…my nose in a bookFood, research, yoga and music. . . is there anything else?

Oahu is the third largest of the Hawaiian islands, and known as being one of the busiest vacation spots. I personally prefer Kaua’i for its lush tropical greenery and quiet solitude, but when planning a vacation on a budget I can’t be too picky.  Finding a decently priced vacation with flight and accommodations included can be quite easy when searching in the Waikiki area.

So this February is the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in our wonderful city of Vancouver, BC.  While I am extremely excited over the 2010 Olympics, I would much rather watch the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, though that won’t be happening. Okay, so in Vancouver it is a HUGE deal that the Olympics are here.  You cannot go anywhere recently without finding road closures, Olympic signs, and notifications about all the lovely road and parking closures to accommodate the large influx of travelers from all over the world.  While I think it is a wonderful thing for vacationers, tourists and sports fans to come to our fantastic city to witness the 2010 Olympics, I personally cannot handle the crowds.

As I do not want to brave the vast amounts of tourists which will incite a claustrophobic frenzy on my part, and @nachoman does not want to wake up at 3AM each morning to get to work on time, we have made an executive decision – get out of town!  Now while I considered speaking at some conferences I was invited to in Florida and Cincinnati, my health just hasn’t been up for it, so I started researching vacations.  (Yes! A REAL Vacation, where I wont be on a laptop – too much).

In researching vacations, I considered Air Canada’s Japan Flight Sale that was going on for the first couple weeks of January, though after much thought I felt that 2 weeks in Japan would not be enough.  I then found Jubilee Travel (a.k.a. Travel Best Bets) had a wonderful 12 night Bali trip including sightseeing for $1499 each from Vancouver. While that sounded great, I had to consider that @nachoman and I both have allergies, and that pork and MSG will run rampant in most Asian countries we go to.  Hmm. . . what oh what to do. I know! Hawaii! I just had to find a cheap hotel with a kitchen to cook our food.

O’ahu, Hawai’i has been a longtime favorite of mine.  I prefer some of the smaller islands for the quiet and calm, but O’ahu not only has the hustle and bustle of Japanese and American tourists, it has small secluded areas of peace and fantastic uncrowded surfing.  Waikiki is synonymous with busy, noisy and touristy, yet that is part of its appeal. So how does one find a hotel, motel, condo or accommodation that won’t break the bank, but won’t leave you itching with bed bugs or insomnia-tic from the noisy neighbors. Well, you research REALLY well. (Knowing the neighborhoods helps too – which luckily I have a bit of an idea of where I want to find a hotel).

Finding a cheap hotel in Honolulu with direct beach access and chairs is pretty much impossible.  From my experience (and snooping), the best mid-range beachfront hotels (for your $$$) are the Aston Waikiki Beach, the Outrigger Waikiki & the Hilton Hawaiian Village Rainbow Tower (Of course I don’t suggest booking directly from them unless you want to pay double what a travel agency, tour operator or online travel website will charge you).  Now of course I personally don’t care about being directly on the beach, since how much time do I really spend in the hotel when you’re that close to the surf. It is worth your while to book at a hotel that is 2 or so blocks away from the beach, book yourself in a room on the higher floors to get a view, and then go to the beach when you want the ocean!

In the end, I used Travelocity (the US version) and West Jet Vacations (Canadian) to finalize my flights and accommodations.  After much deliberation of hotels in Waikiki, I needed ones that had a FULL kitchen (not just a kitchenette with a microwave and mini-fridge).  Be careful when booking a hotel that states that it has a kitchen.  I considered several hotels in Waikiki that on their websites said they had kitchens, only to find out that a “kitchen” meant a hot plate, mini-fridge and rice cooker.  If you are on a budget, working with allergies, or just trying to feed a family, you want a FULL kitchen with utensils, plates, fridge, stove and potentially luxuries such as a can opener.

I finally decided on a condominium-style property called the Aston Waikiki Sunset (3+ Star) that has been recently renovated (it has 1 or 2 bedroom suites that have a full kitchen and a furnished lanai).  While I found a couple bad reviews about the hotel, they typically were pre-renovation and were calling for an updated feel.  A interesting side note to remember when booking at Condominium-style hotels is that some of the suites may be privately owned, so you will want to make sure that the suite you are booking is owned by the hotel itself.  By doing this, you will assure that there is some level of cleanliness and amenities to your room.

