We just got back from a relaxing trip to Honolulu (a great escape from our 60 degree winter here in NYC :0).

AA’s Ridiculous Hat 

The best part was that we didn’t pay a dime for either our flight or hotel; we stayed at the Hilton in Wakiki Beach for four nights, which is nothing to sneeze at.  We did this using rewards points we got as a sign-up bonus from our credit cards.

Credit Card Rewards Points

Many credit cards offer great sign-up bonuses in the form of miles or hotel points. If you have good credit and are reasonably well-organized, you can subsidize a good deal of your travel using these sign-up bonuses. For this Hawaii trip, we both signed up for the following two cards last year in preparation for the trip:

• The Barclays Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard:  – this card gives you 35,000 Hawaiian Airlines miles after you spend $1,000 in the first 90 days.
• The Citi Hilton HHonors Visa Signature Card: when you apply for this card through ThePointsGuy you can get 75,000 Hilton HHonors points after you spend $2,000 in the first three months.

Traveling Around Oahu

Honolulu is a great city to visit on it’s own, but Oahu is also a beautiful island (of course, it’s Hawaii). Whether you’re on a tight budget or just love traveling the local way, the public bus system is a great way to see the rest of the island. One word of warning, you do need to have exact change ($2.50 per trip with two transfers allow!).

Line 55 will take you from the Ala Moana shopping mall in Honolulu to Waimea Beach and Valley. It’s about a 2 hour ride each way.

Take Line 57 from Ala Moana to Line 65 to get to the North Shore and a beautiful replica of the Byodo-In Temple (original is in Japan of course). The trip is about 1.5 hours because of the transfer. You can also board Line 65 directly in Downtown Honolulu at Alakea and South King Streets.

I also found this post on how to travel around the whole island by bus. I didn’t do this, but if you’re more intrepid than I am check it out.

The Hawaii Supreme Court