The simple answer is don't wait.
The mega online retailers have convinced consumers that in order to get the best travel deals you'll need to wait until the very last minute to make your reservation. This may be the case for some last-minute destinations like Las Vegas and Florida, but for Hawaii advance
planning is the best way to go.
To be sure, on a rare occasion or so, one may discover a great last minute deal, but this is akin to finding a needle in a haystack. You should only try this if you have tons of flexibility with your time and if you're the type of person that likes to travel on a whim.
Now that you are ready to make your plans, here are three critical suggestions to get the most bang for your buck:
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Off-Peak Travel- Try to travel during off season, meaning, when kids are still in school. May, September, October, and the early parts of November and December are great times to visit Hawaii. Airfares are much lower and availability and pricing of hotels and condos are much better.
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Plan Ahead- For those who are wanting to travel during peak Hawaii travel times, PLAN AHEAD. We can't stress this enough. If you are planning to be in Hawaii during the Christmas/New Year's holiday, summer vacation, spring break, etc... book minimally 3-4 months in advance. Although the prices during the travel season to Hawaii may be higher than offseason travel, booking in advance will allow you to get better pricing.
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Be Flexible with your schedule - If at all possible, try not to travel on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Generally speaking, it's much more affordable to travel Monday - Thursday. And if you have a window of availability in which you can travel as opposed to hard and fast dates, even better. When it comes to airfare it's amazing the difference even one day can make.
We hope this helps in planning your next vacation in paradise.
Post a comment below with some of your favorite tips for saving money on traveling to Hawaii. All of us on this blog would love to read them.
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Great Hawaii Vacations is happy to post a report from Christie, one of the winners of our free vacations in Hawaii. We are so happy to have been part of her vacation in Paradise.
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I want to thank Great Hawaii Vacations for winning 5 nights at the Waikiki Marriott Resort and tell you a little about our stay.
We recently returned from our trip which was wonderful. We arrived on a beautiful, sunny
afternoon and caught a quick shuttle to the hotel. Check in was so easy and we were given a room on a high, quiet floor with fabulous views of Diamond Head and the ocean. The room was spacious, clean, and very comfortable. A new flat screen TV with a mini-fridge made it even better. Every morning I swept open the curtains and gazed at the view. It was so amazing it made it hard to leave.
The beach is right across the street and we just walked to everything. If we were too tired to walk, the bus and $2 pink trolley stops are right outside the hotel. We didn't need a car for anything.
The concierge can make arrangements for any activity you desire. We went to Hanauma Bay to snorkel, hiked to the top of Diamond Head, and went to Paradise Cove for a luau. Again all the pick-ups are right outside the hotel. How easy it that!
We ate at two of the restaurants in the hotel for dinner, and if we had more time, would have eaten at more. They were both top notch with excellent service and food. Everyone at the hotel was very professional and friendly, always saying hello when they passed you in the halls. I had no complaints about anything except the internet, no free Wi-Fi. :(. I also liked to shop in the hotel. There was a Hawaiian Accessories shop with items made from indigenous trees and other locally made gifts. It was the perfect one-stop place to get gifts for my family.
Other stores had great gifts for myself! We also made sure to go to the happy hour at the pool area daily. The views area wonderful and it's a great place to meet other guests. We had such a great time that we almost forgot to relax.
I hope it doesn't take us too long to go back as we know how easy and fun a trip to Hawaii can be. Hope you like some of the pictures.
Christie
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In a recent article in the New York Times* the reporter, Michelle Higgins, gives a great example of excellent service through a travel agency. "The complimentary wine and fruit platter was sent up to Jessica Griffin and her family moments after they strolled into their roomy suite. They were accompanied by a bellhop who placed their bags near a tidy crib made up with luxurious, high thread-count sheets for Ms. Griffin’s 1-year-old daughter. The V.I.P. treatment at the Cheeca Lodge and Spa in the Florida Keys last month hadn’t come with an extra cost. In fact, Ms. Griffin said, she paid about $100 a night less than the standard rate for her room."
Ms Higgins shares a great test done by her colleague at work that demostrated that even for budget travelers, the overall experience with a travel agent can offer better value. In a recent test of agents versus online search engines. Agents won “nearly every time,” he wrote, “on both price and service. Good agents know their destinations and can present all the options and give excellent suggestions and alternatives that save money and time... and the caller is having a human interaction - not trying to "talk" to a computer.
Her point was also that the deals travelers get from agencies do not have to involve many hours of "tedious online research." The traveler got those savings and all the extras by using her travel agency to do the work. In the article, the traveler is quoted as saying, “I needed recommendations and someone to steer me in the right direction.”
Many travelers are becoming frustrated and confused by all the websites essentially offering the same product. In the article the traveler is quoted as saying “There are so many... It can be overwhelming. I wanted somebody from a reputable agency who could say yes, you’ll enjoy this stay."
Ms Higgins goes on to point out that an improving economy is combining with travelers who understand researching and booking travel online can be excessively time-consuming and not as reqarding as using a reputable travel agency.
