Go Visit Hawaii! The Sky Isn’t Falling – Part Deux.

I’m still seeing lots of moaning and groaning about the travel industry. As I shared in this article – The sky isn’t falling!  Hawaii is still affordable – the bigger picture indicates that vacations to Hawaii are really more affordable than they have been in recent months and perhaps years, particularly for couples.  I continue to believe that this is an excellent time to vacation in Hawaii. I just wanted to continue this particular conversation on Hawaii travel and highlight a few points.

1. Though airfares may be a bit inflated for this year over last year, hotel deals are more than offsetting the higher fares.  In addition to the lower hotel rates. I’m seeing many Hawaii hotels throwing in many freebies like free breakfast, free night’s stay, and resort credit. 
2. You might actually find that airfares from your city are better than this time last year.  This trend seems to be the case in the Northeast, in particular.  You can use a free website like Hotwire’s TripStarter to compare flight costs from this year over last year from your city to Hawaii.  
3. The statewide hotel occupancy rate was 69.5% in April.  This was a new low for the month since 2003.  So, if you can get to Hawaii, you’ll find that hotels, beaches, attractions, and restaurants will be less crowded.  I might even speculate that you’re probably more likely to get a room upgrade, too.

If you had marked Hawaii off your list for this year’s vacation, I’d encourage you to reconsider.  Once you crunch the numbers, you may be pleasantly surprised. 

As you know, I’m often posting deals here at Go Visit Hawaii.  At the moment, there’s a very nice collection of deals on the official Hawaii visitor’s bureau’s web site.  You’ll find savings from $200 and up for air and hotel combined.