Exceptions to the Pricey Hawaiian Holiday

Summer bargains to Hawaii aren’t easy to come by, but you can find exceptions to those high prices. One place to start looking is among the specials offered by Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, flying to Hawaii from Los Angeles and San Francisco. For most of July and August, rates for round-trip air and a five-night hotel stay near Waikiki Beach come to $499 per person, double occupancy. Five-night stays in Maui start at $629 from Pleasant Hawaiian, and on the Big Island at $666.

Rates go down after Labor Day. From the first week in September through early December, a five-night package in Waikiki starts at $443, with flights out of Los Angeles. Pleasant Hawaiian offers many other packages that combine visits to two or more islands. Call Pleasant at (800) 742-9244 or visit www.2hawaii.com.

SunTrips allows children 2 to 17 to fly round trip with an accompanying adult from Oakland to Honolulu for $149 to $199 on certain days during July and August. (The company operates a chartered aircraft from Oakland to Hawaii, so you need to factor in a trip to Oakland to take advantage of SunTrips’ rates. Round-trip tickets will run about $105 each.) Based on kids using two such fares but excluding the cost of going to Oakland, a weeklong vacation on Waikiki Beach would cost $1,836 for a family of four, including round-trip air fare from Oakland, transfers from the Honolulu airport to Waikiki and seven nights’ accommodation at the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel.

If the family prefers to stay in the more laid-back precincts of Maui, the total price at the Aston Maui Lu comes to $1,576 for two adults and two children, this time including a rental car for the week. Again, that’s on a flight from Oakland. For reservations or more details, call SunTrips at (800) SUN-TRIP (786-8747), www.suntrips.com.

Guided tours to Hawaii aren’t usually inexpensive, but they can be affordable when accommodations and transportation are kept simple. That’s the policy of Suntrek, whose clientele tours by vans in small groups by day and camps in tents by night. Most of Suntrek’s trips take place on the U.S. mainland, but it offers one option in Hawaii: a 15-day, 13-night tour that visits Kauai, Oahu and the Big Island. Prices for the tour are $1,149 per person in summer, going down to $1,079 for most of winter. You are also expected to chip in about $35 a week to a group food fund. Although transpacific air fare from the mainland to Hawaii is not included, your flights between the islands as well as entrance charges to national and state parks (including Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island) are covered by the package price.

Passengers in a Suntrek group are expected to help out with setting up tents, packing gear, preparing food and generally cleaning up. Yet unlike some tour operators, Suntrek does not impose a maximum age limit on its participants. Visit www.suntrek.com on the Web or call (800) SUN-TREK (786-8735) for details and reservations.

Some visitors to Hawaii might prefer to make their own independent arrangements, usually by taking advantage of special offers by Hawaiian chain hotels. Few of these properties have much character, but they are often spectacularly priced.

Marc Resorts, (800) 436-1304, www.marcresorts.com, which periodically lists “super specials,” will this summer be offering rooms at the Marc Diamond Head Beach Hotel on Oahu, usually priced from $185, for as little as $65 per double on certain days--and that’s a big savings.

Or you can contact the large, popular chain of Ohana Hotels, (800) 462-6262, www.ohanahotels.com, whose special summer offers can bring the cost of a night’s lodging down to $69 per double room in a high-rise Waikiki hotel. You can also ask Ohana to create a package that includes car rental and/or meals.