Posts Tagged ‘Travel’

Lihue airport will be the first airport in the state to utilize full-body image scanning as part of its security process. The new advanced imaging devices can look through passenger’s clothes to produce full-body images. Other Hawaii airports are suppose to follow with this equipment in the coming months as well.

While the new technology is very advanced, many passengers fear it because they say it allows people to view them naked, and in turn, those images could fall into the wrong hands. Another major problem is the situation that occurs when the device produces a false positive. This happened to a passenger who was carrying a wad of napkins in his shirt pocket. The machine registered it as a threat, so he was forced to undergo a full-body pat down.

While these concerns are legitimate concerns for passengers here and around the nation, it is not as big of a concern as keeping the country safe from possible terrorists attacks. There have only been 125 installed around the nation so far, but Suzanne Trevino – spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, says, “We expect 500 by the end of 2010, 1,100 by the end of 2011.”

Las Vegas, long touted as the Ninth Island, has continued to see it’s fair share of vacationers from Hawaii. 2009, even with it’s economic woes, had the Nevada town one of the top vacation destinations for the islands residents. Will this trend continue into 2010?

We most likely believe it will. The connection to Las Vegas one that isn’t going to go away anytime soon. Maybe this year will bring fewer visits, whereas some people go twice a year, they may cut back to once. However, with so many discounts being given by Vegas Casinos, the lure for many to take multiple trips in a year might still be there.

Take for instance the California Hotel. This is by far the most frequented by people from Hawaii and they currently have room rates starting as low as $36! Considering the cost of a cheap buffet can be under $10 on the strip, one could spend the weekend for less than $50 a day without airfare.

Also drawing people into the Ninth Island vortex will be the success that Hilo born and raised BJ Penn has seen as a UFC Fighter. Whether BJ will fight in a Las Vegas UFC match-up this year or elsewhere, the fights are usually a big draw for Hawaii to visit Sin City.

What do you think? Are you planning a trip to Las Vegas already?

For all HawaiianMiles members who fly interisland now through the end of 2009 they can earn discounted or free  flights to the mainland.  For every qualifying round trip interisland flight members can earn a 10% discount on a future flight to the mainland.  Members can earn up to two free roundtrip tickets each to any of the 10 West Coast cities Hawaiian Airlines flies.

When booking interisland flights members will simply enter their HawaiianMiles number and Hawaiian will automatically track discounts.  The earning periods for interisland travel are August 3, 2009 to December 31, 2009.  Booking and travel to the mainland using the discounts must be during August 3, 2009 to June 15, 2010.  Qualifying interisland flights must be prior to 10 a.m. and after 2 p.m. in a fare class that is eligible for HawaiianMiles earnings.

For more information visit Hawaiian Airlines website at www.hawaiianair.com.

As if the airline industry in Hawaii could get any more complicated.  With the closing of Aloha Airlines last year, the continued price wars between those remaining, and the economy weakening day after day, the inter-island travel industry just got another jolt.

go! Airlines and Mokulele are merging under Mesa Air Group to form go! Mokulele. This undoubtedly means higher prices for flights between the Hawaiian islands. Yuk! This comes at a time when Maui, Kauai, and The Big Island have all seen huge economic losses, and could mean further losses from those kama’aina that like to travel inter-island on a weekend getaway.

The new airline, only has to compete with Hawaiian Airlines, whose known for having higher priced tickets with it’s larger airplanes and higher carrying capacity. Only time will tell whether or note the price of your flight to Maui will increase, but we think it most likely has to.

For those of you with tickets on either go! or Mokulele, your tickets will still be valid and you can continue to book with either company, which will eventually become one seemless company as the merger continues.

Who will be the next airline to try and take a stab at inter-island travel?

I have always wanted to float down the Grand Canyon in a raft or kayak for a week or longer or shorter. I have just always wanted to do it. I have always wanted to climb the Grand Teton that I saw on a road trip with my friend in Jackson Hole, Wyoming when I was 18 years old. What a trip!  We packed up the F150 truck and started the 6,000 mile trip when gas was still around a dollar a gallon.  At the time, I never even heard of Hawaii or the North Shore or Obama.  Later, I saw and dreamed about climbing Yosemite. I stared at the base of the Half Dome for hours when I was traveling as an independent young man and said to myself I can do it.

