The most ever long-time readers just left comments about why they aren’t returning to Hawaii. Let officials take note, as this is unprecedented.
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The most ever long-time readers just left comments about why they aren’t returning to Hawaii. Let officials take note, as this is unprecedented.
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
I’m sure those people that commented have their reasons, however it seems like only the complainers comment. How many comments have you had from Hawaii visitors like myself that love the islands, their people and culture and plan on coming as often as they can. The flights to Hawaii have been very reasonable (from West Coast) and I’ve always been able to find a place to stay that doesn’t break my budget. The most overpriced part of my visits has been the car rental, but even that was down on my most recent visit to the big island. Love Hawaii, I’ll be back.
People are more likely to complain in online forums than praise but all the critical comments touch the same issues — grossly inflated prices for rental cars, lodging etc., negative messaging from state and locals, and similar. Basically high costs fitting into an overall image of “You’re not very welcome here.”
Thanks for dipping into the negative side of travel to the Islands.
Hi Michael.
Thanks for so many comments over the past 11 years! We appreciate it. We have a couple of hotel reviews upcoming. And we paid Kamaaina rates, but also compared the cheapest non resident rates. Interesting range of costs from somewhat reasonable to completely over the top.
Aloha.
I just sold my house in Kona and I have just purchased a place in Florida. Why? Read all the other comments and they all hit the nail on the head. I have no plans to return.
We have pre-paid our trip to Maui starting January 3rd, 2024 and are staying for 2 and a half months. Had we not pre-paid and have non-refundable air tickets, we would not be going. We have been visiting Maui for the last 2 decades and this will be our last time. Maui and Hawaii as a whole has priced us out.
Just amazes me that people feel $300/night is a bargain. Plus food which is crazy expensive on Kauai.
For those complaining about hotel rates, rent a timeshare – weeks tend to be in the 2000-2500 range for a 2 bedroom with kitchen. That’s like $325 a night. It’s less for a 1 bedroom. It will depend on the actual resort. No, you won’t get the amenities of a Ko Olina. True, you won’t get daily maid service. Look into the Hawaii timeshare exchange companies for their rentals.
For rental cars – you have to keep checking (it’s not 1 and done). I typically end up making about 6 reservations in the time leading up to the trip – price going lower each time. My pricing goal these days is less than $300 per week for a sedan (it used to be about $150 pre-2020). My October week on Kauai is currently at $238.
Some of the people on our recent Nov 23 trip were very unwelcoming in west Maui. We chose to not shop at that store or eat where we were not welcome.
I was raised in Hawaii in the 1950’s. I started going regularly to Maui/Oahu/Kauai yearly (sometmes more than twice yearly) since 1991. The only exception was the COVID years. When I went back I was stunned by the price differentials. Before Covid it was not inexpensive, afterwards I expected some price increases to recover from COVID. What I didn’t expect was the sheer gouging greed which overtook almost every aspect of the Islands. Prices often increased almost triple on all activities & hotels. I tried traveling all the Islands to see which one was least expensive – differences were minimal. Hawaii is infused in my soul but due to gouging, greedy prices I won’t be returning soon. Aloha, Hawaii.
My family is spending Christmas vacation on Maui. Yes, food and beverages are high but it’s no different in my home town. I’ve had nothing but grateful, courteous and pleasant experiences with the locals, especially at the craft market. Beaches are not crowded. I’m glad we came. Also doing volunteer at our Church to help out making a meal.
Aloha from the sands of Maui, Hawaii. I am so happy and grateful for the contributions to this topic. I am a resident on Maui. The information submitted is all true but I will submit to you that it only reflects the minds and the hearts of the fearful. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the lack of resource, Fear of the disrespect that often accompanies the almighty tourist dollar. On the other hand I believe it also reflects the awareness of gentrification, the awareness of historic free enterprise, the awareness of how it feels to Suffer tragic loss! Insurmountable even!
I don’t know what the future holds but I will contribute without bias that each of us needs all of us. Sending you all the Aloha I can muster in this moment. Be blessed!
Totally agree we have been going to Hawaii every year for over ten years we also got priced out and packed into unreliable flights so now we are going to Europe for last few years and love it!!
The problem is tourists have become less respectful of the residents
living here. This is because tourism has been made into commodity
instead of something special. That aura is dying because residents
feel squeezed out when tourism arrivals hit new records in past years.
This whole issue is the result of Hawaii being too dependent on tourism. Government and residents share the blame for this since
there has been multiple attempts to diversify our economy, but they’ve failed for the most part.
