You may have looked at airline ticket prices to Hawaii and decided that it is too expensive of a destination. Don’t worry! Hawaii can be affordable. You just need to know how to plan for it. Here are a few tips for making Hawaii affordable.

Get two airline tickets for the price of one

My number one tip for making Hawaii affordable is to get an Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card. Alaska Airlines offers a free companion ticket once a year if you have their credit card . All you have to pay for are the taxes and fees. The cost of the credit card is $75 annually, well worth it. You can earn 3 miles on every dollar you spend on Alaska Airlines purchases and if you fly with Alaska partners, your miles will accumulate fast.  We typically go to Hawaii in April during spring break, which is an expensive time to go but with a companion ticket the total price for two people is between $1,100 – $1,300. This comes down to about $600 per person, which is pretty good especially for a direct flight. Non-direct flights are less expensive.

Stay at an Airbnb or VRBO

Condominia rented through Airbnb or Vrbo are less expensive than hotels but equally comfortable.  We typically stay in a one – bedroom apartment with a kitchen, a lanai, and complimentary parking. Frequently, the apartments are in a beautiful complex with gorgeous tropical plants, a barbecue, and a swimming pool. If you stay for a week, you may sometimes get a 10% discount, which makes the place even more affordable. We typically pay between $1,000-$1,200 for a week, which isn’t cheap but seems pretty reasonable end for Hawaii. Note that we tend to stay in popular areas such as Poipu on Kauai, Kihei on Maui, or Kailua Kona on the Big Island. If you stay in less popular spots, the prices will be lower.

An extra benefit of staying at an Airbnb or VRBO is that the owners typically have all the beach gear you might need. That includes the umbrella, beach chairs, beach towels, a cooler, and snorkeling gear (we bring our own).

Rent a car through Costco

Renting a car through Costco is more affordable than going directly through a rental car agency. It cost us $225 to rent a car for a week on Kauai. Granted, we went with a smaller car but it was sufficient to take us all over the island including unpaved roads.

Check out the happy hour

Restaurants on Kauai, especially around Poipu, seemed more expensive than restaurants in Kihei or Kona. That said, if you make it during a happy hour (typically from 3:30 to 5:00), you may get as much as 25% off your meal and several dollars off your drinks. It seemed a bit too early for us to eat around 5 pm, so we enjoyed the happy hour prices on drinks and chose to pay the regular price for dinner.

Make your own dinner

If you stay in an apartment and have a kitchen at your disposal, it may not be a bad idea to prepare your own dinner and eat it on your lanai, the beach, or by the pool area. We bought some local steak and a pineapple one day and barbecued them. We also made a small cucumber and grape tomato salad and had a delicious dinner with minimal preparation involved. It was actually nice to stay around after a whole day outing.

Make your own breakfast and lunch

We like going out to dinner when we go on vacation but we try to make our own breakfast and lunch almost daily. Frequently, we bring homemade granola with us when we travel.  Then, we just buy some delicious local fruit (apple bananas, papaya, pineapple) and a pint of yogurt and have that for breakfast. We typically make sandwiches for lunch with some yummy fruit salad. Occasionally, we will split an acai bowl or a lunch but that’s not because we’re hungry but because we want to taste the local fare.

I hope that you’ve found these tips for making Hawaii affordable helpful. Do you have any other ideas on how to make a trip to Hawaii cost less?