Hawaii on a Budget

I've heard so many people say that they'd love to visit Hawai and then go on to say that they could never afford it.  Hawaii isn't cheap but there are a lot of ways to make it work even with a tight budget!

The most expensive part of a trip to Hawaii is getting there.  Plane tickets from the Midwest and East Coast aren't cheap especially during school breaks.  We've been to Hawaii three times in the past five years and from Wisconsin our airfares have ranged from $800-$1000 a person.  I've seen prices go as low as $650 at less popular times of the year.  The first budget hurdle for a trip to Hawaii is saving for plane tickets, once you've done that you are most of the way there!

One of the easiest ways to save money on a trip to Hawaii is to rent a condo.  I did a quick search for condos in Kona on www.vrbo.com and I found a lot of options for $1000 a week or less.  There are several advantages to staying in a condo.  You'll have a kitchen, even if you eat one or two meals a day in the condo you'll save a lot of money.  I also love having a washer and dryer in a condo, it means we can pack far less and save money on baggage fees, doing laundry on vacation is so much more fun than at home!

We leave for Hawaii in less than 2 weeks.  We'd originally planned to spend Spring Break in Florida but we couldn't resist going back to Hawaii.   Our original budget was for Florida so I had to adjust a bit and make the budget work for Hawaii.  I'll be keeping track of our spending and we'll be eating most of our meals at the condo.  Last year we discovered that our kids loved taking picnic lunches to the beach so we will probably do that most days.  I'm going to really try hard to stick to my budget, we have a big trip planned to Europe this summer so that is motivation to watch what I spend.

Here is my budget for the 8 days.

Car rental -$243
Snorkel Rental and Boogie Board Rental- $100 for the week
Food-$500
Hotel Before Flight and Parking-$124

Possible-$436 for a 1/2 day snorkel cruise.  I just can't get up the nerve to book this yet, we did great snorkeling last year from shore without paying big bucks.  I guess we'll make a decision a bit closer to the trip or maybe we'll see how the snorkeling is close to shore before we book!

Stay tuned to see how I do sticking to my budget!