I'm going with my family to Hawaii and we're looking for relatively cheap Hotels or Inns to stay in for 5 days. Any ideas? One place we were looking at was the Pacific Marina Inn.
You might look at renting a house. It'll be way cheaper than a hotel and you can save money by cooking at the house. Kailua is a really pretty part of the island that's not as busy. Airbnb has plenty of houses to rent.
Be prepared to be shocked at how much more food costs. Actually might be worth it to invest in a Costco membership if you plan to go "cheap".
I read this statement all over the place before I went to Oahu, but the prices really weren't that bad. We kept our pricey meals restricted to just dinners.
We rented a couple of condos when we went to Kauai last year. They seemed pretty inexpensive considering the location. It's nice to have a kitchen so you don't have to eat out every meal.
If you are into sushi, the local sushi is wonderful and a fraction of the price. Their $15 sushi lunch
Dang phone. Was going to said I had $15 sushi lunch there that was better than $120 sushi dinner at the popular tourist restaurant
It's about 30-50% higher than Houston. If you were comparing to LA or NY, then no it's not that much higher. Poke (think Sushi Salad) definitely is cheaper and fresher than what you'd get anywhere in Houston and at a value to boot.
Bump Going to Maui with the wife for the first time. We've got all the "go-to" spots on our itinerary but for those that have been, is it worth it to be a total noob tourist and rent a Jeep or just stick to a cheap rental? Staying for a week and also plan to do the drive to Hana one day.
We rented a basic car. The rental companies won't insure your car on the Hana Highway, but all the locals said its not too bad of a drive. We actually did a semi-private tour service through the concierge at our hotel for the Hana Highway from Kapalua. We had a blast and the guy knew all the "local" secret places to stop. I highly recommend a tour for the Hana Highway as you'll see cooler waterfalls and eat at better trucks. I also recommend being an unabashed tourist. We had a great time at the Old Lahaina Luau: https://www.oldlahainaluau.com/ Very touristy, but a lot of fun. We stayed at Kapalua, which is a "wetter" part of the island, but was less busy as Wailea area. Great beaches that you can almost have to yourself in Kapalua, especially near the Kapalua Villa Bay condos. Have fun!
Any car is fine as long as it's a convertible. Hana is awesome, you MUST get the banana nut bread while on the road. I would also consider using a small tour guide to Hana for convenience sake.
Maui is awesome. Went to Oahu after maui and didnt like it. Too many people. I did the drive on Hana a few months ago and I have lived in houston all my life with no experience driving in mountains etc. It is VERY smooth paved and I recommend it. There are a lot of one lane bridges but usually they're very short and more of a novelty. I was worried about it being stressful and dangerous but it really wasnt. If you want to pay for insurance for Hana Rental companies will cover it. But there's a stretch southeast past all the nice stuff where they may not cover you, I doubt a lot of people even go that way anyway so I wouldnt worry about it. I dont remember if I had insurance or not but everything went well considering it was light rain all the way through Hana. Some people like renting convertibles for Maui. I got an Honda HRC slightly higher than a compact car and still small enough to navigate hana. It's mostly about how much money you want to spend. Haleakela is highly recommended too on the first morning you're there. We drove out there at 2AM and that's apparently very common, we watched the sunrise at around 5ish am. I did find the drive to haleakela more stressful overall than Hana. Mostly because the trip up was at night. The trip down was a breeze, except for bikers going down the crater. One thing I would say driving Hana and Haleakela is be focused. It's not dangerous but if you don't focus you can get distracted. Roads are paved. I also recommend the book Maui Revealed. We may not have enjoyed our trip as much without it. It has all the food places, unbiased reviews, tips. I can't say how valuable this book was to us.
You’re going to Maui with the wife for the first time. Ball out and get the Jeep Wrangler with the removable top. Or the Mustang convertible. I think those were the 2 nicest rental cars all the places had to offer. When I got the Jeep convertible it wasn’t that much difference compared to a Chevy Malibu (booo) I think it was like $20 bucks extra a day. Totally worth it. Also, I’m sure your list of places to eat is great and there’s certainly no shortage of amazing places but I’ll say my fav was prob Cafe O’Lei. We ate there 3 times on a 5 day stay. They have crazy range from some of the best Sashimi I ever had to Prime rib steak and French onion soup. Not ridiculously priced either. I still have dreams of meals from there and it’s been 4 years since I last went.
Don’t turn around when you get to Hana, drive all the way around. Go to Little Beach on Sunday evening.
I find it's more true for groceries and less so restaurants. Weird mix: expensive mediocre eating out or expensive eating in.
True. I do remember going to a grocery store once and the price of produce was high. On a couple days for lunch we went to some food trucks/stands that had various rice and meat bowls for $5-$7. And they weren't bad at all. That was an easy way to save some of our money allocated towards meals.
