$30,000!!!! I think I'm going to faint.

You sound like you have a fanstastic time, but that's more than half a year's salary for me.

I'm curious to know what the numbers on the other end of the spectrum look like.

Total for my family of 4 was about $8000 for 7 nights - 2 nights in Waikiki at Hale Koa, and 5 nights on Kauai at Waipouli Resort in Kapaa. This included airfare from Huntsville, AL to Honolulu and between Honolulu to Kauai. We ate at least one meal out every day, but had breakfast at the condo. We did the zipline in Kauai (well, all except me!), Allerton Botanical Gardens, and Smiths luau. Patti

Wow! 30K on a vacation. Some day :) Of course, I haven't even gotten to the place of spending 30K on a car :)...

Anyway, from the other (I think pretty moderate but not really cheap) end of the spectrum...I visit pretty often. If I don't pick up a free ticket from FF miles, I generally pay around $600-$700 for airfare. I am also generally going off season (Sept, early Dec, spring, etc) That's a pretty good price from the east coast.

Last time I went with a group, there were 6 of us. We went to Maui, and spent about $300/night on a very nice 3BR condo near Lahaina, on the water but not on the beach, but a great location for what we needed. We rented a minivan for about $200 for the week.

We did not skimp on meals when we ate out ... we ate breakfast at the condo, though, and grilled out a couple of nights.

I am guessing that all told, we probably spent between $1800-$2000/person for 7 days/nights, including everything except souvenirs.

In all my trips where I've actually stayed in a hotel and not with friends, I would estimate at least $1500 per person and probably not more than $2300 or so.

tomaui,

Adopt me!

Please!!

Maybe the best way to approach this is to break out the different parts of it.

Airfare is particular to where you're located. In the northeast, figure on somewhere between $600 and $800/person. The variation is dependent on how many other islands you'd like to stop at.

For a family of 5, the cheapest accommodations would be a condo. Not only does this give you room for everyone in a single unit (lets say a 3-bedroom), but you also have a kitchen to cut down on food (and snacks - don't forget the snacks!). As an example, I got a 4-bedroom oceanfront condo on Maui for $365/night a couple of years ago. This was in a resort called Puamana about a mile from the center of Lahaina. Other islands or getting away from the water could lower that for you. I've also done Kauai (Poipu Kai on the south shore) for about $300/night for a 3-bedroom unit.

Food is heavily dependent on whether you choose to go the condo route or want to eat out all the time. If you do breakfast, mostly lunch and the occasional dinner in a condo, figure on somewhere around $30/person/day. If you eat out, up that to at least $100/person/day without drinks.

Five people means a good-sized SUV or two vehicles if you want more flexibility. I always go for flexibility (more vehicles) when I have a group. Usually, you can get two cars for less than the cost of a large SUV or van. For cars, look at at least $20/day if you're good at searching out deals, up to $50/day for an SUV.

Check Travelocity, Orbitz or one of the airlines to see how much package deals are going for nowadays. That can be your starting point. Condos will be cheaper in lodging cost and food cost. And if you want any tours, excursions, luaus, etc. I would say figure anywhere from $80 to $200 each.

In 2005 we spent about $8000 for 11 nights on Kauai for 4 people. See the link below for details. That included 2 pricey but fun nights at the Hyatt and a helicopter ride - our 2 splurges.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/GoListDetail-i12307-Kauai_Bound.html

In 2007 we spent 3 nights on Oahu and 7 nights on an NCL interisland cruise (car rental on each island) for about $8000 as well. Our splurge this time was a beautiful painting we found in Kauai. Details below.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/GoListDetail-i11062-Spring_Break_2007_Hawaii_by_Big_Boat.html

We always go in the peak season and we travel cheap but splurge on activities ...

AL lthis for a couple

Big Island 2004 9 days- Dec 17-24

Airfare - 800 pp

Accomodation - Hilo $70 pp in Paradise vacation rentals - cozy cottage and they have accomodations for five as well. We were only 2 of us but the place could fit 3-4 people. It was a 1 bedroom place with a huge living room and fully equipped kitchen

Kona Seaside Hotel - usual low range hotel for 65 a night. preferred Paradise vacation rentals.

Snorkeling, diving tours - 300 pp (2 trips. 1 was an expensive introductory dive with pool lessons et al)

car rental - can't remember nothing too expensive. I think 300$ or something like that.

Food - we ate in most of our stay in Hilo and the must have spent around 20-30 for both of us on the rest of meals.

We are teatotallers.

The rest of time we visited the national park, drove around the island went on a lot of hikes most of all this was free.

So this trip amounted to around 1500 pp

Maui 2005 12 days Dec 22-Jan 2nd

Air fare - 1000$ pp

Stay - 65$ per night in a family owned cottage in Haiku.

2 days in Hana - 80 bucks a night for 1 night

Food - we ate out for lunch and dinner not spending more than 30 bucks for the 2 of us per meal

We spent around 300 pp for 3 dive trips

Car rental - 250 dollars

We hiked a lot spent time on the beach saw almost every attraction in the island.

This trip came to maybe 1800 pp I think.

and we had a great time too :-)

If you've got kids in school and want to go during vacations, including summer, you will probably pay a bit more. If you can be lesspicky on times, you can get better deals. Airfare is the big one. You might want to check out packages with airfare and place to stay and sometimes car rental.