Hawaii - Fulton,CA

Usually flights are cheapest at least 8 months out (at least this is the case when I book for Ireland.)

How fun! I'm jealous. I never get to go anywhere exciting, just to rainy Ireland (it was fun the first few times, now? I'd love to go to Hawaii, or Italy, or, etc.)

You should book airline now. Put a 24 hour hold on while you try to book a hotel. To be honest, the best airline is the one that flies nonstop. It is such a long flight otherwise.
I know two families who go every year. They book 365 days in advance to get a lower fair. The closer to travel, the fairs go up.

yesterday!!
khairete
S.

We booked about 9 months in advance. We decide which airline based on the best layovers, but you are on the west coast, so you don't have to worry about that, so most airline are fine.

Most hotels will allow you to book without a cancellation fee as long as you cancel 24 hours in advance, so why not book now?

And of course you should be planning now, before you book, so you can decide which island(s) you want to go to. You can't book anything until you know that, because you need to know which airports/islands you'll fly in and out of.

We booked our trips about a year in advance. However, I see you are in CA and you may have more options.

In any case, I would book a soon as possible to guarantee your hotel, flight, car. The authentic luau in Lahania is wonderful and it does fill up fast. If you want to do that, make sure you book it well in advance. Most of the whale watches have availability on the spot and we never had an issue with those. HIGHLY recommended doing this because it was breathtaking to see these beautiful animals.

I book all the personal/business travel for our company and I only go through the airline (American, Southwest) and hotel (Hilton and Marriott) websites. When discounters are used, those are the first to lose a seat or hotel room and you have no customer service to help you... only an 800# and the mercy of whomever you speak with.

For cars... I typically go through Thrifty because we have a corp account with them.. HOWEVER, in the past 6 months, we have used Hotwire twice and both times were a good experience. You pay in advance which sucks so only use them if you know without a doubt you are going. I booked Hotwire yesterday for hubby's regular Houston trip next week and got $97 with all taxes and Thrifty is the company they put us with. Typically, his Thrifty car for HOU trip is $180 for 3 days. So we use Hotwire with caution.... I would never use a discounter for air or hotel.

For Hawaii, we had nonstop to Maui from DFW and we always stayed at Kaanapoli or Kapula. We scheduled trips to leave DFW around 10am and we scheduled the trip home to leave Maui around 10pm so we slept all night and landed around 5:30am at DFW.

We did a lot of dinner, shopping and the base point for whale watching (a MUST DO) from Lahania. We rented a car at the airport. On the way home each time, we stopped by Mama's Fish House in Paia.

Enjoy your trip! It is beautiful.

For this summer, I would have already booked... so yes, go ahead and book at least your flights NOW and if you have chosen a hotel, go ahead and book, if not, start looking asap - have fun!

For the chepest flights - go in the "off season" - that means booking 6 to 9 months out. Summer will be the most expensive time to go to Hawaii. September will still be nice.

You'll be flying from SFO to Hawaii, right? It's an almost 6 hour flight from SFO to Honolulu. You'll want comfortable seats - United is good. However, Hawaiian Air (http://www.hawaiianairlines.com/Book-Travel/) is the cheapest usually since that's their typical route.

Compare United at $567 to Hawaiian at $237.

Have fun!!!

Our cruise is booked for June but not our airfare yet. I'll be interested to see all your responses. I know my husband is working on getting miles etc for the airfare.

No suggestions except: check out AirBNB and VRBO. They are basically vacation rentals and you can find some really great deals (especially if you're taking a family and need more rooms/privacy)!