Hey everyone! We just got back from our first ever Hawaii vacation! We spent 10 days exploring the wonderful island of Oahu! Best part about it…we flew there for free! My husband, Mother-in-law, Father-in-law, and my two year old twins boys and I all flew there for free (we did pay taxes + fees & luggage charges). Let’s talk about how we did it, and then I will jump into our trip recap!
How to Fly to Hawaii for FREE?
Travel Hacking is the answer. If you’ve never heard of travel hacking you really need to start learning! There are so many instagram accounts, podcasts, and blogs out there devoted to travel hacking. Because of that, I’m going to skip going into the nitty gritty and just give you an overview and point you to a very helpful resource.
Essentially, travel hacking is using travel credit cards (responsibly!!) to essentially pay for all your travels. However, this is more than just using miles or points. This is being strategic in what cards you sign up for (sign up bonuses, travel partners, etc.), and transferring your points so that you get MORE bang for your buck. So for example, for this trip I spent about $900 dollars in points to buy 6 round trip flights. While each ticket cost varies, I think we can safely estimate that those flights would have cost about $3600. The only cost I paid out of pocket, was the taxes & fees that cannot be paid for with points, which I think was about $60 total for 6 flights. Also, I had to still pay for any checked luggage which was $60 a bag (round trip).
So how do you get that good of a value? I simply followed the steps on this blog post. It did require me to call Turkish airlines to get my tickets booked, and while it took calling a few times to get the right person, it really wasn’t that hard. And if Hawaii isn’t your thing there are a lot of other places you can travel hack to!
A few other money saving tips…
If you are planning a stay in Hawaii then you will definitely realize that the hotels and resorts are not cheap. Thankfully, my MIL & FIL have a timeshare we were able to use when we went, but I know that is not everyone’s scenario. There are however lots of ways to also use travel hacking to cover the cost of hotels. I would look into Hyatt & Hilton for this possibility!
Also, renting a car (and paying to park it), especially in Hawaii, is not cheap. If you can skip renting a car for your whole trip and instead take advantage of shuttles, the bus system, etc. then do that! However, with kids that need car seats and because we wanted the flexibility of a car, we ended up renting a mini van through Turo. Turo is like the airbnb of cars (people rent out their cars). We found Turo to be a lot more affordable than the rental car companies. However, do make sure you get insurance when renting because most car insurance does not cover Turo like they do regular car companies (I even called our company to check!).
Where We Stayed
We stayed in the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki Beach. I had heard it was a very family friendly hotel/area and after going I would certainly agree! There are multiple pools, fantastic beach access, and a large lagoon that is great for young kiddos to swim in that you can also paddle board and do other fun water sports in! There are also a lot of shops and restaurants in the Village which is super convenient. We didn’t have a ton of time on the beach/lagoon because it was a bit cold in the water (we went in February), but that’s okay because there is so much to do in Hawaii!
Trip Recap
First things first we had to get to Hawaii….
We drove to D.C., stayed over night, and then took two flights (D.C. to LAX and LAX to HNL) to Hawaii. Our boys did so GOOD! I was actually SHOOK at how well they did on the flight.
P.S. if you want our favorite toddler travel items, here is a link to our favs!
Can you tell someone was tired?
We arrived at night and crashed.
Our first day we decided to keep it easy since we were adjusting to a 5 hour time difference. We got groceries, and we went to Yogurstory for breakfast. Highly recommend this restaurant! I got the Ube waffles, so yummy and then we spent some time at the lagoon!
Click here for our Toddler Summer favs that we packed!
We ate at the Italian restaurant in the Hilton Village called Fresco and then got some much needed rest!
The next day we were up bright and early to head to Pearl Harbor. When planning our trip I was really confused about all the Pearl Harbor information! Essentially, there are four main sites to visit, but only one of them is operated by the government (and is technically free, but you have to reserve tickets beforehand), but all 4 are within the military base. There was one site that the boys couldn’t visit because you have to be 4, so we skipped that one, but otherwise we did the other three! If you want more information, I found this blog super helpful!
We started at the Pearl Harbor visitor center and the USS Arizona Memorial. I debated if I should take the boys here, as it is a more somber environment (wasn’t sure how they would do), but we decided to and we were definitely not the only one with toddlers or babies! I will say that there is no access to a bathroom for the whole ferry ride to the monument and back time period, so with my newly potty trained kiddos, we planned accordingly!
While we were visiting, we saw the most amazing rainbow. I couldn’t capture it, but it looked like it was coming right out of the monument!
Next up, we went to the Aviation museum. I think most people go here last, but we were so glad we went next because it was fairly empty and the boys were able to nap in their stroller. Also, the food was so good!
It’s a pretty small museum, and probably wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but for my husband and Father in Law it was a must!
The restaurant there was surprisingly good, if you do end up eating there make sure to try to homemade popsicles!
A really cool moment was when one of the employees gave the boys airplanes from an old exhibit. This made the boys day!
Our last spot we visited was the USS Missouri, which was where the document was signed that ended WWII. It’s now a museum that you can walk around. Strollers pretty much have to be left behind except for the main deck area. (They will hold them for you at the entrance).
We really enjoyed seeing this ship. One warning, the “basement” if you will, of the ship is a LONG walk through, we were all done and feeling a little claustrophobic, and we just had to keep walking for a bit, so it might be something to skip with littles. Otherwise though we really enjoyed it!
We ended our Pearl Harbor day with getting some Dole Whip (yes they have it right there at the Battleship eatery area!) and headed back to our room and got takeout pizza from Round Table, another really great restaurant on the Hilton Village property/area!
The next day, the Grandparents held down the fort with the kiddos while Todd and I headed to Kualoa Ranch for an ATV tour. If you’re not familiar, Kualoa Ranch is a privately owned beautiful chunk of property (I think they said 4000 acres) that is well known for its appearances in many popular movies such as Jurassic Park. The views are absolutely unbelievable! You can opt for many different tours, but we thought the ATV tour would be super fun!
If you do take the ATV tour just a warning that you will get dirty and dusty! We were caked in dirt and everything (our phones, glasses etc) all needed a good wipe down afterwards! But totally worth it!
While we were in the gift shop, Todd asked a local where they would recommend to go eat, so we headed off to Papa Ole’s where we got to try a true Hawaiian lunch plate. This was so good and by far the cheapest meal we had on the trip! 100% Recommend!
That evening after we got showered and all cleaned up, we walked down the street from our hotel to the Waikiki Beach Walk & International Marketplace. This was pretty much a really high end mall area. They had a lot of fancy restaurants, but we opted for eating at their food court, which was pretty adventurous because most of it was Asian inspired, which was so fun! Todd & I weren’t too hungry because of lunch, so we opted for just eating some dessert from Penny’s Malasadas. Malasadas are essentially Hawaii’s donuts. These were very good, but messy! My favorite was the coconut flavored one.
That rounds out our third day in Hawaii! I will be back in my next blog post with a recap of the second part of our trip!
-Kasey
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