Adventure Hawaii!!! The planning...

We want to go faaaar away!

Why not Hawaii!?

The first idea of ​​traveling to the distant island state hit us when we had friends as guests during the Corona crisis in autumn 2020, who were supposed to fly to Hawaii in summer 2020 and had to cancel or postpone their entire vacation. Thanks to Corona....

They had just rebooked their entire trip for the summer of 2021. (Still optimistic to fly in summer 2021).

Then the word Hawaii stuck in our heads like a flea. We were already tempted by that... The last time we went really far away was in 2018 when we spent our most complicated vacation so far (at least in terms of planning) in Australia. That was a huge adventure!

(See Adventure Blog Down Under: https://vakantio.de/adve... )

Since the last two summer vacations were not the classic "summer, beach & sea" destinations (2019 Adventure Africa with safari & stormy Cape Town https://vakantio.de/abent... and 2020 "Corona" adventure vacation in the Azores https://vakantio.de/abent... ), maybe a trip to Hawaii will be possible again in 2022!?

In summer 2021, it is still too risky for us as the Corona situation does not seem to be improving. For safety, we want to stay in Europe and have planned our summer vacation in Portugal - surfing & stuff...

And then came the DELTA virus variant! Summer vacation 2021 cancelled - so "last minute" out of frustration to the Maldives https://vakantio.de/urlaubs...  (could be worse 😜)

Well, unfortunately our friends didn't make it to Hawaii in 2021 - just like us on our second attempt during Easter 2021, we couldn't make our booked trip to NY and Washington...

Everything postponed to 2022...

And now that it was certain that our friends probably won't be able to fly to the Pacific island state until summer 2022, our planning also became more concrete.

I had already read several travel reports, searched travel guides, and visited many internet forums. It quickly became clear: it should be 4 islands, but we need 4 weeks of vacation for that. It wasn't easy at all to convince my husband's boss to give him 4 weeks of vacation in a row - but it worked! Yay!!

For me, no problem - being a teacher at least has the advantage of having 6 weeks of summer vacation 😜

After checking flight routes and prices countless times, the island sequence and the airline were also determined:

under no circumstances Lufthansa!!!

We have been so annoyed with them in the past months that we are now boycotting them!

In hindsight, the best decision ever!!!

Since we have additional "full-paying" kids (18 & 14), everything will be very expensive anyway, so we cut costs with the flight. We decided to take the flight with Air Canada via Vancouver to Maui.

Disadvantage: after what feels like 10 flight schedule changes, the transit time changed from 6 hours to 7 hours and 30 minutes on the outbound flight, and 6 hours and 30 minutes on the return flight. Hanging out at the airport is not great, but with all other US connections, Lufthansa would have been involved... (and the LH flights are significantly more expensive!)

So no, we take Air Canada via Canada and the cheaper of the AC flights with the long transit. It's fine.

End of September 2021, I book the AC flights for July/August 2022, followed by accommodations on 4 islands (Maui - Big Island - Kauai - Oahu), as well as a rental car (type "Fullsize") for each island. Beginning of October, I book the domestic flights with Hawaiian.

Bookings for excursions (snorkeling trip, manta night snorkeling, helicopter flight) follow until March, then the planning is largely completed.

Meanwhile, the exchange rate for the US dollar is going in the wrong direction for us...good thing I booked everything early, as many accommodations are now almost twice as expensive as half a year ago.

It becomes apparent that our vacation in 2022 will hopefully no longer be affected by COVID.

At least our postponed New York-Washington Trip will finally take place in April 2022!!! Yay! https://vakantio.de/abente...

Just for fun, I occasionally check how the prices for our flights or rental cars are developing. The flight prices have more than doubled after 9 months, and the rental car prices are skyrocketing. A "Compact" car in May 2022 costs three times as much as our booked "Fullsize" car 😱

I strongly recommend booking the rental car very early! In most cases, you can cancel it free of charge up to 24 hours before - so you have nothing to lose!

The anticipation is building - my heart skips a beat with every "flight schedule change". Fortunately, it usually only changes by a few minutes.

Except for our Hawaiian flight from Big Island to Kauai - that one is suddenly changed from 3 pm in the afternoon to 8 am in the morning. Too bad, because we can't check into our booked accommodation there until 4 pm...

Well, we'll worry about the luggage problem on site - maybe there will be a solution by then.

Funnily enough, our friends have the same order of islands, but they are leaving a few days before us due to their vacation time and will only have 3 weeks in Hawaii - we have 4 weeks. But it works out on the first island - we will be there at the same time, so we plan a joint snorkeling trip. How funny!!!

May 2022 - during the detailed planning with GoogleMaps, I realize how big "Big" Island really is. Since we absolutely want to see the active volcano in Volcanoes NP at night, we need an overnight stay in between. Fortunately, I still manage to secure a small cottage in the town of Volcano. Not a bargain, but at least we don't have to drive back and forth in the dark for hours.

End of May, I manage to get a permit for the Haleakala Sunrise. Perfect! That means getting up early on vacation...

June 2022 - the next reservations are due. Right at the opening of the booking window, I book Waiʻānapanapa State Park, the Arizona Memorial, and also the visit to the USS Missouri & the Aviation Museum.

July 2022 - Corona is behaving itself (I am relaxed anyway - I also had it in May... luckily with a mild course), but there is stress at the airport and with LH - they threaten again with flight cancellations and strikes.

I am deeply relaxed - we are flying with Air Canada and according to flightradar, they fly our planned route every day. It looks different for our friends from Lower Saxony. They have to watch how their planned LH feeder flight to Frankfurt is canceled regularly, as well as the connecting flight to the USA...

Oh dear - we keep our fingers crossed that the planned flight in mid-July will actually take place!

And once again, it was the best decision to boycott LH!

Shortly before departure, I book the Haena State Park on Kauai. It was really tricky because not even 5 seconds after the booking window opened, ALL permits for my desired day were sold out 😱

However, it's worth waiting for 15 minutes because then all non-finalized permits go back on sale and I can still book my 2 time slots for my desired day. Tschakka!!

Quickly book a "Hollywood Tour" at Kualoa Ranch on Oahu and then the most important points are done 😊

July 20th, our departure is getting closer, our friends report a "safe arrival" from Maui! They were lucky because today there were no cancellations on the route with LH.

And I still don't know what to pack...