Archive for the 'Oahu' Category
Oahu, Hawaii: Trump International Hotel Waikiki Beach Walk opens
November 16, 2009 2:52pm
Boasting 462 guest rooms over its 38 stories, a new luxury hotel is now open for business in Honolulu. Trump International Hotel Waikiki Beach Walk — the fourth property for the Trump Hotel Collection brand — is welcoming its first overnight guests today.
A ceremonial welcoming event, with traditional Hawaiian dance and music, occurred this morning for the inaugural guests of this hotel that is a few minutes’ stroll from the ocean, and right on Waikiki Beach Walk.
Pre-opening rates, valid for stays now through Dec. 21, 2009, start at $255 per night (pre-tax) for a “studio beach walk” room. In January and February, the rack rate for the same kind of room is $385. Read the rest of this entry »
Enjoy a free day at national parks, forests on Veterans Day, Nov. 11
November 4, 2009 8:52am
Next week, national parks and forests will waive entrance fees for one day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, to honor servicemen and women. Unlike past years, when only U.S. veterans, active members of the U.S. armed forces and their families got a free pass, this year’s Veterans Day observance will allow everyone in for free, according to a news release Tuesday, Nov. 3, from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
If the deal otherwise works like it did in past years, you’ll still owe fees for camping, permits and other activities. But you can save a lot anyway because some popular parks, including California’s Yosemite National Park, normally charge entrance fees of $20 or so per car.
The Interior Department earlier this year expanded the number of free days on federal lands, offering three fee-free weekends over the summer. At that time, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar noted that parks provide affordable family vacations “during these tough economic times.”
Oahu, Hawaii: Flight and hotel packages from $399
October 14, 2009 5:58am
When planning a short hop over to Hawaii, it’s never a bad idea to peruse any specials Pleasant Holidays may be offering. The popular travel agency regularly has well-priced flight-and-hotel packages available to the islands.
Deal: For certain dates this fall and winter, those departing from Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO) can get round-trip airfare on United Airlines and three nights accommodation (based on double occupancy) in Honolulu for as little as $399 per person, excluding most taxes and fees.
Past offers of this kind have featured budget hotels like Castle Maile Sky Court — where rates are currently as low as $64 per night, pre-tax — on its lowest price tier.
But this special is all about Starwood hotels, and the cheapest hotel in the packages that I’m seeing currently (though this is subject to change) is at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani, more moderately priced in comparison, where fall rates start at around $119 per night. Read the rest of this entry »
Hawaii roundup: Hawaiian Airlines’ $50 credit offer; new Maui and Lanai sub-and-snorkel package; robotic dinosaurs arrive in Honolulu
September 27, 2009 12:07pm
– Hawaiian Airlines is giving away $50 “eCertificates” for use on future travels. Here’s the skinny: Book a flight between the mainland U.S. and Hawaii for travel between now and Dec. 11, and you’ll receive a $50 credit to your HawaiianMiles account, which can be applied to any transpacific flight that you book for travel between Jan. 11 and March 11. You must book your initial flight before Oct. 7 to take advantage of this offer.
– Visitors to Maui can now take advantage of a new marine package that features two unique touring experiences for one discounted price. With Atlantis Submarines, you get a submarine ride off Maui, descending to 150 feet. With Maui Adventure Cruises’ Lanai Dolphin Adventure, you cross the Maui channel to Lanai aboard a 49-foot boat, and then get to the serious business of snorkeling. Booked together, the sub-and-snorkel package costs $159 per adult and $80 per child, pretax. Read the rest of this entry »
Hotel-review site Oyster.com launches Oahu pages; more Hawaii coming soon
September 23, 2009 1:28pm
Dreaming up a trip to Oahu, I come across special rates of $189 per night at Hilton Hawaiian Village. My conditioned first stop is TripAdvisor, where traveler-written reviews of this hotel include lots of raves and some cautions. Of course, with user-generated reviews, you do some wading and sifting, not always sure whose advice to take and whose to toss. Some of the tips seem relevant to my potential stay, and others don’t. But all in all, I get an interesting lay of the land here, from a range of perspectives.
Then I go to Oyster.com, a relatively new hotel-review website, which Travel blogger Jen Leo covered just after the website’s launch in June. The site, packed with reviews by undercover journalists and about a gazillion photos, launched its reviews on Oahu late Tuesday. In the footsteps of its predecessor destination pages (Aruba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Miami, New York, Las Vegas), the lengthy, thoroughly detailed pages — with a well-organized layout for easy perusal — lure me in immediately.
Hilton Hawaiian Village, Hawaii’s largest hotel resort, ranks as one of Oyster’s list of best kid-friendly hotels on Oahu. And at the top of this hotel’s review page, I get a concise pros and cons list. As the mother of a toddler, I immediately focus on the calm beach and lagoon, as well as the noted animals (parrots … and penguins?). Among the cons, the fact that the hotel is a ways to Waikiki restaurants, and the supposed crowds at the resort, give me pause and get me to keep reading. Read the rest of this entry »
How budget-friendly is a last-minute Labor Day trip to Honolulu?
