Honeymoon Las Vegas & Hawaii???

Steveo.1985

Hi. My fiancee and I are to wed in September and we are currenlty trying to decide on a honeymoon destination.
We both like the idea of a few nights in Las Vegas and then relax for the rest in Hawaii.
I'm just wondering has anyone done this and how did they find it and most importantly what kind of price range am I looking at?
Thanks in advance

tannytantans

Hi,

I've done Vegas and Hawaii as part of a trip myself and hubby did around the States a few years ago.

Vegas can be as cheap or as expensive as you want. We stayed in a gorgeous room in Treasure Island for 70 dollars a night. Hotel was fab, and had a great pool. There were more luxurious ones for approx 100 per night and you could also go a lot cheaper. As for spending money, again it varies. There are laods of shows, great shopping and of course gambling! But there are also lots of all you can eat buffets and walking around the hotels is free but amazing!

Hawaii is very expensive.We stayed in Honoloulu in an ok hotel for about 100 dollars a night off season. I found tours, food etc to be on the expensive side too but it's a great place. We did tours of Pearl Harbour, saw where lost was filmed, went to a ranch and had a ball!

Flights will probably be the most expensive part, I'd say you could be looking at well over 1000 pp.

It really is a great trip thoguh and not something you'd probably do again so I'd say go for it!!!

Steveo.1985

Hi
Thanks for the reply.
We were hoping to maybe budget the flights & accommodation to €5000 total (€2,500pp) but my only worry was that looking at Hawaiian hotel prices that might not be enough. We wanna stay somewhere "fancy" :P as it is our Honeymoon and we wont have another one (all going well ) and like you said it is something we probably won't get a chance to do again.

Thanks again for your help

tannytantans

Have you looked up hotel prices yourself or are you going through a travel agent?

I did a quick search for hotels in Waikiki in September (just random dates!) and came up with these:
http://www.agoda.com/pages/agoda/default/DestinationSearchResult.aspx

There's actually a few very good offers. From my experience hotel standards in the USA seem to be of a much higher standard than in Europe - a 3 star there would be a 4 star here no problem.

player101

Myself and the missus are thinking of doing something very similar for our honeymoon, but are thinking of adding in a few nights in LA maybe hollywood or something touristy, i also heard that Hawaii is very expensive, so we havent decided yet also weather might be borderline rainy season when we are going, anyway best of luck with the big day

TheDriver

we stayed in tropicana IN VEGAS last year for about 48 euro per room per night (not per person!) and it was beautiful, just done up.
Hire a car and go to gran canyon, you could land in SF and drive down through death valley and yosemite.
Anyone I know who went to hawaii said it was expensive and long flight and not worth it.
We did SF>Death valley>Vegas>LA (pure dump)>San Diego
2 week car hire was 200 euro roughly with hertz, petrol is very cheap.
JUST TO REPEAT: HOLLYWOOD IS AN AWFUL DUMP!

seamus

Yeah most people don't realise that Hawaii isn't an island off the coast of the U.S. It's very far out in the middle of the pacific. Another 6 - 7 hour flight from the west coast. Total travel time from Ireland to Hawaii is about 24 hours when you include transfers and waiting around.

Never been to Hawaii myself, so I can't comment on it. We looked at it, but between the length of the flights, the cost and the fact that it seems to be a "sit around on the beach" type destination, we decided it wasn't for us.

Vegas is awesome, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's an adult Disneyworld. Everything is just so completely and unashamedly fake that you can't help but feel like you're in a theme park and just enjoy yourself.

If you've your heart set on Hawaii, my only recommendation is to go there first. I can't imagine the pain of flying all the way home from Hawaii at the end of a holiday. Go there first, take your time to relax and recover, then take the 6-hour flight to vegas and party. The flight home from Vegas is long, but only takes a day or so to recover from.

Tango One

player101 Avoid LA completely the only place in America I hated. Vegas is brilliant though been there a few times and never get sick of the place.

I'm thinking of going to Hawaii on my honeymoon too, but will probablydo San Francisco for a few day head on to Hawaii next and stop in New york on the way home for a couple of days.

Steveo.1985

Hi thanks for all the help and info guys.
Thinking now of maybe doing Vegas, Hawaii and maybe San Fran on the way back if it works out better than staying longer in Hawaii

POKERKING

I have done both places but not at the same time. I did hawaii for my honeymoon and Vegas for my stags.