I don’t know what it is about being out there and hanging by your fingertips or balancing on the balls of your feet.  Maybe it’s that feeling of flirting with nature.  I always just started to do what I wanted to do and as long as no one caught me or stopped me I have usually done it.

Now I want to talk about what I have done. I have lived in Hawaii for six maybe seven years now without leaving the islands.  You know how time flies. I left a good paying construction job to chase my dreams of being independently wealthy in the real estate business so that I can travel and play in the most extreme arenas that mother nature offers thrill seekers.

…and we all know the story of the real estate market. So, I bought, owned, operated, and sold a landscaping company on Maui while staging people’s homes to get a commission. That didn’t work, so I packed my bags to move to the Big Island to sell timeshares. I lived there in a vog-infested environment, lost my health, put on a little weight, and lost a few months of surfing on Oahu to chase that dream of becoming independently wealthy.

The one thing I can say is that I did it. I have done all these things and, in the last year or so, I lived and worked on building a nursery in Waimanalo. I bought and built a music club which has been a great and fulfilling business and musical experience. I broke the first ever C4 waterman stand-up board. (If you know someone else who broke one let me know.) I tried to start a tour company here is Hawaii and failed miserably but guess what — I tried it.

Now that I am thirty and almost thirty-one, I must say I have lived a fulfilling and beautiful life based around one small principle: I do what I want to do and I love doing it. This love came from my parents — mainly my dad.  Like father, like son. He bought me my one way ticket to Hawaii not knowing where I would work or where I would stay. He got me the ticket because I wanted to do it. Key note to homeless island travelers: Don’t sleep at Magic Island overnight because the sprinklers will come on.

Anyways back to the conclusion of this article. Now that I am almost thirty-one, and now that I’ve spent the last year doing what I want to do, I have had the chance to step out of my own narrow line of vision and look at what everyone wants to do and what everyone is doing. So far, I seem to have a little bit of fog in my goggles or water in my eyes because I am not sure what the majority of people my age are looking to do in life. When I look at the whole population of people my age that are in Hawaii I must say some are surfers, some are baby makers, some are business owners (usually of a family business), and the rest are blue collar workers. What I am looking for is some clarity on what people really want to do and the actions they are taking to make it happen. Do other people really have a seed of prosperity they are growing in their own gardens to produce bounty or are they going to continue to shop at someone else’s store of prosperity? Do others have visions like I do?  Are they acting on those visions to achieve their goals or are they just talking about it or saying, “when that happens or all when this happens I do this…” — the old cause and effect?

Well, let me tell you one thing I’ve learned in my near decade of life in Hawaii: You are the cause your reality and life is the effect.  Life effects you and all the people around you as long as you are alive. That is one thing that is as true as Hawaii being the greatest place on earth to live — for a few months out of the year anyways.

The world is a big place.  Let’s go play.

A great way to see the Hawaii is to take a cruise. Cruise ships can be relaxing as you want or as adventurous as you want. With the Hawaiian islands so close together, you don’t always have to be on the ship. You can go ashore and enjoy what each island has to offer while still having those great all you can eat meals to go back to when you need a break.

NCL America

The Norwegian Cruise Lines runs a 7 day Hawaii only cruise that is one of the best ways to see all 4 majoy Hawaiian islands in such a short amount of time. The trip goes from Honolulu on the island of Oahu and travels to Kauai, The Big Island and Maui with shore excursions on each island.

A great thing about the shore excursions is that you have a chance to choose from any tour or activity the islands offer, not just offered through NCL, and NCL will help coordinate. Or you can rent a car, or a bike, or just walk around, and see the islands on your own. This Hawaii cruise is definitely tops on the list of cruises to take in the world. You travel at night and enjoy the Hawaii during the day.

You can find out more about this cruise at theNCL Hawaii site.

Princess Cruises

Princess cruises is another way to get to Hawaii and enjoy a Hawaii cruise. This cruise company offers cruises all around the Pacific. You can go from the west coast of the United States and Canada to Hawaii, from Hawaii and Honolulu to Tahiti, or back and forth between any of these places.

Although this cruise isn’t specific to Hawaii, Being able to cruise to multiple destinations like this can be a great thing and not bog you down with just the Hawaiian Islands. Although, who can really get bogged down with a cruise in Hawaii.

You can read more about all the itineraries, currently 62 as we write this, that Princess cruises offers over at the Hawaii section of Princess Cruises.