Best of Hawaii small groups 4/20/22

Hi, everyone! Is there anyone else planning on going on this trip? Would love to know something about others before we take off!

Comments

  • We’re here now! Soooo beautiful!

  • mazalea,

    I hope to take this tour in 2024. Please post a review when you can. Thanks!

  • Our Best of Hawaii tour begins on 2/2. Currently, in L.A. visiting family, then on to Honolulu.

  • We are taking this tour in mid-Feb. Just curious, how is the mask requirement being followed?

  • Well as it turns out, while visiting family in CA, my husband tested positive Covid (only mild, cold-like symptoms), so had to cancel Best of Hawaii. Maybe in 2023? Currently, quarantined and isolated in separate rooms in our CA hotel. We’re totally bummed.

  • Jan: Oh no, how disappointing. I know you were really looking forward to the Hawaii tour. Dang, that Covid. I can only hope that things calm down this year. I have a friend that came down with Covid last December but never really felt that sick. He had to take a Covid test every week for work and after initial quarantine was still showing positive for another month even though he felt fine. It's crazy. I hope your husband will be well soon. Take care.

  • Thanks, Travel Maven. We rescheduled Best of Hawaii for January 17, 2023. Fortunately my husband only has mild symptoms and I have none. We hope to head home to Chicago on Thursday at best, Sunday at worst. We are both double vaxxed and boosted, consistently wear our N95 masks, and are around very few people. It’s nuts!

  • Travel maven, I also know someone who remained positive for months. A PCR test is much more likely to show position for a long time than antigen test. Make sure anyone coming back to the US takes an antigen test.

  • Aloha! Gosh too bad Jan as our TD Heidi is wonderful and she is leading that one as well. We are now in Maui. Hotels are great with too many pools to choose from and the weather is phenomenal , nary a drop of rain. We can see humpback whales from the veranda, in Kuai also. They are forceful here about masks which is annoying because so much of Hawaiian experience is in very airy places where it is really not necessary.
    By the way, read n the forum about island vintage wine and coffee n Waikiki It is mere steps from hotel “pink palace” royal hawaiian and I can recommend the salad with grilled prawns. Really great. Also butterfish at Roy’s.
    The tour now takes you to Iolani palace so don’t bother going on your own if you arrive early.
    If you arrive early and go to visit Bishop museum arrange for return transportation as it is in the middle of nowhere. Same if you go to climb Diamond Head.

  • Oh one more thing: hubby and I always bring actual book to read as well as kindle. Turns out we zipped through them. There is no bookstore within 28 miles of Maui hotel the Fairmont Kea Lani so stock up at airports if you need. There is a bookstore in the Ali Moana shopping mall about 2 miles from royal Hawaiian, but we didn't realize the we’d want something later. Oddly the hotels have closed their convenience stores. The ABC chain which you’ll find most islands has things you may need, such as toothpaste or macadamia nuts, even liquor, but no books. There may be local artists selling carvings or jewelry at the Grand Hyatt and things were nice and fairly priced. Plenty of the Gucci etc shops if that’s your preference in Maui as well as in
    Waikiki.

  • To be specific about masking on the islands because we are all concerned about staying healthy, everyone wears masks on buses, in public places, to or from rooms to vents or dining, during lectures, on elevators, in shops, The hotel I’m in now is a beach resort. No walls in the huge lobby, similar to other hotels we have been in. Constant breezes. So here the masks are not purposeful though some of us wear them. Concierge Staff does not wear,, but waitstaff does. In Waikiki they took our temps, but not in other places. All wore masks. I see more masking in Hawaii than I do in the US. Hope that helps.

  • I'm glad you're having a good trip, Mazalea, and that you enjoyed your meal at the Island Vintage Wine Bar. I'm pretty sure that I was the one who recommended it; though others may have, as well. I did want to add that I took the public bus to and from the Bishop Museum from Waikiki. It's not a quick ride, but I wasn't in a hurry.

  • This gives us a lot to look forward to for our rescheduled trip in January 2023, in spite of our disappointment at having to cancel. Maybe by next year masks won’t be as necessary and Covid will only be a bad memory. One can always hope. Aloha!

  • edited February 2022

    mazalea, say Hi to Heidi. I sent you a PM.

  • Mazalea

    Thanks for your comments regarding masks!

    Mahalo

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