With Hawaii, its very expensive when you get there, and its kinda hard to avoid paying expensive prices for things. I will echo what someone said it is very far away and the 24+ journey home was torture, it wasnt too bad going out tho. It is a great place and the people are lovely and we really enjoyed it but essentially its just a sun holiday. Personally i didnt find pearl harbour as good as i thought it was going to be. I stayed in Hilton Hawainnn village, its nice but a tad dated. Its expensive in and around this hotel but its so big there's plenty of choice. Also in Hawaii nearly everyone is on honeymoon so the whole "you're on honeymoon wow" factor isnt there. There is no special treatment or free upgrades etc going(you should get something in vegas though)

With Vegas, as someone said it can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it, its alot better value than Hawaii in terms of food and shopping, and most the hotels will be a far better standard than hotels around europe and a fraction of the cost due to competition. I love Vegas, fave place in the world.

San fran is good but just remember it can get cold there, recommend alcatraz tour but make sure you book it in advance as it sells out v.quickly. Wouldnt spend more than a few days in San fran its just a big city.

You should have no prob doing Hawaii and vegas within your budget by the way to a nice standard. Best organizing it yourself tho as opposed travel agents.

I am pie

We were considering something similar although i think now we are more heading towards a few nights in vegas then travelling san fran down to san diego...we might tack 5 days in baja california in mexico for some serious beach relaxation ! Thinking 2 nights vegas, 2 in san fran, 2 in LA the rest driving the coast and a few in San Diego. Probably book flights, hire the car and a hotel in Vegas and the 5 nights in Mexico. Will be going in early Oct, we know it'll be chilly in S F, hence the 5 days in Mexico all inclusive on the beach!

(Apologies for go OT !)

Steveo.1985

We were going to do Mexico (Cancun) but were told that it'll be hurricane season in the Carribbean in September and Cancun could be hit (I think it was this year and tourists were evacuated) so hence the change to Hawaii

novarock

LA is what you make of it, had a fantastic time. We went LA - vegas - SF - NY and included trips to the grand canyon and yosemite.

We had orignally looked at Hawaii, but the flights to/from were massively expensive from the US, as well as the hotels.

On our first week in LA we stayed in the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, fantastic experience, did a little bit of touristy stuff. Venice and santa monica were beautiful.

Wherever you go on Honeymoon, make sure the first week is the one where you dont necessarily have to do any touristy stuff, Its the last thing you will want after the stress of a wedding and travel.

Vegas was ok, but even going with a huge budget they make you feel like a second class citizen in the hotels unless you are a constant gambler. In reality there is not much to do there, just look at hotels and go to shows (the shows were great).

If you can afford it I would highly recommend the maverick helicopters tour of the grand canyon, its the only way you can actually get down into the canyon to have a look around, and you get a great view of hoover dam.

San francisco is incredible, a really fantastic city. 8 days there wasnt enough.

My number 1 piece of advice would be to book your flights as a package through trailfinders, it is much cheaper. They could book a few hotels for you as well. IT also means you can pay in phases rather than all at once.

jaja321

Hawaii is very expensive. I was there once before with friends and had a great time but honestly I wouldn't recommend it as a honeymoon destination. Of course it depends what you like, but it doesn't have that real island feel to it, it just feels like another State in the US. For something really special I would go elsewhere, but it really depends on what you are looking for.

You can stay in some amazing hotels in Vegas for pretty reasonable, its worth a visit, especially if you are planning on doing the Grand Canyon too. The Venetian, Bellagio, and MGM Grand are all amazing and you can be lucky to get great deals; especially with the MGM.

If you are headed to the West Coast of the US, California has a lot to offer; both North and South. Happy honeymoon!

TheDriver

I stayed 6 nights in Vegas but I love looking at all the attractions, going to shows and sitting by the pool during the day. But if you don't like that, then it does get boring
SF is only a few days alrght and it does get very cold there, even in July. I would recommend staying Union Sq or Fishermans Wharf and book alcatraz well in advance, its usually booked out for days when you get there.

San Diego is nice, watch out for Comic Con! We stayed at Palm Springs which was boiling but nice town, lovely Irish bar where they don't seem to have seen an Irish person ever!

I found booking hotels seperately was much cheaper, I again state the cost of the Tropicana in Vegas for under 50 euro a night, only achievable with early booking etc.

I am pie

We're going to Los Cabos which is further west and is protected from hurricanes. Rainfall is still pretty low, and if you get anything it is more common in the evening and comes down in half hour bursts...allegedly. Anyway the main thing is, barring a freak occurance, there are normally no hurricanes that far west. Puerto Vallarta is another good spot in Mexico.

POKERKING

Steveo.1985 wrote: »

We were going to do Mexico (Cancun) but were told that it'll be hurricane season in the Carribbean in September and Cancun could be hit (I think it was this year and tourists were evacuated) so hence the change to Hawaii

fwiw it rained everyday i was in hawaii in october. Only a small drizzle mostly(1 or 2 heavy showers) but everyday, some days it was still blazing sun while it rained which was an unusual feeling but just so u know!