The room that I have booked is the 1-Bedroom Superior, which has been renovated with new fixtures, furniture and a new tv.  It is a roomy 560 square feet, with its own separate bedroom.  While I cannot tell you what it is like yet, I have my fingers crossed that it is clean and that the service at the hotel is above average.  I will keep you posted on whether it meets my expectations.  My advice for finding the best deal is to hop from site to site, and then call a travel agent to match or beat the price you found online.

I found an amazing deal for 12 nights accommodation, flights between Vancouver and Honolulu, and was able to book it all from the comfort of home.  I simply called the travel agent at Carlson Wagonlit Travel, and told them the deals I had found on West Jet Vacations and on Travelocity.ca.  The helpful travel agent answered my questions about the hotel, noting that one of her colleagues had happily stayed there. Upon hearing this, I told the agent to book the trip ASAP.  She took down my info, navigated through the travel sites I’d told her about, and booked me for 2 return tickets to Oahu and our accommodations, in a matter of minutes. Within seconds I had my itinerary in my Inbox!

We leave in a few weeks, so I when we get back, I will tell you how it was.

Mahalo for reading today,

~Deanna

I have been searching for the past couple months for a good pair of Noise Canceling Headphones. Not a pair of ear bud style ones, but a nice comfortable pair of ear-cupping anti-background noise headphones.

So the search began with trying on one of the most expensive headphones on the market, the Bose Quiet Comfort 15’s.  The 15’s are the newest Bose headphones on the market, and replacing the Bose Quiet Comfort 2’s.  I went over to the Bose Store at Pacific Centre, and tried on these thick cushy headphones, that seemed to just melt onto my head with the weight of a feather.  I turned on the sample music tracks provided by the wall mounted music player, and began to listen to some of the clearest audio I have ever heard.  The salesman for Bose stood beside me spouting off all the technical mumbo-jumbo about the headphones, yet all I wanted to do was listen to the music being played.  Turns out that noise-canceling was not activated just yet on the headphones, which is why I could still hear the salesman blabbering on.

Now, I am not one to just throw $350+ away for a pair of headphones that are simply comfortable and have good audio, I wanted to know what made these headphones so darn expensive.  So I asked. When the overly cheerful and almost robotic sales guy turned on the “Airplane Noise Simulation” of the cacophonous imitation of a jet engine taking off, I couldn’t really see how putting these headphones on would simply make the noise go away.  I doubt even my earplugs I use for travel or sleeping wouldn’t be able to mask the loud airplane racket emitting from the store’s speaker system.

I took the headphones, and put them on my ears only to be absolutely amazed.  The loud track that mimicked ambient sounds of a noisy airplane cabin no longer  rang through my head, nor could I even hear the salesman talking to me.  All I could hear was the gentle guitar strums and crooning of the folk singer on the mp3 playing on the sample audio track.  It was pure bliss!  How did I ever survive without a pair of these.

At a $350+ price tag, I of course wanted to think about this before purchasing these headphones.  Most noise-canceling headphones have a rechargable battery pack that clips into the headset, yet these Quiet Comfort 15’s take one AAA battery to power the noise-cancellation, which will only last about 30 hours worth of listening time.  Sadly, when the battery dies, so does the sound of the music or audio you are listening to.  On the other hand, it is a much better option to just pop in an easy to find AAA battery than have to bother to wait for your battery pack to charge, especially when you are on an 18+ hour flight with turbulence and crying babies around you.  The headset also comes with a handy-dandy carrying case, to protect it from getting broken (and to protect it from people like me, who toss a wide variety of heavy objects into my luggage, not being cognisant of what else I have in the bag).

I was very excited to get my very own headphones, and aye! there’s the rub; There were no Quiet Comfort 15s left in stock.  The store offered to sell me a pair of the Quiet Comfort 2s, and when they got the 15s in stock the store would call me, and I could then go through the hassle of returning the 2s and finally getting my hands on the 15s.  Well, that is simply too much of a hassle for me! I only go downtown once a month or so, and I wasn’t about to make a special trip just to return a set of headphones at a later and unknown date.

Since I now have what you may call a Gold Standard for what I expect out of a noise canceling over-the-ear headphone, I am now in pursuit of a pair of headphones that are comparable to the Bose QC15 headphones, that are in stock either online or in a store.

Wish me luck!

~Deanna