I’ve been posting over the last few weeks about my Hawaii Vacation Planning and my goal to spend $3000 or less for 17 nights including airfare. I will be in Hawaii in December, and one of my primary goals is to go whale watching and relax by the pool.
I will spend 2 nights in Honolulu when I arrive. I have a child-hood friend who lives there, and I’ll take this opportunity to see her. I will arrive around noon, so I’d like to try to use my “Your 24” SPG benefit. (For those of you who don’t know, the Your 24 benefit is available to SPG members who stay 75 nights or more in year. With Your24, members can request their preferred check-in time, and if approved in advance by the hotel, you check-in at that time and check-out 24 hours later. So for example, if I wanted to request a 1pm check-in, I’d check out at 1pm. Most hotels don’t enforce the check-out time and frequently offer late check-out platinum benefits.)
My current plan for 2 days in Honolulu is to use 20,000 Starwood points at the Royal Hawaiian. Taxes and Resort fee will run me $63/per day.
From Honolulu I will fly to Maui. Why Maui? Well, I received a special award from Starwood of 3 free nights that must be used consecutively and can only be used at cat 1-6 properties that have standard rooms (aka, no villa properties.) So after considering all the options, my dates, and cost (cash or points) for the eligible hotels, I decided the best use was at the The Westin Maui Resort & Spa, Ka’anapali.
For my 3 days in Maui I will use the 3-day reward. Taxes and fees will cost $31/day.
After Maui, I’m not sure what I should do. I’ll have three nights to fill. I have points with Chase Ultimate Rewards, Marriott and Hilton that I’d prefer to use over cash. I’m completely open to visiting a different Island, the only thing I won’t do is go back to Oahu. What do you suggest?
Following those three days I’ll head to Kauai where I’ll spend 3 nights at the St Regis Princeville. For this stay, I’m currently using a combination of cash and points. I would love to switch it to a full points say if I can rebuild enough miles (which is a good possibility). This will run me 105,000 points and $88/day in taxes.
After Kauai, I’ll meet some friends in Kona. We will be celebrating New Year’s Eve in Kona and will spend 4 nights at the Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay before heading back to Oahu. This stay is an all points stay.
For my 5 nights in Kona, I will spend 40,000 points and $31/day in taxes and fees.
So, my question for you is, what should I do with my 3 extra days?