10 day Hawaiian vacation in October (condo, how much, hotel)

[Ahale38]

My family and I have a vacation planned for Hawaii ( Oahu). We will be there for 10 days. It our first time visiting the island and I need some advice. We are staying in a condo with kitchen so we are planning on making our own meals. My question, where is the best place to buy your groceries? We are a family of 5 (2 adults, 12 yr old, 7 yr old and 4 yr old). How much should I budget for just groceries for us for the week or would it be cheaper do to a little bit of both of meal planning and eating out. We do have one night that we would like to do a Luau but other than that we really didn't have any plans on eating out too much.. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by Ahale38

My question, where is the best place to buy your groceries?

How much should I budget for just groceries for us for the week or would it be cheaper do to a little bit of both of meal planning and eating out.

I'd just go to the closest grocery store wherever you are staying - since we aren't a 3rd world country, you'll find national chains like Safeway, and large local grocery stores like Foodland, and Times. They aren't priced much different from each other, just go wherever the closest one is located.

I don't know how much you should budget since I don't know how much you eat or what you will eat and drink. Individual items tend to run 10-30% higher than the West Coast. So, if you spend $200 for a week in Los Angeles, that same basket will likely run you $220 - $260 depending on the items you buy.

Restaurants prices aren't drastically higher than the West Coast either.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

If you tell us where your condo is, we may be able to recommend some farmer's markets. Although sometimes their prices aren't any better than the aforementioned Safeway, etc. But more fun!

[pj737]

Originally Posted by Ahale38

My family and I have a vacation planned for Hawaii ( Oahu). We will be there for 10 days. It our first time visiting the island and I need some advice. We are staying in a condo with kitchen so we are planning on making our own meals. My question, where is the best place to buy your groceries? We are a family of 5 (2 adults, 12 yr old, 7 yr old and 4 yr old). How much should I budget for just groceries for us for the week or would it be cheaper do to a little bit of both of meal planning and eating out. We do have one night that we would like to do a Luau but other than that we really didn't have any plans on eating out too much.. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks

Make sure to sign up for the grocery chain's club program even if you're just using it temporarily. They just need a phone number and name. Discounts are significant.

[davephan]

We stayed in a condo on the Big Island, a house on Maui, and a hotel on Oahu. Staying in a condo or house is much nicer than being cramped up in a tiny hotel room. We cooked most of our meals. I find going out to eat very tiring. Some people love to eat out all the time. I'm not one of those people.

The grocery store prices in the LA area are about the same as the Minneapolis-St Paul area. However, the prices at grocery stores in Hawaii are shockingly high! Search for video tours through grocery stores in Hawaii, you'll see. We found produce to be extremely expensive. Three heads of iceberg lettuce were about $11, sold by the pound. Iceberg lettuce here is about $1.00 to $1.60 per head, not sold by the pound. You can pick the largest ones if they are sold by the unit, not by pound. I think most of the lettuce sold here comes from California, about 2,000 miles away, shipped by rail or truck. The lettuce sold in Hawaii also comes from California, shipped by sea. Shipping by sea is supposed to be the cheapest way to ship anything anywhere. So, I don't understand why the costs are so high, unless produce has to be shipped the air to Hawaii.

Bread is also very expensive, double, sometimes triple. The other items in the grocery store that have long shelf lives were about 20% to 50% higher priced. We try to eat healthy, which costs more than eating a lot of processed foods. The farmer's markets are cheaper, but not earthshakingly cheaper. Our food costs would probably double living in Hawaii, but a lot of the costs could be mitigated if we grew our own food and shopped the farmer's markets just before closing time.

Next time, we'll plan on doubling our food budget, and we'll be pleasantly surprised if it isn't double the cost.

[hunterseat]

Costco had those great rotisserie chickens for $5. yum! I have a friend who makes pans of traditional fare if you want her number!

[ScottStielow]

About $200-$270 a week would be a good guide. Which ever store is closer, Safeway, Times, Foodland. Use their club offer its easy to get at check out. Just need a telephone number. It will help to offset the overall cost a little.
If you are a member of Costco or Sams Club. Check to see if you can shop with your state residence card or ask for a weekly card here. That will help a lot. Hope this helps.
Enjoy the trip.

[whtviper1]

Thanks Davephan for the update. I stand corrected. Sounds like the $200 basket of groceries on the mainland will run you about $2,000 in Hawaii.

[Jungjohann]

Originally Posted by whtviper1

Thanks Davephan for the update. I stand corrected. Sounds like the $200 basket of groceries on the mainland will run you about $2,000 in Hawaii.

You may be right. But I've found that if you do most of your grocery shopping at Costya, you can probably cut that basket of groceries down to a little less than $1,500.00. Of course, you'd have to avoid icebergs, milk, bread, and any pre-prepared foods in order to accomplish that.

Hope this helps

[davephan]

Originally Posted by whtviper1

Thanks Davephan for the update. I stand corrected. Sounds like the $200 basket of groceries on the mainland will run you about $2,000 in Hawaii.

That's not what I said at all. It depends on what you buy. If you eat a lot of produce or bread, it will cost a lot more, like double, triple, or more. The long term shelf items may be only about 20% to 40% more. Sometimes there are items that cost the same, like pineapples. Pineapples are shipped thousands of miles to get here, much of it by truck or rail, which is more expensive than by sea. Rarely, there are items like jackfruit that are drastically cheaper in Hawaii. Jackfruit costs $1.99 a pound here, which is about $30 to $45 per jackfruit, and comes from Mexico. Bananas cost the same, sometimes cheaper, they come from south America. Lettuce is drastically cheaper, and comes from California by rail or truck. Most food sold here in Minnesota isn't grown here and travels a long way to get there, yet the prices are significantly cheaper. A lot of corn is grown here, but much of it goes into ethanol, so corn isn't cheap like it used to be. Corn used to be 10 cents per ear. After ethanol, the corn price tripled or more.

So overall, I'd budget at least 50% more for food, not ten times, but that depends on what you buy.