August 23, 2009 12:24pm
Hotel occupancy throughout Hawaii has hit record lows, so it’s no surprise that Honolulu has beds aplenty available for the soon-to-arrive long weekend that will represent the last hurrah of summer.
Orbitz.com has ranked Honolulu as No. 4 in its list of top Labor Day weekend destinations (following Las Vegas, New York City and Cancun). With daily average hotel rates around $111, according to Orbitz’s figures, the Hawaiian capital boasts particularly great value in this economically downtrodden time.
I sniffed around to see what prices were looking like for a long weekend in Honolulu. I knew that I was likely to find greater savings with a flight-hotel package than with booking each component on my own, but I was curious how substantial the difference would be for the holiday weekend. And, though hotel rates are low, what about last-minute flights? Read the rest of this entry »
Hawaii: Hotel deals worth island-hopping for
August 9, 2009 10:45am
The recession may be bottoming out, they say? Well, then, get yourself to Hawaii before everyone else begins rushing back for their much-needed vacations. Hotels are, and have been, offering astounding incentives to get you visiting the islands sometime in the remainder of this year. Following are a handful of great deals that have come across my desk of late (prices below are pre-tax):
During the annual Kona Coffee Culture Festival due to hit the Big Island Nov. 6-15, host hotel Keauhou Beach Resort, in Kailua-Kona, is offering rooms for $119 per night, with breakfast included. Call in this reservation, asking for the “KCCF” rate.
Aston Hotels & Resorts are having a sale, with rates starting at $113 per night at the budget Aston Paki Maui in Lahaina. This is for stays of at least two consecutive nights between Aug. 24 and Dec. 21. Ask for the “fall specials.” I found this rate for a one-bedroom garden-view unit in mid-September, with the “best daily web rate” for a comparable room being $156. Read the rest of this entry »
Pleasant Holidays offers cancel-for-any-reason coverage
August 6, 2009 10:26am
Pleasant Holidays, the giant package-tour operator based in Westlake Village, this week began offering cancel-for-any-reason coverage to customers who book its trips to Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean and Costa Rica.
Unlike its regular Protection Plan, which refunds trip deposits if you cancel for reasons such as illness, death or job loss, the new Cancel Anytime Protection Plan Plus covers you for virtually any unforeseen cause, said Jack E. Richards, president and chief executive.
The downsides: Cancel Anytime Protection costs more (starting at $119 instead of $89 per adult) and reimburses you for only 80% instead of 100% for many of the covered causes. And of course, as with all such plans, there’s plenty of fine print.
For plan details, visit Pleasant Holidays’ website, call (800) 448-3333 or contact your travel agent.
— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor
Photo: Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve in Hawaii. Credit: Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times
Ilikai in Waikiki to reopen with bargain room rates
July 24, 2009 7:30am
When the Waikiki llikai Hotel reopens it doors today after a two-week closure, it will have a new focus — and offer bargain-basement prices.
The landmark Honolulu hotel, which closed suddenly on July 9, will offer rates in the $90-a-night range, said Ike Cockett, general manager. ”Rates will be discounted 10% to 20%,” he said. ”We want visitors to Hawaii to know we’re trying to be cost-conscious and value-oriented.”
Midweek rates for next week start at $97 for a city-view room.
Cockett said the hotel’s new focus would include “a return to the traditions of Hawaii” with an emphasis on service.
The 30-story Y-shaped Ilikai was called Oahu’s first luxury high-rise when it opened in 1964 on Ala Moana Boulevard. It gained fame in the late ’60s when it was featured in an opening sequence of “Hawaii Five-O“, a TV cop show that ran from 1968 until 1980. Read the rest of this entry »
Hawaii roundup: World’s biggest telescope planned for Mauna Kea; two top surf towns; USS Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor arrival
July 23, 2009 8:40am
> The Big Island’s Mauna Kea was picked this week as the future site of what will be the world’s largest telescope. The Thirty Meter Telescope will enable “astronomers to detect and study light from the earliest stars and galaxies, analyze the formation of planets around nearby stars, and test many of the fundamental laws of physics,” according to a news release.
The telescope will be the 14th atop the 13,796-foot, astronomically popular Mauna Kea summit, which already holds the biggest telescopes internationally and beat out a site at Cerro Armazones in Chile for the next world-title-holder.
The new addition is not without its objectors. “Mauna Kea is considered sacred to Native Hawaiians, while environmentalists have raised concerns about how the project will affect rare native plant and insect species atop the volcano,” reported the Honolulu Advertiser.
> Santa Cruz, Calif., may be riding the top spot on Surfer magazine’s recent “Ten Best Surf Towns in America” piece, but Hawaiian waters have by no means been left in the dust. Read the rest of this entry »
