I did talk to my local AAA travel agent a couple of months ago about Hawaii, but while not working I never really acted on anything. Last night I started poking around to see what kind of online pricing I could get for airfare.
It has been my experience that human travel agents can actually do some magic, even in the Internet age. When I talked to her, she quoted air travel around $1,600 a piece for the basic parts, from Ft. Myers to Lihue and back. Last night I found a series from Ft. Myers to Honolulu, Honolulu the next evening to Lihue, then the series of flights back to Cleveland the next week, for about $1,200 per person. What was really strange is that Travelocity was quoting $1,800 each at first, and then they had a "Wow we found rates 30% lower than normal" all of a sudden.
What's discouraging is the price of inter-island flights. They're about $200 each round-trip, which puts a hole in my "day trip" island hopping scheme. For example, having been on the big island (and flying over it) for about four hours, I feel confident that I want to see it, but not stay there. It's oddly expensive with some over-developed resorts, but much of it isn't very attractive, what with the old lava fields. I guess I have to rethink it a bit.
I have something against Oahu that I can't explain too. I guess since it has the largest city and a Daytona-like beach area, I just write it off as too touristy, which isn't something I'm into. But we do want to spend one night there and see Pearl Harbor. It makes the most sense to spend the first night there, with the following day to move about.
There's a dilemma about when to book in my mind, with travel articles in the news predicting a catastrophic first quarter that will yield all kinds of great deals. But still, we've got about three and a half months to go, so I can't wait too long. I need to get my ass in gear and figure out what we want to do and which islands we want to see.
Very odd airfares - perhaps its the time of year. Is Spring in Hawaii peak travel time?
On my recent visit we paid $760 each for RT from Cincinnati to Honolulu. These were bought about 45 days in advance.
I know Honolulu is on the Big Island, but an intra-island flight should not push $500+.
Went to Oahu this summer and really enjoyed it. If your not into the tourist thing, rent a house on the North Shore. During the summer it is dead there and you can get a house for like $1500-3000 a week.
I'm not a big touristy person area, but Oahu was great, we though I stayed in Wikiki for the majority of my visit. And btw you are not missing anything on the Big Island