A Guide to Vacay Friday: March in Hawai’i

Since this is the first Vacay Friday, this one will be the guide for the others, where I’ll give you an in depth look at the process my trip planning goes through. This happens to be an international trip but this process is pretty similar to what I do when planning road trips.

First thing’s first, grab a notepad, or open up a word document/excel spreadsheet to take notes in. I get all of my stuff sent to me electronically, so it’s all on my phone, and I can send duplicates of everything to whomever I choose. When my parents plan a trip however, Mom prints everything out and has it in a binder with her. Either way works!

Second, choose your destination. Get ready to be flexible with this, especially in the early stages of planning. You might want to go to Newfoundland, but end up in England instead. It happened to me once!

I’ve chosen Hawai’i this month because I’ve wanted to visit ever since I watched Pearl Harbor, a fact one of my university professors would disparage over. He teaches the history of the second world war, and hates this movie with a passion. Sorry Professor!

Specifically, I’ve wanted to visit O’ahu, the third largest island, to visit the wreck of the Arizona, wander around Pearl City, and hopefully take in a museum or two to learn more about the native Hawaiian culture. I would also love to learn how to surf, though my balance is disgraceful at best.

Before we go about looking at any of that, however, we have some research to do. We need to map it!

(M)edication, (A)dvisories, (P)apers, (I)deal (T)ime. Map it!

Yes, I am very proud of the acronym I’ve come up with.

My first stop is always travel.gc.ca. If you’re from another country, your government website should have a similar section where you can find out what vaccines you need, precautions to take, if there are any travel advisories, and what sort of papers (visa, passport, etc.) you need.

Medication

Do we need any medicine or vaccinations to travel to Hawai’i? Yes. The usual suspects, Hep. B, Flu shot, and Measles are all recommended. If I didn’t have those shots, or wasn’t sure, I would be calling my health unit no later than six months before I wanted to travel.

Advisories

Advisories will tell you if there are places you should be avoiding because they are unsafe to travel. Remember to keep an eye on the news, too. There aren’t any travel advisories for the United States (remember, Hawai’i is part of the U.S.) at the moment, so that’s all good!

Papers

As a Canadian intending to fly to Hawai’i, I will need either a passport or a NEXUS card.

Ideal Time

There really isn’t an ideal time to visit Hawaii, it’s just what the ideal time happens to be for you. I’ve checked to be sure that I’m not travelling during hurricane season, and the temperatures are a 20-26 degrees Celsius, dipping into about 15 at night. Perfect temperatures for me!

A lot of people travel to Hawai’i during this time, though, so if I was insistent on being in Hawai’i in March, I might have to reschedule my trip until 2021, or consider other destinations.

That’s it! We’ve done it! We’ve taken our first steps towards planning our trip! That wasn’t so bad right? Party Break!

Now, the things you want to do. You might be thinking “Hey, Lost, shouldn’t you be booking hotels first?”

Good instincts, find shelter first, but there’s a slight trick to this: If you plan what you want to do first, you can make sure that there is a hotel closer to those things.

Think about it. If I booked my hotel on O’ahu, and then saw that all the tours I wanted were on Maui, I’d be in a bit of a pickle. If I plan (not book, just plan) my tours first, then I can find a hotel that’s close to all of those activities.

Some excellent resources are tripadvisor, and mygooglemaps. While researching what there is to do on tripadvisor, I plug in anything that seems interesting into mygooglemaps. Like so!

I know it’s a little blurry right now, but in the itinerary there will be a full list, so don’t worry!

The red dots are for things I’m unwilling to miss, the yellow for things that I would be disappointed if I missed. If there were any green dots, that would mean that I’m alright missing those things, but it would be neat to check them out if I had time. I mark long shots in purple, things that I don’t think I’ll have the time, money, or ability to see but really would like to.

That map isn’t inclusive of the big island, but I want to see some lava, something that O’ahu doesn’t have. This is leading me to wonder if I can’t island hop. The plan is to fly from Toronto to Hawai’i, spend part of my vacation there, and then move on to O’ahu.

This is why we look at activities first! Plans change!

When you go, the dates will be up to you, but for this trip I’ve selected March 7th to the 14th of 2020.

Now, for the flights!

Go onto google, and brows your flights there. If you can swing it, use a different computer than the one you want to book on, or use in-private browsing while you research all this. The more you research, the higher the prices will become!

Keep time zones in mind when you book your flight, and realise that you will be tired after a long flight! Don’t go booking a tour two hours after you’ve landed!

