The Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii is absolutely the best beachfront hotel I have ever stayed in looking back on all my trips to Honolulu. The stunning historic Pink Palace still sits in its original location on Waikiki Beach after opening in 1927. The hotel … [Read more...]
Why I Fly Virgin America to Hawaii
There are a lot of choices when you fly to the Hawaiian islands, but there is only one airline that will get your to Hawaii in true style, and that is Virgin America! Virgin America prides itself in making flying fun again, and its brand new A320s are among the best … [Read more...]
Virgin America Launches Service to Hawaii with AirBnb Partnership
Virgin America launched its new route from San Francisco to Honolulu today with special fares as low as $199 (taxes/fees included) or 8,558 Elevate points (plus taxes/fees). This same special pricing will also apply the new SFO-Maui route that launches on December … [Read more...]
Get to Hawaii for Less: East Coast Strategies
In the previous four articles, we covered using Singapore Airlines miles, Virgin Atlantic miles, British Airways Avios, and Korean Air miles as not-widely-known, but much cheaper ways to use miles to get from the mainland United States to Hawaii. Most of the … [Read more...]
Get to Hawaii for Less: Amazing Deals from Korean Air
While I was writing these articles, my goal was to include ALL of the meaningful ways to get to Hawaii and ignore the programs that aren't easy to accrue to. Y'know, the ones that only transfer in from SPG and don't have a co-branded card. So I was about to discount … [Read more...]
Get to Hawaii for Less Using Avios from the West Coast
In the last two articles, we covered two of the cheapest ways to get to Hawaii on miles: using Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (to book travel on United Airlines and Virgin America) and using Virgin Atlantic miles (to book travel on Virgin America only). But there is one … [Read more...]
Get to Hawaii for Less Using Singapore Airlines Miles on Virgin America
As some of you may know, Virgin America is going to be starting service from San Francisco (SFO) to Honolulu (HNL) and Kahului, Maui (OGG) on December 3rd of this year.Many of you might be planning Christmas in the tropics, so I thought it’d be fun to test the … [Read more...]
Review: Grand Hyatt Kauai with Diamond Suite Upgrade
Yesterday I reviewed a standard room at the Grand Hyatt Kauai and was pretty pleased if not amazed, but I also took advantage of a suite upgrade as a result of my Gold Passport Diamond status. I usually reserve these for big vacations like Hawaii, Europe, or Asia, and … [Read more...]
Review: Grand Hyatt Kauai
A while ago I promised each of my parents a vacation of their choice, and my in-laws chose to go to Hawaii. They're in Texas and had never been. Megan and I decided Maui would be a good pick since we both like it there, but to mix things up and give us a new experience, … [Read more...]
Maui Helicopter Tour of Hana and Haleakala
I wrote last week about driving the road to Hana for the first time, including the southern portion along dirt roads and past rusted barriers. But another first -- despite several trips to Maui -- was a helicopter tour. We toured the same eastern half over Haleakala and … [Read more...]
