Archive for the 'Hawaii's Big Island' Category
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 »
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
Big Island, Hawaii: $1,000 resort credit at Four Seasons
August 3, 2009 8:08am
One of the Big Island’s most envied luxury properties is about to show off its new $40-million face-lift. Renovations at the Four Seasons Resort Hualālai at Historic Ka’upulehu, which have been ongoing for the last 15 months and will be unveiled Aug. 4, include 20 new suites, a spa expansion, an expansion to the oceanfront pool deck and more shops.
In apparent efforts to encourage you to visit their upgraded digs, the five-diamond resort on the north Kona Coast is offering a substantial credit. It doesn’t quite transform a luxury stay into a budget stay, but it may make a slice of paradise within closer reach for those who are high-end-vacation shopping. (By the way, in case you missed it, the Four Seasons boasts the highest customer satisfaction among hotel chains, according to a recent survey.)
Deal: Stay at this Four Seasons this summer and receive a $1,000 resort credit, which you can use toward nearly anything at the resort during your stay, including spa treatments, meals, activities, golf and paddle-board lessons.
But the major advantage of the deal is this: Read the rest of this entry »
‘The Bachelorette’ finale woos us on Hawaii’s Big Island
July 27, 2009 12:24pm
In last week’s episode of “The Bachelorette” set on Maui, Jillian Harris bade farewell — or aloha, rather — to Reid Rosenthal. On tonight’s two-hour season finale, at 8 p.m. on ABC, the restaurant interior designer from Vancouver, Canada, will choose between the two remaining bachelors, Ed and Kiptyn on Hawaii’s Big Island.
If you’ll be lapping up the scenery, along with the unfolding drama, you’ll be interested to know that the 29-year-old Harris will make her final, possibly life-altering decision on a private estate on the Kohala Coast, in the island’s northwest region.
But, until she gets there, we’ll see her take in an aerial tour by Sunshine Helicopters of Kilauea volcano’s lava flows (see a photo gallery of Kilauea eruptions here), with a landing next to a waterfall in Hilo for a barbecue put on by KapohoKine Adventures. 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 »
Hawaii: Villas for $80, more or less, on the Big Island
May 24, 2009 12:31pm
What say you about a stay on a lush Kona Coast property with swimming pools, tennis courts and a golf course at your fingertips? And after a day of volcano-viewing, snorkeling or sportfishing a la Big Island, wouldn’t it be nice to recoup in your own pad with a kitchen and private lanai? After all, the price is right, for the next few months anyway.
Deal: The Kona Coast Resort, in Kailua-Kona, is offering furnished units — described by the resort as “villas” but by some TripAdvisor members as “condos” — at a steep discount. Rates are advertised at 40% to 60% off. This would mean nightly rates as low as $67 (for a six-night stay) for a unit, pretax. In addition, you get 10% off food and beverages at the onsite restaurant and free rental of snorkel equipment (for two people) one day.
You won’t find this special listed on the hotel’s main website. Read the rest of this entry »
Hawaii boycott? ‘We’re not coming to a place that’s having an Islam Day’
May 16, 2009 11:36am
Visitor numbers to the islands have been worryingly on the wane for a while, and now Hawaii tourism officials have another matter in front of them — and this one is political and then some. Following the state Senate’s recent approval of a bill to mark Sept. 24, 2009, as Islam Day, dissenters seem to be hoping for a boycott of the state to take shape.
As reported in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin:
Gov. Linda Lingle told a radio interviewer that her office had received “a lot of angry calls from the mainland saying, ‘We’re not coming to a place that’s having an Islam Day.’”
“Here we are, in a very difficult economy, and it was just unnecessary,” said Lingle, who had no authority over the resolution. “It didn’t make any sense. You know it’s going to get this kind of attention.”
As of yesterday [May 14] the Hawaii Tourism Authority had received 14 e-mails and one phone call protesting the resolution. Read the rest of this entry »
Big Island, Hawaii: Beware the stinging nettle caterpillar
April 24, 2009 12:04pm
Since it found its way to the Big Island of Hawaii — most likely in 2001 via a palm-seedlings shipment from Taiwan — stinging nettle caterpillars (Darna pallivitta) have been up to no good. The invasive critters have been spotted on over 30 different types of plants, including palms, grasses and weeds, and recently, the Honolulu Advertiser reports, they’ve been found in Pualani Park in Kailua-Kona.
Why all the fuss? First, the caterpillar relentlessly feeds upon — and thus, damages — plants. This is what concerns the nursery industry on the island. In addition, it has a wicked sting.
According to entomologist Patrick Conant on this video recorded last year, contact with the caterpillars’ spines can cause “intense itching that can go on for hours, days, weeks,” swelling or blisters, or even more severe reactions. Read the rest of this entry »
Hawaii roundup: Fly inter-island for $28; Mauna Kea Beach Hotel reopens; in-flight sushi on Hawaiian
April 3, 2009 2:45pm
The Hawaiian islands are begging for a visit. Read the recent post on L.A. Times’ Outposts: “Report: Hawaii’s tourism industry in state of crisis.” If you plan to help the cause with your own dollars — after all, it’s a win-win situation, of benefit to the Hawaii economy, the state’s people and your own well-being — here are a few items to note:
Inter-island flights sale | Hop from one island to another for just $28 one-way, pretax, this month. Mokulele Airlines is having a sale (purchase by April 8 for travel between now and April 30), but I found prices just as low on go! and Hawaiian Airlines.
A fare of $28 one-way amounts to just over $34 after taxes. Read the rest of this entry »