Wow look at all the whiney comments. We are currently on our annual trip to Hawaii (6 years straight) and kicked it off in Kauai, with Honolulu and Maui to follow for. No issues so far no one booing our arrival and just as many tourists as expected. Just because you are too poor to afford a vacation here doesn’t mean the islands are hurting. 😂
It has nothing to do with being “poor.” It has everything to do with being smart—only a fool wastes money. Only a fool overpays for things they can get elsewhere for less money. Wise people look for value. Who wants to go to places where they are not wanted? I’ve been going to Hawaii since the 80s. I love Maui in particular. I’ve always been aware of the locals talking behind our backs. Ever heard the word Haole? Five years ago, we’d go to Hawaii for 3 weeks. The trip with food, scuba diving, and gifts would cost $10k. Now, that same money may get us 7-10 days. No thanks. We’re going elsewhere, too. All the garbage fees, taxes, etc, are an insult. I know when I’m not welcome.
I love Hawaii have been going to Hawaii since 1970 we own Marriott ownership on Maui.
I think it’s been blown out of proportion!! It’s always been pricey! The fire was horrible I think nosy people was mad they could not go gawk!!
Gov. Needs help with with diplomacy!!
.
I’m in agreement with Johnannes. What a PR nightmare. Hawaii needs to fire HTA. Their comments and Green’s are troublesome. Green has a big problem with the long term rentals – no one wants to take a chance of having their vacation canceled. Still my favorite place on the planet, but it is heartbreaking.
We just spent 2 weeks in Maui and are going back for 3 in February. We had a wonderful time and had zero resentment from the local residents. Yes, the hotel prices are laughable. We bought a short term rental with friends. When we don’t use it we rent it out on Airbnb. I recommend being savvy about where to stay and come and enjoy.
Young Hawaiians enjoyed leisure time and COVID relief payments during the pandemic. Now they believe that the world owes them a living and resent the tourists who come to the islands to spend their hard earned dollars. As Hawaii tourism implodes, are they willing to cut sugar cane or plant pineapples in the hot sun as their grandparents did?
People on the mainland also enjoyed leisure time and covid payments during the pandemic. The issue that existed pre-pandemic for residents of Hawaii is that an economy too dependent on tourism is unsustainable and the pay from jobs in tourism is rarely commensurate with the local cost of living.
People on the mainland enjoyed leisure time and COVID relief payments during the pandemic too. The longstanding issue way before COVID for residents of Hawaii was/is the unsustainability of an economy that relies too much on tourism and jobs created by tourism that are not commensurate with the local cost of living.
I would add that the idea young Hawaiian residents can only choose between work in tourism or working in cane fields is a sad commentary on how visitors often view the residents; that their value lies primarily only in facilitating a fulfilling tourist experience.
Interesting all those who identified “their” island as Maui! Although our timeshare fees feel outlandish versus what they once were, we are still staying in an apartment for less than $300/night (Marriotts). So I guess we are lucky. And also interesting that you can still get amazing airfare (mahalo, BoH!) but only at certain times. We’re sticking with Kauai and are about to start (next week) our 47th trip there. Don’t expect any “you’re not welcome” but will certainly post if that’s what we find. Mele Kalikimaka e Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!
47th time. Wow! And I thought our upcoming 30th visit to Hawaii was a bunch. I haven’t felt the increase in costs, other than car rentals on Kauai, but we use our huge number of points to stay for a number of weeks at a time, and the number of points needed hasn’t changed over the years. Nor have we felt unwelcome. If that changes we’ll probably look elsewhere.
The ‘We don’t want you here’, ‘ We don’t need tourist to survive’ attitude is driving everyone away along with the prices. You don’t want us, we can go elsewhere where they appreciate our money being spent on their islands and driving their economy and paying their bills. Bye-bye!
We have the utmost sympathy for those residents affected by the fires. We travelled to Maui in November, 1 week in Wailea and 1 week in the north Kaanapali area. We approached our visit showing consideration and respect and were treated with appreciation and thankfulness. We really feel the total mismanagement of messaging has resulted and will continue to result in a drop of visitor counts. Additionally, the accommodation industry continues to choose a strategy of “let’s see how much we can gouge the visitor”. I’m pretty confident, this, as we have seen from previous comments on your site, will be the largest factor in a catastrophic period in the state’s economy.
I love going to Hawaii, but haven’t been since 2019. The islands got used to fewer travelers during Covid and the residents probably liked less traffic and just less crowds. But, tourism is the big industry there. To make a good income from tourism and to keep the crowds lower, prices for everything went up and seem to be staying high. That makes Hawaii the vacation spot for the wealthy. So fewer people’s money is now the same as more middle class money of the past. I liked staying in vacation rentals rather than in hotels and I read how those might be lodgings of the past as well. I’m sorry to think I probably won’t see Kauai or Maui again.
