Hawaii

[ken2v]

Yes, from what I hear, they kicked out all the small vendors that were selling their wares, especially in the alley next to the place. I keep hearing about "new and improved" but to me that just means that they spiffed it up for the rich tourists willing to pay outrageous prices for things.

That's why this tourist goes to the other islands.

(This off topic thread was split off from the thread on Heart Attack Grill Closing - Sonya)

 

[dmr]

Have you looped back around the south side then up to the high country? We did that last time. But mostly we go to the Big Island and Kauai.

No, farthest we got was the town of Hana. From the look of the map, the road around the south side of the island was nasty. I do want to see (and shoot) the sunrise from the mountain on the next trip, whenever that happens.

 

[ken2v]

dmr, the rental companies freak out over that road. But it's fine. Well, it works. Plan ahead, they are starting to -- finally -- limit visitors to Haleakala. Make sure to hit Bev Gannon's place on the way back down.

makiki, try housing in the Bay Area. Ouch.

 

[makikiboy]

dmr, the rental companies freak out over that road. But it's fine. Well, it works. Plan ahead, they are starting to -- finally -- limit visitors to Haleakala. Make sure to hit Bev Gannon's place on the way back down.

makiki, try housing in the Bay Area. Ouch.

Yup, don't get me started with the Bay area. I can't even vacation there, dumpy hotels are renting for over $100 a night. I used to like to visit San Fran but nowadays I can't afford to pay for my hotel stay, easier to just go to vegas instead. Too bad as I usually like to put in a vegas/san fran vacation every other year but not anymore.

 

[ken2v]

Umm, OK. Vacations in Hawaiian can be ungodly expensive, too. New York. Vancouver. London. Vegas gives folks a false sense of the cost of travel, as you know from your excursions elsewhere. My housing comment was that $500,000 in a place like Honolulu isn't crazy.

$100+ is way cheap, btw, in places where you can drink the water. I just booked a hotel by Burbank airport for $170. It's the cost of travel.

 

[FYMYAWF]

Yup, don't get me started with the Bay area

Try living here.

 

[ken2v]

lol

There was a job listing last year, and we checked it out, in the mid-peninsula. A housing search turned up a battered 900 sf-er on a sub-2000 sf lot and it topped 800.

 

[dmr]

dmr, the rental companies freak out over that road. But it's fine. Well, it works.

The only place I remember any rental car restriction was on the big island. Some road that we weren't planning on going on anyway. That was a long time ago.

 

[ken2v]

That would be the Saddle Road. It's been re-done. On most (all?) rental contracts the south side of Maui has long been verboten.

 

[makikiboy]

Umm, OK. Vacations in Hawaiian can be ungodly expensive, too. New York. Vancouver. London. Vegas gives folks a false sense of the cost of travel, as you know from your excursions elsewhere. My housing comment was that $500,000 in a place like Honolulu isn't crazy.

$100+ is way cheap, btw, in places where you can drink the water. I just booked a hotel by Burbank airport for $170. It's the cost of travel.

I agree, the cost of buying in many cities is priced out of this world, not only Honolulu. My friends in the bay area commute because it is so expensive to live in town. But then the outlying area is getting pretty expensive also. I also think that San Fran (NY, etc.) is way more expensive to buy.

Yeah, got too spoiled with Vegas where I usually get a room downtown for less than $50 a night. Even for the January CES I booked rooms 5 months in advance for only $50 a night. Too bad I couldn't make it though, we had some major installations at work that prevented me from going.

Nightly room rates in Hawaii are high also. I hardly go to the neighbor islands because I can't believe that dumps like the sand and seaside hotels charge $125 a night for their crappy rooms. Haven't travelled to Kauai in more than 15 years, for a similar price for air/hotel/car I can instead go to vegas. I go to the big island because I'm a union steward for my city department and they send us to the big island for a conference every 2 years or so and we get to stay at the Hilton Waikoloa for 3 nights.

 

[makikiboy]

The only place I remember any rental car restriction was on the big island. Some road that we weren't planning on going on anyway. That was a long time ago.

Yup, Saddle road was repaved and renamed, I think it is called the Daniel K. Inouye highway now. Makes the trip from Kona to Hilo much faster, instead of 3 hours you take less than 2 hours and it depends on how fast you can go (watch out for the cops who wait for the speeders). But there are still restrictions, you can't take your car up to the top of Mauna Kea since it requires a 4 wheel drive car. Wow, I never travelled from Hana back to town going around the back road. When I was younger that road kept washing out. I did drive around past Kapalua back to Wailuku town once, it was an adventure because the road wasn't really paved a few decades ago. I heard that they paved the road but it is more of a 1 lane road so not too safe either.

 

[ken2v]

Cool, the mods split out a Hawaii thread!!!

For us, we just don't look at just the bottom line for vacation decisions. Vegas can be "cheap," but for us it is far from the only show around and if cheap was the only thing on the checklist we'd probably know Fresno really well by now. We are very conscious of prices in Hawaii, which is why we rent privately so often. And it's not the only place we use services like VRBO. I just took down two really cool houses in Bend for the guys' September golf and outdoor adventure and beer trip. Resorts are great, but having one's own space, being able to hit the fish monger and the farmers' market and cook at "home," typically huge accommodation bang for the buck ... we like being able to mix it up.

What always strikes me in Hawaii is the number of folks, granted typically younger folks, who've never been to the mainland or even to another island. There is something to be said for being able to get into a car and just go.

 

[hammie]

Speaking of Hawaii, I saw this video today of a "lava fire hose". Drones can be awesome!

Never been to the islands, but I have about 200k AA miles, so maybe I can visit someday. A heck of a distance from Philly.

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[ken2v]

Understandable, hammie. Travel is so often about starting geography.