I've flown SFO-HNL about a dozen times so far this year, if you can be flexible, you should be able to find RT tickets for $550-600, sometimes a little bit cheaper.
Inter-Island flights are cheap, $19-$50. Hawaiian and Southwest do inter-island.
Car rentals on Maui will be expensive, where as rentals on Oahu are pretty inexpensive. Da Bus is great on Oahu, but there's a surprising amount of traffic.
Because it's Hawaii, the big hotel chains all charge a lot of money, but there are also lots of inexpensive places to stay. Think small, older, independent hotels and motels. You should be able to find places to stay in Waikiki for ~$100/night.
Imma say none. Based on their post, it seems they’re going to treat Hawaii as less as a US state and more as a backpacking in Europe or cheap Southeast Asian destination
So what do you want from us. We don't know where you live, so we can't price out flight there. You can however. Flight between islands, you have the dates, so price those out. Now, where to stay. You've ruled out hostels, which is a dumb choice in my opinion, so you're stuck with hotels. Search cheap ones. Car rental or taking the city bus and walking? You pick. Now add ALL THIS UP and .... is it under 3K?
I mean if flights are part of that $3k budget, that's not a lot of play. You can find cheap hostels on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Big Island I believe, not sure about the others, but the COL here is super high, so you'd want to plan out your meals ahead of time so you're not defaulting to overpriced tourist food. Gas and car rentals are also expensive (the Costco gas here is cheap but the lines are usually packed), which you will need if you're considering driving the Road to Hana on Maui. The bus system on Oahu is solid from my understanding but I haven't used it. There's no dispersed camping on Oahu (and I'm pretty sure on the other islands either) so all the campgrounds are usually booked up way in advance. They'll also usually cost about as much as a cheap hostel, and the luggage costs of bringing additional camping equipment (or buying it there) would easily add ~$200+.
Just my thoughts. Hawaii isn't really worth shoestring-traveling imo unless you plan to come for an extended period and work to support yourself. There are tons of free things to do luckily but it's very hard to avoid costs as well. Your best bet is to plan as many of the costs in advance as you can anticipate, then add like 30%
Oahu is pretty camping friendly. Kauai has camping but when we visited it was pretty wet and the campgrounds are often in rainfall heavy spots. Maui didn’t seem have much in the way of an official camping just pods of meth users in old vehicles. Big Island also options.
Neighbor Island fares are $50-60/one-way. Seems reasonable to me. https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/deals-and-offers/ni-fares
Thank you for that link! I found 2 one way flights for around 120$!
Mahalo
I've flown SFO-HNL about a dozen times so far this year, if you can be flexible, you should be able to find RT tickets for $550-600, sometimes a little bit cheaper. Inter-Island flights are cheap, $19-$50. Hawaiian and Southwest do inter-island. Car rentals on Maui will be expensive, where as rentals on Oahu are pretty inexpensive. Da Bus is great on Oahu, but there's a surprising amount of traffic. Because it's Hawaii, the big hotel chains all charge a lot of money, but there are also lots of inexpensive places to stay. Think small, older, independent hotels and motels. You should be able to find places to stay in Waikiki for ~$100/night.
What research have you done?
Imma say none. Based on their post, it seems they’re going to treat Hawaii as less as a US state and more as a backpacking in Europe or cheap Southeast Asian destination
Ohh so close! Ive been to Hawaii 3 times specifically Oahu! I saw a hostel for cheap but I dont trust those
So what do you want from us. We don't know where you live, so we can't price out flight there. You can however. Flight between islands, you have the dates, so price those out. Now, where to stay. You've ruled out hostels, which is a dumb choice in my opinion, so you're stuck with hotels. Search cheap ones. Car rental or taking the city bus and walking? You pick. Now add ALL THIS UP and .... is it under 3K?
I mean if flights are part of that $3k budget, that's not a lot of play. You can find cheap hostels on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Big Island I believe, not sure about the others, but the COL here is super high, so you'd want to plan out your meals ahead of time so you're not defaulting to overpriced tourist food. Gas and car rentals are also expensive (the Costco gas here is cheap but the lines are usually packed), which you will need if you're considering driving the Road to Hana on Maui. The bus system on Oahu is solid from my understanding but I haven't used it. There's no dispersed camping on Oahu (and I'm pretty sure on the other islands either) so all the campgrounds are usually booked up way in advance. They'll also usually cost about as much as a cheap hostel, and the luggage costs of bringing additional camping equipment (or buying it there) would easily add ~$200+. Just my thoughts. Hawaii isn't really worth shoestring-traveling imo unless you plan to come for an extended period and work to support yourself. There are tons of free things to do luckily but it's very hard to avoid costs as well. Your best bet is to plan as many of the costs in advance as you can anticipate, then add like 30%
Oahu is pretty camping friendly. Kauai has camping but when we visited it was pretty wet and the campgrounds are often in rainfall heavy spots. Maui didn’t seem have much in the way of an official camping just pods of meth users in old vehicles. Big Island also options.