We agree even as newer visitors. We had planned our first trip to Kauai in October with amazing flight deal I found. Even with that, all else is too expensive. Hotels and resorts were insane and got worse. Cancelled our trip as it didn’t make sense. We have been to Maui and BI since Covid and it was expensive then. Now we will look elsewhere until something changes. With flights pricew going up, I don’t think that will be anytime soon.
That pretty well sums it up. I’ve been to Maui about 20 times. I have been justifying the high costs in my mind, but I cannot justify the high costs if the trip is going to involve views of protestors and angry locals. The mayor’s threat to halt all short-term rentals shows they just don’t get it. I’m now looking at other options for vacations and retirement. How can I buy a condo on Maui in this environment?!?!
Extremely happy we were able to visit Hawaii before when the prices were just high. They have a wonderful state to visit but the prices along with the additional resort taxes, ect have gone beyond absurd. My wife loves Hawaii but our vacation dollars are better spent on cruises or locations that haven’t skyrocketed beyond reason.
Anyplace in the world that is desirable has seen prices skyrocket. Eventually prices will come down or some will go out of business. I dont know how Hawaii can get away from tourism and have the same standard of living. Be interesting what the future holds
In the final analysis, Hawaii has priced itself, and talked itself, out of the market. It isn’t just the lodgings, airfare is extremely expensive for anything but “sardine” class.
I own multiple weeks of quality timeshares in Hawaii, while the maintenance fee prices are roaring up, they are still much lower than hotel rates. But when the airfare (round trip) for a comfortable seat over and back exceed the cost of the lodgings for a week, it’s not worth the money.
As a part-time resident of Hawaii Island, of course I will continue to spend many weeks at a time at my 2nd home, still enjoying plenty of aloha. However, unlike in the past, when family and friends visit, we won’t be booking condos or hotels on other parts of the island. We choose not to support the out of control prices that don’t deliver the value, and are reallocating funds toward travels abroad.
Use to travel 2-3X/year to all the islands. Our 40th wedding anniversary trip is already booked for February. Born & raised on Maui, sad to say this likely will be our last trip back to HI. Obscene hotel and rental car base rates, taxes, taxes, surcharges and more surcharges. Everything is too expensive. We’re not in the top 2% income demographic; now we’re enjoying more affordable destinations elsewhere in the world.
We have visited Hawaii every year since 1988. Mostly on Kauai where we have made many friends. We almost always rent the same home for 2 or 8 weeks. Sadly the property was turned over to a new real estate firm and the rental has more than doubled over the last 18 months. Yet this is the most run-down home on the beach we frequent. Coupled with restricted access to parts of the island i.e. the north shore – and nuisance charges to visit other locations, we will reconsider whether to visit again in the future. We have found that travel to NZ in business class couple to a drive vacation for 8 weeks is about 50% the cost of returning to Kauai.
Gary: I am very said what is going on Maui as my wife & I were married at Kaanapali beach 34 years ago. We have returned every year since and sometimes twice a year. We have come to a conclusion that we are not going back until they get there act together as we agree we most of the other comments on this site.
All those comments are absolutely on point! My husband and I feel the same way, completely unwelcome! We go to Oahu four times a year where we actually share a condo that we own with our daughter. We have always planned to move there on a permanent basis. After all the comments by the governor, locals quoted in the news stories and the violent crime rate, we are totally rethinking our future and where we spend our money. I’m still so offended by the “rich white tourists ” comment in one the news articles along with all the other negative comments about tourists. We definitely aren’t rich! We have totally downsized everything and save constantly to make these trips possible. No Aloha spirit. Just feel completely unwelcome.
I could not agree more. My husband and I are both in education so we are definitely not rich. We have just always saved and made our yearly trips to Hawaii a priority for our family for the purpose of spending time together. We do not live an extravagant life otherwise. “the rich white” comment is very ignorant.
We used to live on Oahu, and have loved returning for several decades nearly every year. We made our last visit to Hawaii this summer. Everything is astonishingly over-priced: summer airline tickets, hotels, short-term rentals, rental cars. We will instead return to Mexico and Costa Rica which we also love and cost a fraction of a Hawaii vacation. The overpricing primarily by airlines, hotels, and short-term rentals is a self-inflicted wound. Look around Hawaii – there are plenty of other lovely, vacation places which we will be enjoying.
I’m Native Hawaiian and have always cherished our tourists and military. I’m retired now, and most of my adult life have advocated for our government to expand our sources of economy. Anyone with the ability to think, would have seen this coming, keeping all your eggs in one basket is an economical death sentence. We made it difficult to diversify, kept what could have been a huge industry out, when we blocked Lingles ferry system. Hawaii could be providing so much more in food products to the world…but farmers struggle, just to be recognized as viable. These comments are on point, our spirit of aloha is slowly vanishing, so very sad, as non Hawaiians truly recognize and appreciate it. No Aloha, no Hawaii…
Aloha IslandBuzzy,
Great comment and sentiments. I completely agree. By the way, what is the “huge industry” that was left out? Maybe this can be revisited since it is now so obvious that tourism simply can’t be the only game in town.
