This isn’t exactly the Hawaii you know from the past. Stay clear of trouble in today’s challenging times.
66 thoughts on “Knowing These Critical Issues May Save Your Hawaii Vacation”
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So if we have a week stay from October 26-Nov 2nd will we be able to make reservations for restaurants in Lahaina far enough in advance? Will we be able to take the road tonJa a for our friends who have never been to Maui? We have our condo rented, suv from Costco. Want to just relax with our kids and best friends.
Former vacation rental host here (20yrs). Many places converted to long-term turn-key rentals for remote workers during the shut down. We don’t plan to go back to hosting.
Great info and tips, but still a sad situation. Hope it improves as we are planning to be in Kauai Jan 1,2022
With all this problem why are the aia lines running specials, makes no sense to me.
Would love to come visit again, we went to Maui in April and managed to leave before it hit the fan, so glad we made it, had a wonderful time, hope all goes well soon, want to come back again this year, but looks like it won’t happen. Love the Islands
We are leaving Maui today, after staying for a week at Ashton at Whalers village. We had a condo with a kitchen, so we cooked and grilled almost all of ours meals. Luckily we had no problem with a rental car, but we had friends who didn’t have a rental and we’re given scooters.
This is spot on and good advice. Everything you said here is what I’ve been telling folks when they asked me how my vacay was in June.
We’re going to Maui in late August. I was wondering if the Costco’s in Hawaii are operating at full capacity or are they running short of supplies also?
Hi Curtis.
We have not noticed any issues out of the normal at Costco. They occasionally will have a delayed barge shipment, but otherwise, nothing.
Aloha.
Aloha Guys
Thank you for the updated info. Much of it is about the same as last November, where we had a good many places closed. VRBO was purchased buy some big outfit a few years ago and it is nothing like it once was and we no longer use VRBO. I have a feeling that the tourist imbalance has been festering for some years and the pandemic has just moved the problems along more quickly.
Hi Roy.
Thank you. Vrbo is a Homeaway brand and has been for a long time. There is something about the juxtaposition between no tourism to today that makes the situation really out of the ordinary.
Aloha.
Thank you for this information, it is helpful. I think a lot of the problem here is that people probably booked a trip to Hawaii for this July in the winter or last year when COVID made travel scarce and people were getting a deal and thinking they were making the right choice going to Hawaii and not internationally. Now, with the influx of tourists, there’s a lot more planning required. Which I don’t mind. Hawaii is worth it and I want to respect the locals. I don’t own Hawaii nor am I entitled to a Hawaiian vacation that is totally on my own terms. It’s kind of like going to Disney World, you book it a year out, get restaurant reservations 6 months out, etc. I am a planner and I like it. It’s just unfortunate that it’s too late for people to plan, but because this blog is so helpful, I am hoping the fall tourists have a much better time. Thanks for all the work you do Beat of Hawaii!
Hi Emily.
Thanks! We appreciate your first comment and hope to see you again soon.
Aloha.
VRBO is an advertising platform. Our house (that we own) is a legal NCU vacation rental on Kauai. We pay an annual fee to advertise on VRBO. It is also advertised on Air BnB. Not sure how that works. We have a local RE Broker in Hanalei who manages the whole thing. Her office manages the actual rentals and we leave it to her to decide if “worth it” to pay to advertise on VRBO etc.
Very accurate description of the current state of affairs for visitors to Hawaii. I was on Maui during the month of May. It was somewhat crowded even for May but it was also easy to see that the visitor tsunami was coming. When we left I could not believe how crowded the airport was with arrivals.
What I would like to add is, because of the over crowding, people tend to react negatively towards each other in such situations. The main goal is to avoid the crowds whenever/wherever possible.
A few hints;
When you arrive, head to the nearest costco and load up with water, juices and soft drinks etc.. If you are staying someplace where you can cook all the better. Stock up on what you need to eat-in on most days. Trying to find a place to eat at dinner/lunch time every day will be quite stressful and time consuming. Look for happy hour specials.
Get out of bed in the AM and get going early, this is key. By 10AM beaches/hiking trails are crowded and any beach/trail access parking is long gone. If you are driving there is a lot less traffic at that time of day. Locals know this and you should too.
For paid excursions look to book the earliest possible times and get on waiting lists if there are no slots available.
And above all, keep it mellow.
Does this information hold true for all the Islands, or just Oahu?
I have found it to be true on all the islands, especially Maui.