Airport Budget Tips
- Hawaii Activity Books for Children
- Free Hawaii Coloring Books
- Packing for your Hawaiian Vacation
Airport Thriftiness 101
Part of the cost of flying to Honolulu, not always a small part, is what you spend at the airport and in the sky. It can surprise you! Airport food is notoriously expensive. Incidentals, like using the service of porters and purchasing the coloring books for the kids, a paperback and magazine for yourselves, and then all those snacks for the flight, quickly begin to seriously impact the vacation budget.
Saving money at the airport is really simple, but it’s one of those things that is easy to forget in the hustle and bustle of last minute packing and preparations like whisking the pets off to boarding or writing yet another revision of the long list for the pet sitter, making sure everything is secure at home, etc, etc. Here’s my big tip: Plan ahead.
You know how they say don’t shop on an empty stomach. This applies to going to airports too! Have a filling meal before arriving at the airport and bring snacks. One of the keys to budgeting for a great vacation is remembering that it’s all about making choices, setting priorities. Hmm, the airport cafeteria or a lovely dining experience in an island restaurant?
The same applies to shopping. Before packing day, make a list of what you and the kids will likely appreciate having at the airport and on the plane. Much of this you will already have. If you need to buy anything, buy it at your local discount store rather than the airport.
Make sure everyone has in their carry-on bag: snacks for the airport and the flight, an assortment of entertainment, and any printed pages you might need there from this book and from Websites, including driving and/or bus directions and glossaries.
provides, free coloring pages for children that feature endangered and forest animals in Hawaii and other fun learning activities for the younger ones. There are also teaching activities here.
They feature their own activities. Look on the right side of the page for links to crossword puzzles and more.
Kids and grown-ups may enjoy learning some Hawaiian and Hawaiian Pidgin words and phrases likely to be heard in Hawaii. Go to The Hawaiian Language Website and print out pages to read on the plane.
For the flight back you may want to buy one of the amazing Hawaii coloring or educational activity books at Hawaii Publisher Bess Press You can buy them online, but the shipping almost doubles the cost. You’ll see them in book stores and other stores like Longs from around $4 to $10.
As you’ll see later in this book, if you need to stick to your $750 budget, visit your library for books about Hawaii (I brought my library guide to Oahu with me) and hope the next reader enjoys the beachy scents and occasional grain of sand and plumeria petal.
You’ll also find useful information about island activities and culture, including articles on camping, linked from my the Coconut Roads Site Map.
Much of the five-hour flight will be taken up by the meal, the movie (or reading, playing games), the Hawaii documentary films they show before the movie, the safety instructions the flight attendant gives at the beginning of the flight, looking for the islands that will be coming into view (the friendlier pilots point out the islands as you near them), digging for snacks in the carry- ons, working the cross word puzzle in the in-flight magazine, etc.
When the plane begins to descend, enjoy the view: turquoise and cobalt blue waters, Waikiki (look for the pink Aloha Tower that used to be the tallest building there), the white crests on the waves, lots of boats, Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, and as you get closer, the surfers. If you fly at night, enjoy the “Honolulu City Lights” Keola and Kapono Beamer sang about in their big hit.
