It is pretty unbelievable, but we spent six weeks in Hawaii. Working remotely means as long as there is internet, I can do my job. However, we didn’t go to Hawaii just to sit behind a computer all day. We spent the first and last weeks on vacation in Maui and Kauai and working remote for the month in the middle. Without remote work it would have taken years of accumulated PTO to accomplish such a long trip.
Housing
For the vacation parts I used points. I cleared out my Marriott balance since they are going to greatly devalue their points at the start of 2023. I used 240K points + $600 for a room that would have been $6000. I’m amazed how many people are willing to spend that much for a hotel room with nice pools, but I was happy with what I paid. Next year I would not be surprised if the stay costs a million points. The other stay was a timeshare-like property booked using Wyndam points. In between we were in Honolulu and stayed in an Airbnb. When first searching, the rate display was $100 a day, but after fees and taxes that came out to around $150 which means we paid a little over $5,000. That’s definitely a lot, but for the space we desired (two bedroom, entire place, great location) it was the best deal we could find.
Food
A ton of money was spent on food. I’m going to say something like $60 a day. This was because we ate out daily trying all sorts of food that we don’t have available in Austin. If you wanted to save money you could definitely cook, but groceries are more expensive there. I’d say you’d probably spend 30% more, but some items are comically different. I saw a granola that I buy for $5 that was $18 here.
Some of the best items were acai bowl and shave ice. Those cost around $10 and $5, respectively. As far as dining, there were lots of Asian options which we lack in Austin and plenty of seafood choices. No doubt, we ate well and for three of us that came out to $1,800.
Transportation
There were three islands and that meant three rental cars. I used a my work’s corporate rate which allowed me to pay $1,500 for the entire trip. After gas, the total was around $1,800. Parking gets expensive downtown, so keep that in mind if you do rent a car. We stayed closer to Diamond Head and had a parking spot.
The bus is a good option if you will be staying in Honolulu. It costs $2.75 a trip and can even get you to the North Shore. There is also Uber which could be useful if you don’t plan to drive much.
For us a car is definitely useful to save time and not haul around a car seat.
Conclusion
Our month totaled $8,600. Definitely one of the most expensive places we’ve stayed. That means if we lived there we would need a portfolio of $2.6M using the 4% rule. I’m sure if we found a long-term rental the housing cost would be cheaper, but on a short-ish stay this worked for us. And being there for six weeks means We got to do everything we wanted and don’t really need to go back.