Steveo.1985

Hi,

Thanks everyone for your help and advice, we found Hawaii to be a little out of our price range so we're going to Las Vegas, then onto LA and then driving to San Diego.
All booked, all excited.

Thanks again.

Got back from Hawaii at the start of November, and we're thinking about going back for the honeymoon and taking in Vegas at the same time. It's worth keeping in mind that there are plenty of islands - we were on Oahu (busiest), Maui (nicer and quieter) and the Big Island (even quieter and where the active volcanoes are).

About the flights, we did the direct way there and back with a few hours layover in LA & London between the flights (so 3 flights in total). It was a horrifically long day. If we're going back we'll be breaking it into smaller flights, maybe Dublin to Orlando (few days break there) to Vegas (more time there) to Hawaii (probably hitting Oahu and then Kauai to take in a new island) then LA for the touristy stuff and then DC on the way back.

My final recommendation would be to avoid American Airlines, just not great at all and even though we booked 11 months before we were still sitting separately for some of the legs.

Have fun!

CaliforniaDream

If you need info on stuff to do in Vegas let me know. Or want to know restaurants, shopping etc.
Most people don't realise there's a world off the strip.

Steveo.1985

CaliforniaDream wrote: »

If you need info on stuff to do in Vegas let me know. Or want to know restaurants, shopping etc.
Most people don't realise there's a world off the strip.

Ya any suggestions for alternative activites/off the beaten track stuff would be great thanks. The future misses would probably also appreciate some bargin hunting:D

Thanks

feelpablo

Steveo.1985 wrote: »

Ya any suggestions for alternative activites/off the beaten track stuff would be great thanks. The future misses would probably also appreciate some bargin hunting:D

Thanks

Its been six years since i have been in vegas but hopefully this place is still there......

Binnions(spelling?) steak house above the casino on the old strip...

This place has the best steaks in vegas!!!!

Real old school casino and steak house harking back to the old rat pack days and it really is worth going to if still open.

chrisr

anyone any advice on New York, Vegas and then somewhere to relax?

kwat

Sorry for dragging this up again.

Currently looking at honeymoon options for early August 2014. Planning on SF, Vegas, LA and was looking at a week on the beach in Mexico, however the travel agent hasn't really recommended it due to hurricane season. We are looking at Hawaii but it's sounding very expensive (peak season).

Would somewhere like San Diego be "beachy" enough for a weeks relaxation or is it just like another beach city?

Any advice appreciated!
Thanks

Steveo.1985 wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks everyone for your help and advice, we found Hawaii to be a little out of our price range so we're going to Las Vegas, then onto LA and then driving to San Diego.
All booked, all excited.

Thanks again.

CaliforniaDream

San Diego is a great city. Depending on where you stay can change the type of holiday you have there.
If you want beachy then stay at Mission Bay/Beach, La Jolla or even Coronado Bay.

I've stayed in the Hyatt in Mission Bay and the Hilton there also. Both are really nice hotels. The Hyatt has some amazing views of the ocean and really nice sunset views.
The Hilton has rooms where you have your own little beach area and fire pit. If you get one of those it's really nice. But all rooms are right beside the beach and there's fire pits all along.

If you go to San Diego then you have to have breakfast in the Mission Cafe. There's three locations and it's definitely worth the wait. Sometimes I feel like making the 6hr drive for there.

Penny Dreadful

Steveo.1985 wrote: »

Hi
Thanks for the reply.
We were hoping to maybe budget the flights & accommodation to €5000 total (€2,500pp) but my only worry was that looking at Hawaiian hotel prices that might not be enough. We wanna stay somewhere "fancy" :P as it is our Honeymoon and we wont have another one (all going well ) and like you said it is something we probably won't get a chance to do again.

Thanks again for your help

On our honeymoon we went to Tanzania for a safari and on to Zanzibar for rest and relaxation afterwards with a couple of nights in Nairobi on the way home.
The safari was rough and ready, camping in a two man tent with basic toilet facilities. Honeymoon luxury didn't come into it but it was fabulous and as we were seeing and doing so much great stuff everyday you were just fit for bed at the end.
In Zanzibar the first hotel we stayed in was nice and was a big step up from a two man tent needless to say but wasn't luxurious ....by our standards. At this stage though I'd seen quite a lot of what the locals had to put up with in their everyday lives and all of a sudden it wasn't quite so big a deal to me. We went on to another part of the island after 5 nights and stayed in a really really lovely place. It was very luxurious and was brilliant.
The hotel in Nairobi happened to be stunning and it was pure chance that we'd booked it. The way the holiday worked out we finished in the most luxurious place which was lovely.