This is a continuation of my Oahu Travel on a Budget post. I recently visited Oahu in December 2010 and found some new ways to visit Hawaii on a budget.

Vacation Packages:

The ultimate deals for Hawaii airfare and hotel packages can be found on Pleasant holidays. If you are on a real budget, the deals offered occasionally on Pleasant Holidays are the best. They have offered $550 3 night vacations for two people with airfare included from LAX or SFO.  The latest deals are posted on their Facebook page. Most of the deals are for last minute booking. http://www.facebook.com/PleasantHolidays

Vacation Rentals:

Booking airfare and hotel together offers the best deal for 1-2 people. If you have larger groups, booking a vacation rental may be a good option. I used VRBO on my last trip and had a good experience.  Some of the amenities in a vacation rental often include: a kitchen to cook your own meals (and save lots of $$), a parking spot, washer/dryer,  and larger living space. One thing to note is that many rentals require a cleaning fee between $65 – $110, so that’s something to consider. If you have a large group of family or friends, its a better deal to rent a condo/house than multiple hotel rooms.

Discount Airfare:

Hawaiian Airlines often has great deals on airfare to Hawaii. Their prices are competitive with the other airlines and they offer a complementary meal in their flights. The new planes on their LAX route are very nice with video screens on every seat and powered USB ports. Bring your USB charging cord for your devices on the flight from LAX to HNL if you have the newer Airbus plane. They can be identified with the 2-4-2 seating arrangement.

Best seafood under $10:

My favorite place is Nico’s Pier 38 http://www.nicospier38.com/ 
They offer fresh fish at affordable prices. Their famous dish is the furikaki pan seared ahi, which I recommend to try at least once.  The fried ahi belly is also excellent — giant pieces of fried ahi tuna topped with delicious tomato.

Cheap groceries:

The cost of groceries in Oahu are one of the highest in the nation. Fresh produce and dairy products are very expensive. Two places for finding cheap groceries in Oahu are WalMart and Don Quijote. Walmart doesn’t have much of a selection of food products, but their prices are the lowest. Don Quijote has a good selection of groceries and their prices are reasonable. You can often find Hawaiian poke in their seafood section for $6-$7 per pound. Costco also offers good prices on groceries, but the large portions are suited for longer trips 7 days+.

The Comfort Inn Monterey Bay hotel was a great deal for a last minute booking. The price was reasonable ($140 for a holiday weekend) and the rooms were comfortable and clean. Weekday rates for this hotel are as low as $60 per night. Amenities include a continental breakfast, cable TV including HBO, high speed internet, and free coffee. The breakfast included self-serve waffles, coffee, toast, cereal, fruit, juice, and coffee. Our room had a fridge and a microwave, which was very convenient for storing and heating up leftovers. The beds were comfortable, bathroom was clean (recently remodelled), and the furniture looked fairly new. It has a nice charm to it with the flowers planted around the hotel. The location is pretty good – about a 10 minute drive to Fishermans Wharf and Cannery Row. Overall, a good value for Monterey if you are on a budget.

I checked around the hotels for CES 2010 (International Consumer Electronics Show)  and it looks like the prices are coming down. I’m going to focus on hotel prices under $100 per night in this guide, as there are many hotels in the $100+ range.

Where to get good deals on hotels for CES?

The easiest place to look is on the CES website itself. They include most resort fees that would typically get charged extra.  Circus Circus seems to have the best deal on the strip right now at $50-92 per night for tower rooms. I would avoid the Circus Manor rooms at all costs as the tower rooms are much nicer.

Excalibur widescreen rooms (recently remodeled) are in the $66-$96 range, which has the nicest rooms for under $100.

If you are on a real budget, you can stay in downtown Las Vegas for around $60 per night. I find its a hassle staying that far away from the convention center though.

Early bird rates end on November 30th (today) FYI. A nice thing about the official CES hotels is that there is a shuttle that will pick you up to/from your hotel. Parking at CES is expensive, so its best to use the shuttle.  The monorail is another option, but can be pricey at $5 each way.

Official CES Hotel List:
http://www.cesweb.org/hotelTravel/hotel.asp

If you use Expedia, check to see if you have coupons in your account. I booked a hotel last month using Expedia and they added a $50 coupon for a 2+ night stay, which is a great deal. Priceline is another option if you want to get the lowest rates available.