First time to Hawaii

[KDAD]

If to other than HNL I stop either in HNL (preferred) or SFO. Depends on schedule, price and upgrade chance. I am coming from the east coast (EWR). Also depends on if I want an 11 hour flight and then a short one or two 5 hour flights.

 

[jf3193]

Thanks!!
Im looking into the prices now, and so far it looks like a better option to go straight to HNL, then take the 45 min flight to Kona.

 

[KDAD]

Enjoy. Back in March I saw an opening in Bonaire. I mentioned it to my wife, she said ok, and 45 minutes later had plane, hotel and dive truck reserved. First time going there so pretty excited. I leave end of the month.

 

[jf3193]

You'll love it. It was our go to, but we lived in Texas at the time so flights were easier for us. Bonaire diving will spoil you (as you may have heard). Pretty easy to get 20 dives in a week if your wanting to (or 10 and take it easy)

 

[NorCalDM]

We fly out of Oakland so you may look for a layover there, pre pandemic Alaska, Hawaiian Air and Southwest had many direct flights from Oakland to Kona. Alaska and Hawaiian have not picked back up with direct flights but the last two times we used Southwest, they were cheap and two checked bags free.

 

[jf3193]

Sounds great. Ill look into Southwest as well, especially since they usually dont advertise their rates on alot of search engines.

thanks!!

 

[nippurmagnum]

Southwest is definitely a great option for Hawaii, as it allows two free bags per person, which is great if you’ll be doing Airbnb and shore diving, as you can bring all your own gear (including lead weights) and also non-perishable food. Plus it allows you to rebook your flights with no penalty. Their rates vary dramatically from day to day so if you are flexible on dates, be sure to check their flexible date calendar. I got my tickets for 40K miles from BWI to Kona, with a 3 hour layover in LAX. One other tip for flying Southwest is that when booking with miles, you can check back often to see if the mileage levels have gone down since you booked the tickets, and rebook them — Southwest redeposits the miles in your account.

Sounds great. Ill look into Southwest as well, especially since they usually dont advertise their rates on alot of search engines.

thanks!!

 

[nippurmagnum]

Actually, as I finished writing that post, I was inspired to check on Southwest’s web page, and found that my return flight was now 5,000 miles cheaper. So I rebooked just that one segment, and saved 5,000 miles!

 

[TheQuintessentialMan]

Ditto on the big island. There's too much to do there even without diving. The night manta dive was fantastic. I still rewatch the videos occasionally (make sure to have a full charge set of photog batteries). Our travel package came with car rental, we went all over to tropical forests, volcano, greensand beach: too much for one week. Avoid LAX whatever it takes...

 

[DiverDanCa]

In general diving in Hawaii is not as good as the Caribbean, IMHO. Most of my Hawaii has been on Maui. I would skip Molokini. The outside dive is barren with the possibility of seeing a shark or two. The inside crater is just over ruined with too many snorkelers and divers. Boat trip to Lanai offers good diving sites.