We leave tomorrow for our trip! I’m not going to lie, this was definitely an expensive trip (at least for us). I’m a crazy planner when it comes to vacations. I like to research reviews (like crazy, I will literally scroll through hundreds of them) and make sure that I’m not wasting any money or time while I’m on vacation.
We leave on Saturday night, get there on Sunday and we leave around 11pm on Friday. So we have almost 6 full days there. This is the longest vacation I have ever taken (except from when I was younger).
Hotel. We’re staying at the Sheraton Kauai Resort. I looked at so many hotels. I heard that if you want more sun, then you should stay in the Poipu area because they get the least amount of rain and have pretty, swim-mable beaches. A lot of places were booked, but we got a good deal on our hotel. It’s around $130 per night (I bid for it on Priceline) and the rooms usually start around $300. And it’s a resort right on the beach.
Our total for the hotel will be around $750. Yes this is a lot. A lot more than I wanted to spend, but I didn’t want to regret my hotel choice. We’re there for 6 days/5 nights, so I guess that’s not too bad. Hotels are just so expensive though! This amount just seems very high though, almost makes me sick!
Our flight. Our airfare expense is minimal, but we are going to try and get first class there and back. The flights look good and it seems like we will be able to.
Our flight leaves on Saturday night and we have around an 8 hour layover until our next flight to Kauai on Sunday morning. We’ll arrive at around noon. So exciting! The layover is going to stink, but I have homework that I’m going to bring for that. Of course I have a test the day after I come back, so I have to study during my vacation at least a little bit.
Rental Car. I have literally been looking for a rental car 24/7. It’s so hard to find a good deal. Since we are under 25, most places want to charge us a $27 per day fee (on top of the rental car costs of course) for being underage. That’s way too much when you’re renting a car for 6 days. We usually don’t rent a car and we never have for a whole trip.
We need a rental car everyday for this vacation for a lot of reasons. It’s impossible to see everything without one. It’s also hard to eat anywhere besides at the hotel from what I hear. Everything is spread apart because the island isn’t city-like. I tried bidding on a car rental on Priceline, but I kept getting rejected.
I would say I got a decent deal. With taxes, fees and the weekly rate, the total is $250. Other places I looked at wanted around $500 with everything included. Glad I kept looking! We are not paying for the extra insurance though, I’m just going to really hope that nothing happens.
Our activities. This is an extremely long list.
Hike Napali Coast (or at least just visit)
Makawehi Lithified Cliffs
Cliff jump at Shipwreck in Kauai (I really doubt I will do this, but it looks like fun)
Kayak somewhere (not sure)
Snorkel (lots of places to do this, we’re pretty much just going to bring snorkeling stuff everywhere we go just in case)
And lay on the beach of course!
Have you ever been to Kauai? What do you recommend that we do?
Total estimated cost (before food/activities):
$1,000
We estimated that we would spend around $1,500 ALTOGETHER as I said in past posts, but I think we’ll probably come a little higher than that. This will be our most expensive vacation. We am fully paying for this vacation with our side income though, so no worries.
There are a lot of ways that we want to save money while we’re there also. I am guessing that activities will be nearly free. Everything on my list above is free except for renting a kayak which is $55 when I priced it. If we do decide to go on one of the snorkeling adventures, that will be around $120 each, and I just don’t know if I want to spend that. Is it worth it? Seems like a lot of money.
Food will probably be around $400 altogether for the week, including drinks. I’m hoping we come way under this though. We can always put some alcohol and food in our fridge. Our hotel has a FREE mai tai happy hour and $2 bottle happy hour for around 4 hours each day. We’ll definitely be drinking a lot during those times.
How much do your vacations cost?
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