An interesting set of statistics were developed by Steve Peterson, the global travel and transportation leader for the I.B.M. Institute for Business Value, when he tried to discover how time consuming using online booking was. He surveyed more than 2,000 travelers and discovered that 20 percent said it took them more than five hours to search and book travel online. Mr. Peterson pointed out it might involve the drawbacks of the Web. “It’s come to a point that it’s too much information to be confident that they have the ability to book the lowest fare,” or uncover the best place to stay."
To find all the information that is critical and pertinent to their vacation, travelers have to surf through many sites, find all the alernatives and then make decisions. Even then they are not sure they got all of the information correctly and if one key piece is missing it will ruin their trip.
*Quotes from article by Michelle Higgins, New York Times, N.Y., 2012
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Great Hawaii Vacations is pleased to pass on some more great deals for your vacation in Paradise. They include free nights, free cars and more.
Don't miss you chance to book your great vacation in Hawaii with these specials...
Call now for all the details. Take advantage of great prices and deals along with the best advice and information from the most knowledgeable Hawaii professionals on the planet.
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Great Hawaii Vacations is happy to pass on all the deals we find.
Don't miss this one at one of the most modern condo properties on Waikiki.
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Kahuku, First Wind's other wind farm on Oahu. Photograph: Pukkibeach
Financing in place for Hawaii Oahu wind farm
Developer First Wind announced today that it has made agreements for $236 million for a 69MW wind farm on Oahu’s North Shore in Hawaii. Here the trade winds blow constantly and year round. The project will be named Kawailoa Wind Farm.
The project is located on Kamehameha Schools’ Kawailoa Plantation lands, about 5 miles northeast of Hale‘iwa town on the north shore of O‘ahu. This wind energy project is a part of Kamehameha Schools’ North Shore Plan and was developed with input from the local community.
Site clearing commenced in 2011, with major construction taking place throughout 2012. When completed, Kawailoa Wind will be able to produce enough clean, renewable energy to power about 14,500 O‘ahu homes, and could supply as much as 5-10% of the island’s electrical load.
Hawaii state law mandates 70% clean energy for electricity and surface transportation by 2030, with 40% coming from local renewable sources. Kawailoa Wind will significantly advance the state’s progress toward these goals.
First Wind owns and operates two other wind energy projects in Hawaii and plans to create additional projects.
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Lizard Goes Extinct in Hawaii
The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the copper striped blue-tailed skink is now extinct in the Hawaiian Islands.
Its habibtat used to be throughout Hawaii, but human development and the introduction of other preditor animal species has killed them off completely.
Small lizards such as the blue-tailed skink are prone to cryptic extinction – meaning they are confused with other species, so little is known about them and very few people even notice they are gone.
“The extinction of native Hawaiian bird species is well documented, partly because their presence and sounds had been so distinctive to humans. But without regular field surveys, we tend to overlook the disappearances of smaller, secretive species, along with the causes of their extinction,” said a French national researcher. (Source: USGS)
It is critical to discover and document the precise causes of the skink’s extinction so that more extinctions of other small animals in the Hawaiian are reduced. Research has indicated a continuous downward trend in species survival: “This decline appears contemporaneous with the documented declines of invertebrates and birds across the Hawaiian Islands.” Because so many elements of nature are connected to each other, this lizard’s story isn’t just about one species. Loss of habitat and invasive species destruction are taking place all over the world.
The only good news in this story is that the same skink species is still alive on some other Pacific Islands, so we need to make sure those habitats continue to support their existence.
Image Credit: USGS
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Waikiki beach is in the middle of a multi-million dollar facelift. 
By the end of the project, they will have added as much as 37 feet of offshore sand to the beach. It will done over a 1/3 mile stretch from the Duke Kahanamoku statue on Kuhio beach up past the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
This was prompted by erosion on different parts of the shoreline which was allowing waves to reach the sea walls and even splash onto some hotel restaurants during heavy South shore swells and peak tide.
"If we didn't replenish the beach we would lose business no question," the Waikiki Improvement Association's Rick Egged told Khon2.com. "We believe it allows all of our guests and residents to have quality time on the beach every day as opposed to closing a big stretch down for a period of time."
Most tourists are not bothered by this and many expressed excitement and approval. "With the sand being replenished, this beach will only be better. Even than what it was before. I can't wait," said John Millner from Vancouver, Canada.
In 2006, Hawaii did a similar improvement project for the sand on Kuhio Beach but that project
was only about half the size of this current one. Similar projects to widen the beach have happened regularly since 1939 as Waikiki beach is a naturally narrow strip of land.
There is also a facelift happening for Kailua Beach on the Windward coast near Lanikai. This will be a 5 day project to replenish the shoreline and beach around where the Kaelepulu Stream meets the ocean.
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Great Hawaii Vacations invites you to take a close look at the deals and specials for this summer in Paradise.
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Don't miss these great specials.
Call Toll-Free 866-574-1909 for all the details.
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