Aulani & O'ahu Nov 24-Dec 2 - First time in Hawaii, and leaving the kids at home!

Illegal AirB&Bs are MOSTLY outside of Waikiki. So if you’re looking to rent in another area, chances are great it’s illegal.

The Waikiki AirB&Bs can be deceptive with their photos, like all AirB&Bs, but it’s not necessarily that they are being deceptive so much as that the construction is older, and we have strange things like louvered windows that are standard here.

If there have been any good reviews for the AirB&B then I would definitely pay more attention to that than my generalized opinions!!

Hotels are ridiculously expensive in Hawaii now-- they raised their rates so much. And the resort fees, parking fees are out of control. So if you have something that seems reasonable, I’m sure it will be good. I was just talking to a lady who is rented an AirB&B in Waikiki and they had a good experience- it was not fancy, but did the job!

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Hilarious you can actually make this comparison. I’m sold on the big island! But also because - volcanoes.

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That is great advice. I am very big on reading the recent reviews. I also will look up the location on Tripadvisor if I can find it. This one seems like exactly what you described…not fancy, but should do the job. It has many reviews and all positive. No resort fee, free parking and seems like a good location. It’s $500 for 3 nights, and we figure we can live with whatever (as long as it’s safe and no bugs), because on day 4, we check into Aulani!

One other option I checked into was my Friends and Family discount at Hilton hotels. I checked Embassy Suites, but no discount available those days. I can get Hilton Waikiki Beach for $130, which sounds great until you add $50 parking and $35 resort fee per night… so it’s actually $215 per night before taxes.

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YES! Would love to go to the Big Island! My FIL goes there 2x per year for 3 weeks for work. He does window testing for Marvin Windows. He has bought some land and put a container on it where he stores a mini-van just waiting to be used! He’s been trying to talk my MIL into staying in the container once they’re retired, but she’s not going for it…at the very minimum, he has to get electricity and plumbing for her to even visit, and she’s definitely not ok with being that far from her grandkids for more than a week or two. Did I mention she is amazing super-grandma?!

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I always wanted to see the lava flowing on the big island. Several decades ago the plan was to get a MAC hop out of southern California and stay at the Kilauea Military Camp. Less than a week before time to wait for Space A bronchitis happened so rather than develop pneumonia in Hawaii we scrapped the big island lava plan.

Hope you get to do most of what you want and that we’ll get to hear about it! :blush:

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Nah I’d stay put/ that’s a lot of $$ that can go far in other parts of the trip! I think the reviews are a great indicator.

I’m sorry to throw so much shade on AirB&Bs- they’ve just been a big deal politically here on island as so many people were operating them illegally in non-tourist areas, then they started to get shut down. We had people renting a bedroom, renting part of their house (unbeknownst to the guest!), posting pics of a different place and then ghosting the renter when they showed up…. Usually these were a case of “too good to be true”. So the ones that are in the tourist zone (Waikiki) and have recent reviews are usually totally legit- you wouldn’t believe some of the listings that were going around tho and people didn’t know. So if it were in hawaii kai, or Kaneohe, or even ko olina I’d be concerned. But Waikiki is basically the main place private owners/air B&B rentals are allowed, and now pretty much regulated by the govt.

It’s awesome you’re going to Aulani from there!!! I’m
Sure that you’ll enjoy the whole stay- Waikiki and then relaxing in Aulani!!

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And hawaii just passed this new massive additional tax so you’d probably have $60-80 taxes per night on that too.

We recently stayed in a VRBO in Kauai and after the taxes and the cleaning fee our nightly rate of $450 averaged to $725. :roll_eyes:. I just booked a big island trip to the Hilton waikaloa resort and the nightly rate was $225 but taxes (no resort fee, no parking fee) made it around $260 per night, and Oahu has higher tourist taxes than big island.

(Another reason I love hale Koa- no taxes!!!)

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There are a shocking number of folks like this on big island lol.

They live off the grid- have a water catchment system, solar panels for all power, and just live in a little container or mobile home in the middle of a lava field. :rofl:

It’s not for everyone!! But it’s not unheard of!!