My husband and I live on the east coast, we’ve been going to Hawaii almost every year going back in January. We were planning on staying only few days on Oahu and 2 weeks on Maui with our vacation club condo at the Maui banyan. They kicked us out. We understand they want to rent it to the local people who lost their homes but although we love Maui, we will only stay one week since we had our flights paid an booked but yes, I understand what people are saying that the Maui locals don’t want any visitors. That really makes no sense when they are and will be struggling to rebuild. How are they going to rebuild if they don’t have jobs. It’s very unfortunate that we have to feel this way. not sure if we will go again….
I will be there this year as I have for 25 years. I plan to spend my time on Maui finding volunteer work. However, I have become very disillusioned with Hawaii in general over the past decade or so. Giving up all other business except tourism was a huge mistake. I hated it when the cruise ships arrived. It was all about money and the aloha spirit started to erode. Then COVID. My first visit after COVID, you definitely felt not welcome. Prices were always high but now ridiculously out of control. The government of the islands has let its people down with short sighted decisions for a long time now. I feel sorry for the few native islanders left but have been enjoying more travel to other places and see Hawaii no longer a “go to”
Been an annual Big Island visitor for a while and I don’t pay much attention to the negativity on social media or the press. It’s very easy to enjoy Hawaii as a tourist, the people on the island don’t show any negativity that I notice. We used to be regular visitors to Mexico and the Caribbean since it’s a much easier destination from the East Coast, but Hawaii is so much better in enough ways to make the longer trip worthwhile. We don’t stay in hotels so the higher prices aren’t a factor, we use rentals that provide more amenities like kitchens and laundry rooms to make the cost of a stay reasonable.
We love Hawaii, but can’t afford to visit once a year anymore. Many of your readers are spot on saying there are so many places to visit. Our long term goal is to visit Hawaii once every 10 years. We hope things settle down and we can enjoy Hawaii again.
We are going to Kauai for the last time in January. We have great friends there and have gone for 20+ years. We owned a condo for several years (not a timeshare) but the anti-tourist sentiment, over regulation, and crazy prices have made it not worth the effort. Sadly it will be a bittersweet trip but there are places we are welcome.
Good…I’m glad that they’re going elsewhere. As a few of the commenters said, it’s a big world and there are lots of other places to visit.
Prices are outrageous because Too Many people want to come where there’s an extremely limited amount of space and accommodations. It has turned from being mutually beneficial to both the residents and tourists to just a nightmare for everyone!
Residents are overwhelmed everyday without letup from tourists taking over and tourists having a horrible time because local residents are letting them know how upset they are.
We’re only human and didn’t move here just to make a quick buck off of the tourism industry. It’s a lifestyle that’s being ruined by over-commercialization.
It’s not all of the tourists fault though. Social media and social media influencers have ruined Hawaii as well. Hawai’i is small and I’m sure they’re getting their fair share of stink eye as well. If they don’t get the message and find more of a balance to promoting Hawai’i and all of the “fun” things to do here, soon they’ll find out that their not so welcome either and will live in misery or find the need to call another place home.
As I have mentioned before in many posts on this platform, Hawai’i is fragile and these islands need balance in order for them to be self-sustainable for many generations to come.
Everything is too high, here. Housing, food, energy, etc. Just because tourist dollars flow in doesn’t mean the local population is becoming wealthy from it. The local (and now national) inflation is ripping it all away!
Therefore, if upsetting a few vacationers is the price in order to ensure that everything becomes more balanced, I’ll take that trade-off. The worst that happens to the tourists is they find some place else to visit. That doesn’t sound all that bad to me.
And sadly, if there are local residents that are totally dependent upon tourism and can’t make a lateral move to another field, then they will also need to find another place to call home.
That is the law of nature and attrition. It cannot be stopped. This was bound to happen to Hawai’i. Everyone knew it. It was impossible for this place to grow indefinitely.
The sheer physics of the limitations on the land mass make that abundantly clear. Not to mention that scarce land mass being smack in the middle of the largest ocean on the planet.
For all of the heartbroken people who have decided not to revisit these beautiful islands and all those who will need to move away due to necessity from a lack of tourism business, I say that your sacrifice is not in vain.
You may not appreciate it now, but maybe your grandchildren or great grandchildren will, when they see that Hawai’i is even more beautiful than when you visited. So, don’t despair.
You can always carry the aloha you cherish in your heart to the other places that welcome you. And may the aloha of these beautiful islands that you love, follow you everywhere you go.
Yes, they have it right. The vacancy right is high yet the prices won’t budge. But the greedy resorts did this to themselves. Cest la vi.