condos when you have more than just a couple, or even a small family. You get more privacy, a kitchen, and usually even a washer and dryer. Besides the privacy, it’s key to have at least a kitchenette that allows you to purchase food so you don’t have to eat out for every meal! We only ended up eating out a couple of times, which still cost us about $60 each time for five people! I was glad we had food that we could eat any time we wanted, and had more money available to get treats, like pineapple smoothies and shave ice. 🙂

Another reason having our own food was ideal was because a lot of places aren’t open for business, or only had take out options.

Activities on Oahu

Grocery Shopping (Seriously, ha ha!)

We checked in late at night so couldn’t go grocery shopping until the next morning. Our first meal in Hawaii was McDonald’s for breakfast. Ha ha! But then we went grocery shopping so we could be set for the rest of our trip. While grocery shopping on vacation doesn’t sound like fun, it is actually fun for us to get to drive around and act like a local doing the mundane task of grocery shopping. You get to experience where you’re staying in a different way than just staying in a resort.

Diamond Head, Of Course

We did hike Diamond Head, which was really inexpensive. It was $10 per vehicle or $5 per person if you parked down the road and walked in. It was less expensive for us to pay the $10 and you got to park close. Since we’re from the west coast, there’s a three hour time difference so we’re awake early in the morning and can get out to places early. We were at Diamond Head by 8 in the morning, and the lot was already full. They allow you to sit in a “wait line”, though. We waited about five minutes to get a spot, which wasn’t bad.

In my opinion, this is a relatively easy hike for anyone. The uphill is so gradual compared to other hikes I’ve taken, and I honestly was expecting it to be more challenging. Even if you do find it difficult, just take your time! Take breaks, enjoy the view! We were up and down within an hour and a half, and that included walking around and taking pictures at the top.

Kahe Point Beach For Snorkeling

We drove out to Kahe Beach for snorkeling. We brought our own snorkel gear so that we wouldn’t have to rent! With Alaska Air, you get one free checked bag per person so we brought as much gear as we could. There were a lot of snorkel tours out there when we showed up. What would’ve made it even better is having our life jackets so we could swim out farther safely.

This was an easy drive, it wasn’t an overcrowded beach, and is known as a great place for snorkeling. Check out more about this beach here.

Be sure to look ahead because some parks/beaches are closed on certain days. We wanted to go to Hanauma Bay because it’s known for having a lot of fish, but it was closed the day we wanted to go.

Waikiki Beach

We walked down to Waikiki several times as it was within walking distance of where we were staying! We tried a different part of the beach each day. One times, we were in a really busy part. Another time, we were right next to a large grassy area where the baby could wander around. It was all beautiful, and the water was so nice compared to what we’re used to in Oregon! Never had to pay for parking, all free!

Pearl Harbor

We did also visit Pearl Harbor, which is free! The museum exhibits were smaller than I was expecting so our time there was kind of short. Also, you have to reserve tickets ahead of time to actually visit the U.S.S. Arizona memorial site, which I didn’t know so was too late to do that this time. There are other Pearl Harbor exhibits there that required reservations during this time, and would have cost money. Next time, though!

Lanikai Beach

I do wish we would’ve taken the time to drive and explore the island a little more. We did drive out to Lanikai Beach, which was absolutely beautiful! Because we were there on a weekday, we were able to get parking a block away from the beach. It was still busy, so I’d expect the weekends to make it even harder to find parking. If you go here- and I’d highly recommend it!- get there early! This is probably the best beach I’ve ever been, and great for little babies. The water is shallow for quite a distance from shore. Also, the waves were so gentle and gradual that day that we didn’t have to worry about the baby getting knocked over at the shoreline like all the other Hawaiian beaches I’ve been to.

How We Could Afford A Hawaii Vacation

Savings Account Only For Vacations

I set money aside every paycheck in a vacation fund. I don’t necessarily have a destination in mind for those funds, but I want to make sure that I have the money when I want to go somewhere!

This money is separate from any emergency funds or other sinking funds. This is an account solely designated as vacation money. If you have the room in your budget to set aside even a little, do it! Having fun is still important, but save up for it! Get creative about finding deals so your funds will go a long way!

Using Points/Flight Miles

I know I mentioned above about using flight miles, and how much it “cost” us in points. The four tickets would normally cost us $1,892 and instead only cost the $45 in tax! There are so many different rewards cards out there that I want to be a little more specific about what we use just for your own info and to provide full disclosure.

We do use an Alaska Air credit card that has a $75 annual fee. With all the trips I’ve been able to take me and my husband on, using miles that we accumulated by buying things like groceries, the annual fee is worth it to me.

Personally, I have only two credit cards: the Alaska Air Visa, and a Citi-branded Costco Mastercard. The amount I would be spending on tickets is way more than the cash back rewards I get from Costco card.

If you are going to use credit card, I highly encourage getting a card with some sort of rewards. There are too many available with rewards these days that it doesn’t make sense not to take advantage.

Hotel/Condo

We have a family timeshare so it only costs a whopping $20 for a single reservation! Keep in mind that this is after the initial investment of the timeshare. I would not normally recommend getting a timeshare unless it really makes sense to you. As often as we use it, we know we’ve come out ahead, and I don’t regret having it, at all.

While not everyone may have access to the deals, like where we were staying for $20, there are deals to be found! Shop around for deals, and budget more for this expense. Check out sites like VRBO and Airbnb. Even where we stayed, there are condos that are owned by individuals, and they will rent those out on these sites. I’ve used both in the past and have been pleased with the deals I’ve found there.

Other Costs To Save For

The rest of our trip included costs for a rental car ($811 with gas fill-up), groceries ($295), and then other treats and miscellaneous items (flip-flops for baby, shave ice, smoothies, surfing, etc.) For a group of five, eating out was a minimum $60, and that wasn’t even at the “nice” restaurants. We tried to find as much hole-in-the-wall eateries as we could. Our cheapest meal was under $30 for breakfast at McDonald’s on the first morning there. All these costs come out of savings.

Check out sites like Expedia, too, for flights, hotels, and car rentals. When you have an account and use Expedia, you also accumulate rewards with them that I’ve used in the past. I did use them to book our car rental.

Closing Thoughts

All together, it was around $2,000 for a six day vacation for five people! Yes, we could’ve certainly done more and spent more, but I felt like we were occupied the whole time. There was definitely still more I would’ve done or gone to see so doing all our free activities kept us busy and didn’t detract from the experience of the trip.

No matter the budget, I believe any trip is what you make of it. I love going to new places and doing new things, and they don’t necessarily need to be costly.

If you have your own travel hacks that I didn’t mention here, leave them in the comments!

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