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.