Amex travel is also sticky with changes but IIRC AA once credited me the fare directly when i canceled.
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If you don’t mind sharing, what is the area & property you are staying at north of Kona? How does one search what units are available? Is it an AirBnB or VRBO property.
I’d like to book a 2BR/2BA for mid-Feb for a milestone birthday celebration, likely book 8-10 days. We don’t need a lot of crazy night life, looking for a more mellow / relaxing vibe, but would ant some nice restaurants near-by and maybe a place to go and listen to a band of DJ at night.
If we stay 10 days, would it be worthwhile to visit two locations, maybe 6 days in one and 4 in another?
Expedia has an option to select VACATION RENTAL BEDROOOMS
Usually $300+ per day for a 2bd/2ba condos on west side Kona area. $4500-$5000 for a 10 day trip
I wouldn’t book two separate places, most island travel can be done in a day…spend a day at Volcano Park and east side, Maybe hop onto Maui for the day early AM and return with the last flight just rent a car for a day, no need to stay overnight. Flights are less than $90 round trip between islands.
Maui would be the mellow vibe you are describing. I’d stay the 4 nights there. We jumped off rock cliffs during the day and had delicious sushi at night.
It was all on VRBO or AitBnb, one of those. My wife did all the booking so I don’t know specifically.
The one this year is in a place called Mauna Lai. Sounds like exactly what you’re looking for. It’s a master plan for lack of a better term I guess. It has a bunch of condo complexes, and a few stores, shops etc. There are no hotels there, so the crowds are at a minimum. All the condos practically are rentals, so it’s not like it’s tourist free, just crowd free. It has its own golf course as well. There is a central area for shops and restaurants and a grocery store. Nothing to write home about, but enough to keep you fed.
And then a couple of miles away is Waikoloa which is the same type of thing but much bigger. It also has a Hilton on site and more people too obviously with more “stuff”. I stayed there once and it was good too, just more people than Mauna Lai. I don’t care personally but I know some might. These places are pretty spread out. Not much is walkable distance. So you definitely need a car.
I’d say if you want to split up the 10 days, do 1/2 on the Kona side and 1/2 on the Hilo side. They’re very different areas even though on the same island. The climate is different. Kona is dry and flat. Hilo is mountany and wet. You drive from one side of the island to the other and it’s a different world.
Mauna Lani, classic old Hawaiian hotel. The grounds are spectacular and the experience much less Haole than the rest. One of our favorite places on the islands. The condos themselves are attached to the hotel. Pricey but practical.
So much to see on that island, don’t miss the special places that differentiate it from the other islands. Read up before you go!
How do you figure the condos are attached? They’re all independent complexes, with their own pool, grounds, etc. Most are gated tooo. The hotel is one tiny corner of the area.
They’re on the same grounds, that’s all I meant
Here’s my vacation hack: had plans since spring to meet family in Central Florida this week, at which time I booked a r/t on points with Southwest as a placeholder.
Then I added a few days to the front and made it a business trip. I’m not expensing this trip, entirely a write-off.
Booked AA/first outbound and Alaska/first/direct on the return. Used my Chase Ink business cash back card for both. Rental car is also booked on Ink cashback card
Hotel is a Marriott property on my Marriott AMEX (just cancelled my Chase Bonvoy card at renewal).
My vacation hacks most revolve around being flexible with dates.
Since we purchased Legoland Gold passes, allowing us access to any Marvil Co. places, we wanted to ensure we max out our visits.
So we are going to Legoland, FL, the weekend of Dec 10th and 11th.
But arriving on JetBlue Friday night - because flights are 5,700 points one-way JFK-TPA.
Staying one night at the TPA Marriott hotel is covered by a 1-night certificate (since 9 pm arrival).
Rent a car in the morning for two days using Chase points
Spend two days at Legoland (including a paid stay at Lego Hotel)
Return to TPA Sunday eve for another night covered by the 1-night certificate
Fly back Monday morning on Delta TPA-JFK since flights are 8,700 one way. (I wanted to do 5k for Basic but decided against it with family in tow)
I may also splurge on better seats on both ways using airline fee credits from many premium Amex cards I have.
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Damn dude that is a lot of work for 2 days at an amusement park.
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Well, it’s a somewhat a project in progress to get kids to this type of travel schedule.
Before kids we used to city-hope with wife, sometimes via planes, sometimes roadtrips staying a 1-2-3 days in one city before moving on.
So need to get few more flights and hotels stays under the belt before staring longer flights and trips like we wish to go back to Alaska where we did a 7 day road-trip but I know it won’t exactly same with kids:)
I’m not picking a fight but what’s the hack? It’s just off peak demand travel times?
Exactly - off peak. Travel when most others don’t to destination others don’t pick:)
Like in FL last few years TPA was the cheapest airport to fly into from NYC for whatever reason so we go to FL through TPA and drive where we need to in FL.
Other places we travelled I just search sometimes for promo airlines put out themselves as discounted destinations and then search their point calendars few days before and after. Nothing fancy
I remember that time period about TPA from Ohio too - southwest constantly had unadvertised flights there for $48 
Visiting Tokyo in a couple months for the first time. It’ll be in the dead of winter so not expecting many activities to be open. Any recommendations? Would love to try some restaurants which are a bit under the radar
You can get heavily discounted transit passes as well as bullet train tickets as a foreigner. You’ll need to show your passport etc.
If you can fly into HND instead of NRT, it’s much easier to get in/out of the city. Narita is in the middle of nowhere and it’s nearly an hour to get to the city. Haneda is 15-20min train ride, if that.
Can’t think of too many specific restaurants, although I did have excellent conveyor belt sushi at Hanamaru (Ginza location). Had more expensive sushi as well, but Hanamaru was decent and consistent for the price.
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I did a 3 week trip in Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland) with the kids. They were under 10 at the time. It was a blast. We had a car and not much of an itinerary other than be in Frankfurt on this day to fly back home.
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I’ve only been there in the summer, but it doesn’t look like the winters are particularly brutal.
I enjoyed both of these:
https://www.viator.com/tours/Tokyo/Small-Group-Tokyo-Local-Biking-Tour/d334-33215P1
I can’t speak to restaurants, we usually just eat to survive when we travel.
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