This has been in the news lately- to keep trip planning exciting!!!

Everywhere is pretty casual. I did wear sundresses for evening dinners. Here’s the dress code for Ama Ama, they recently reopened and are supposed to have a great loco moco

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

Review policies and other important information about ‘AMA‘AMA.

Dress Code

  • A shirt and shoes or sandals are required.
  • If wearing a swimsuit, a cover-up is also required.
  • Shirts with inappropriate words or pictures are not permitted at any time.
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Wow. We rented on the north shore. It was a beautiful condo. I guess I’ll never know if it wasn’t legit.

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But for a location on Waikiki, that’s quite good.

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Wow. 15 miles in 3 hours seems fast!

If I lived there I’d for sure have a go bag. And be checking that summit. Tho I guess living near a volcano might be a lot like living in tornado country.

Thanks for the article link. :blush:

Where did you find that rate?! Is it military only? I am struggling to find anything less than $500/night for anything remotely good.

I stayed at Waikaloa when I was a kid when my family lived in Hawaii and loved it, but that was 30 years ago and I’m worried it has gone downhill. Let me know how it goes! (Or maybe you’ve stayed there recently?)

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I am seeing between $500 and $600 for my week! Pretax, resort charge, and parking.

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It’s all the worse for me since I need two rooms for 6 people. This is why I ended up booking a Disney Cruise instead until I get Aulani points (or win the lottery :joy:).

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1 child has its advantages! She often sleeps on couches and roll aways because King rooms are usually cheapr :grin:

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Let me tell ya- it’s a whole thing. It’s a timeshare presentation basically, so the “amazing rate” is linked to a 2hr presentation.

We can get great rates using the kamaaina/hawaii resident rates, which are much better than the military.

Hilton waikaloa comes out with an all inclusive sale once a year- if you follow their FB page, it has pretty decent rates.

Or look into Hilton vacation club packages.

We stayed at Kings Crossing (I think that’s it) once in 2018 and it was great- new, spacious, etc. My parents booked that. It’s on the waikaloa property so I thought that’s what we’d be getting, but apparently not. For some reason. So I’m skeptical, but locked in…. It’s still cheaper than I can get probably using the kamaaina rates; I hope it is anyway!

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They’ve done renovations but most people I talk to are not super impressed by the main towers at the resort itself. Food on site is ridiculous. Big island has plenty of good options on the local economy- not too far away from the resort, so we plan to barely ever eat at the actual resort.

We loved the pool areas, the lagoon, watching the dolphins in the little sea-quest (I mean, it was interesting but I felt pretty bad for the dolphins to be sooooo close to freedom but stuck in there with tourists all the time. I have to say usually they dolphin quest people say these are dolphins that are rescues or unable to live in the wild…). I would say the pool amenities are absolutely top notch- I even prefer it to Aulani.

If you are willing to sell yourself out to the devil and sit through a timeshare presentation, specifically ask for a deal at Kings Land. It is part of the Hilton so they give you access to pools and everything, parking was included, and I made sure there was no up charge for adults. Kings crossing has 2 and 3 br units, which are super nice. We are at the older one- it’s 2br only, and I’m not sure how it will be but we are locked in. We don’t go until May.

On a side note, it was very easy for my dad to turn down their timeshare pitch as they were asking him to pay 60K! Lol! He has timeshares in Cabos, and I know a ton about DVC so I’ll just tell them I’m saving my quarters for DVC and I can use some of my Dad’s Cabos credits whenever I want- gettin to Mexico is a PITA (military paperwork for my dh), so I doubt I’ll go anytime soon.

ETA: I looked it up and we are booked for a 2BR suite at the Kohala Suites by Hilton Grand Vacations, and all amenities at the Waikaloa resort are included along with the little pools in the Waikaloa Grand Vacations area (they have a nice pool with a little mini-lazy river even, just on the vacation club side as I recall).

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Interesting. My first trip to Disney as an adult involved a timeshare pitch by Hilton where we broke down, not to buy a timeshare, but ironically we bought a trip to Hawaii. Probably to this resort. We had seven days to cancel and we did.

I wonder if my DH would be willing to sit through the pitch again…

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