Budget Family Vacation (rental car, rentals, condos)

[falconmac]

Hi,
I'm planning a budget family vacation. I don't have a fixed budget yet, and that's what I'm trying to figure out, but I'm trying keep it to a minimum. I have 2 kids and a baby. We usually do our own meals once or twice a day to save on meals, and then dine out most of the days . I would like to know if one can find cheper hotels/condos once we are there and shop around. I know that many times there are inexpensive motels that do not have a big presence on the web (if any at all), and sometimes they offer the most inexpensive rates, but you can only reach them while already there (I found the same situation in Vegas), and I imagine it is the same anywhere. Any advice there?. I'm inclined to only reserve round trip flight, a car for a day or two so we can shop around, and just book the hotel with the best rates we can find once we are there. Any comments against this approach?.
Thank you.

[KoaKine]

Aloha,
What Island or Islands were you thinking about? also try looking into a condo you can get them cheap and cook there when we go we cook 80% of our meals there then we can splerge on a real nice meal or 2 .

[Ellwood]

I believe you would get a better deal finding a condo before you arrive as there are a lot of good deals on the net, especially now. The condos are well stocked many with washer/dryers. You might look into Costco travel also. Do a search (depending on the island) ex: Maui condo rentals or Maui vacation rentals.

Definitely book your round trip flights ahead of time. Also you can usually get a better rate for a week than a couple of days on rental cars.