Family Gap Year Post #22: Hawaiian Island Hopping—Lodging & Food (July, Part 3)

Today I share the highs and lows of our lodging and food situation during month of island hopping across Hawai’i.

Lodging

Highs

Finding affordable accommodations in Hawai’i is no joke!

We found a fairly affordable place in Oahu, but it wasn’t the greatest. The kitchen was tiny, there were lots of steps up and down throughout the house, and one of the boys had to sleep on the couch each night (not a pull-out). I did love living in a residential area. I really like tapping in to what feels like the essential soul of a city—not just the touristy parts.

We found an awesome place in Kaua’i with our friends! However, it was super-expensive. It was a two-story condo in Princeville. It was beautifully decorated and well-stocked with beach equipment. And I loved having access to a resort-style pool in the complex!

Sadly, the AirBnb listing said it had 7 beds. It turns out it only had 4! Luckily, my friends’ children are fine sharing a bed, and Tate was fine sleeping on the couch.

Glamping on the beach in Maui was a lot of fun, but we did not sleep well! The wind caused so much flapping on our canvas tent every night. Plus, the roosters start waking everyone up between 4:30 and 5:30am. I did LOVE the communal arrangement of the dwellings. There were different kids to play with nearly every night, and it was so fun to play baseball as a family on the big, wide lawn.

Lows

I think I pretty much covered the lows up above!

Food

Highs

I’m having trouble thinking of any highs related to food this month!

I did love cooking food for our friends (and vice versa) in Kaua’i. We ate around the pool each time. In Maui, we did a taco night with our friends, as well as a Vietnamese noodle night.

Lows

I do not recommend trying to eat in Hawai’i on a budget! We tried to eat a lot of meals at home, but the groceries are so expensive! So then we would try to conserve money on groceries. But that meant we never had enough snacks or interesting diversity in meals! It was a challenge. And it frankly wasn’t very fun. It led to a lot of bickering between Matt and me.

I did a ton of research to try and identify the most affordable restaurants. But even at those restaurants, we spent ~$50 per meal (with no appetizers or drinks and sometimes with no sides!).

And Hawai’i is surprisingly not very vegetarian friendly. My, oh, my!

I don’t mean to sound like such a Complainy Pants. I’m just trying to be honest!

Stay tuned for next week’s post when I talk about our Exercise & Budget. In the meantime, you can see daily update on Instagram or weekly updates in my newsletter!