For this trip, I’ve decided to divide my time between O’ahu and Hawai’i, for the simple reason that I want to see lava, and O’ahu doesn’t have any. Hawai’i does, but what would be the point of going to see one island just for lava? This is an imaginary holiday so budget doesn’t matter to me in this instance, but the logic behind my thought would be the same for a real trip. Given the chance, I would rather spend the money and explore the whole island.

To that end, I’ve decided to reverse my previous decision. Instead of going to Hawaii first, we’ll fly to O’ahu, stay there for a few days, then fly to Hawai’i, do the island tour, and fly out from Hawai’i the next day.

For this trip, I’ve decided that I’ll leave from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) at 6:45 on Saturday March 7th. There will be two layovers in Calgary and Vancouver, but not so long as to need a hotel. We’ll be landing at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) in O’ahu at about 10.

On Wednesday March 12th, we’ll be island hopping from HNL to Kona International Airport (KOA) at 10:09.

Finally on Friday March 14th we’ll fly from Kona International back to Toronto Pearson at 12:22, arriving at 7:00 am on Sunday with a short layover in San Francisco.

Again, don’t book anything! This is all just research, and the ideals. Things might still change.

Once you have your ideal flights picked out, you can move onto hotels.

Where you want to stay depends on your budget, what you’re comfortable with, and where you want to be. I like to use Kayak for this, because it gives me the option to see what the entire stay will cost as opposed to one night.

For my hotels, I’ve chosen two Marriotts, for O’ahu I’ve selected one near Waikiki beach, and in Hawai’i I’ve chosen to stay in Kona, to make the airport and my island tour more accessible.

There! You’re almost done! Now you’ve just got to construct your itinerary. Ours looks a little something like this.

For this trip, ours looks something like this.

Saturday March 7th

Flight leaves from Toronto to O’ahu. We get in at about 10 at night, so when we get to our hotel, it’s best to head to bed!

Sunday March 8th

This should be a relaxing day. For that, we have a Waikiki Hop-on Hop-off tours. You can chill, and let the bus take us sight seeing! Make sure to bring a pen so you can mark off places you might be interested in visiting later.

Monday March 9th

Today we have a half day tour to Pearl Harbour. Once it’s over, we’re off to explore the U.S.S. Bowfin, a submarine turned museum, and Iolani Palace, once the home of Hawaii’s royalty. If today is a good day for it, we could also learn to surf!

Tuesday March 10th

This is a big day, given over fully to the Oahu Circle Tour, which we’ve booked through the Polynesian Culture Center. As part of the tour, in the evening we are treated to a luau and a show of native Hawai’ian culture!

Wednesday March 11th

Today we rise early, because we need to get to the north shore. We can easily take the bus to get there, and the reward is totally worth it. Shark diving! Without a cage! If we survive (not to worry, we will) we’ll head back to Honolulu to visit the U.S. Army base, and the Queen Emma Summer Palace. If Monday wasn’t a good day for surfing, today might be a better. Don’t forget to pack tonight, we’re heading out early tomorrow morning.

Thursday March 12th

This morning we gather ourselves and fly over to the big island, Hawai’i. It’ll only take an hour, so when we’ve checked into our hotel, there’s plenty of time to wander around the town, or throw your bathing suit on for some swimming. Take the time to recharge and relax. It’s a vacation after all!

Friday March 13th

Today we let others do the work, and go on a tour of Hawai’i. Lava lakes, a black sand beach, waterfalls, and stunning vistas. A perfect end to an amazing trip!

Satuday March 14th

Today we fly out, but not until noon, so have a good breakfast, go dip your toes into the sea one last time, and then head off to the airport sporting an awesome tan and some amazing stories to tell your friends when you get home.

You’re almost done! You’ve got everything ready! Well done!

Now, to book.

Now, this trip isn’t cheap. Everything I’ve planned has come up to $4,188 Canadian. That’s not including taxes on most things, or meals.

But here’s the point of having gone through all that research: If you book flights, hotels, and activities all together, you’ll often get discounts.

I usually use Expedia, and while the website doesn’t allow you to book flights from different cities, you can call them and they’ll help you book your trip.

Things might change at this stage too, but now that you have all the information ready, you’ll be able to shift your schedule without too much of a hassle.

There you have it! You’ve done it! You’ve planned an epic vacation for yourself!

This took me about a week to put together, so don’t get discouraged if it takes a while. It’s hard work. Take breaks, keep hydrated, and stay positive.

From now on, Vacay Fridays will be focused more on the activities and locations, but I figured a guide as to how to plan a trip would be a good way to start. How do you plan your trips? Let me know in the comments below!