Heading to Honolulu

It's mid-January in Puget Sound: gray and rainy, most days. And there are good deals to be had in Hawaii. With that combination, it should be no surprise that our bags are packed and by the end of the week we will be in Waikiki soaking up the sun, basking in 80-degree temperatures taking long walks on sandy beaches under a canopy of swaying palms.

As I noted in a November blog (Honolulu: Surf's Up and prices down), Joel, the researcher half of this travel duo, found an incredibly good rate: $99 a night for ocean-front room at Hilton's Prince Kuhio in the heart of Waikiki. The hotel is a block back from the famed beach and two blocks from Kapiolani Park. We noted this weekend the prices have gone up considerably since we booked it.

The good news is that for those who didn't nab a room back then, the deals are still out there. We saw a big spread on O'ahu today that offered Endless Escapes at Starwood properties starting at $119 and a 99 days of Winter sale at Aqua Resorts with prices at $99 or less per night at their participating Waikiki hotels.

Developers and property owners have put more than $2 billion into the Waikiki neighborhood in recent years. The end results are new upscale restaurants, shopping malls filled with high end stores, rennovated historic hotels and a beautiful beach walk. It has become one of our favorite spots in all of the Hawaiian Islands.

If you can't take advantage of the deals, mix yourself a mai-tai, put on a floral shirt and stay tuned. For the next few weeks we will take you with us as we head to our favorite off-the-beaten-track finds. Aloha!

Honolulu: Surf's up and prices are down

We started planning the January get-away several months ago by locking in the dates of our Marriott Vacation Club stay at Ko Olina near Kapolei but later when booking the airline decided to tack nine nights in Honolulu on to the front end of our stay. For two years we've rented a condo at The Banyon but this year our dates and its availablitiy didn't match. After following up on suggested alternatives, we found they either lacked in location or view or they are owned by people who haven't yet heard there is a slump in tourism.

Hotels were a different story: The Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa (http://www.marriott.com/) that two years ago had January city view rooms at $269 per night currently is offering a $144 (AAA rate) per night. That seemed an incredible savings until Joel, this travel duo's researcher, found the Hilton Waikiki Prince Kuhio, (www.hiltonhotels.com) located on the same intersection as the Banyan and Marriott, had ocean view rooms for our January time period at $99 per night. We booked it.