Author Topic: TBI TR  (Read 2046 times)

Offline dl

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TBI TR
« on: December 31, 2019, 03:07:11 PM »
I am writing my first TR, so bear with me. I am breaking up the TR into two sections: flights and hotels, and activities. I will include a small but about food in the flights and hotels section. 

Intro

Thanks to reading the forums, I got really into the idea of visiting Hawaii. Last year we visited Maui, and used many of the ideas in the forums to help us plan our trip. This year we went to TBI (with a brief stop on Oahu) and after using the forums for so long, I wanted to start paying it back. 
In retrospect we should have visited Kaui because we couldn’t visit two of the main attractions — Mauna Kea and Lava Flow —on TBI, but, you learn from your mistakes. 
We came from New York in the last week of December, so we wanted to stay on the sunnier Kona side, and not the rainier Hilo side. 
DW is from LA, so we visited LA for shabbos, and then left for Hawaii on Sunday morning, stopped in Oahu to visit Pearl Harbor, and retuned to LA on Thursday night. 
Flights and Hotels:


Flights, costs

LAX-HNL stopped for 6 hours, and then went from HNL-KOA. The LAX-HNL-KOA flight was $650, so using 50k points didn’t seem like the worst deal. We flew on a 777-200, and I would have splurged on Business/First seat, but they only had backwards facing seats left, and I didn’t want to splurge for that kind of Business/First seat. 
HNL-KOA was a 30 minute flight on Hawaiian, nothing too special. 
KOA-LAX, 12,500 Avios, A321. 

Flights, experience 

LAX-HNL
We sat in regular economy, but felt totally comfortable. No internet on the plane, and needed to use your own device to connect wirelessly to the entertainment system. They have holders for your phones in the seatbacks, which make for easier watching. The plane had very high ceilings, which made the plane feel much, pardon the pun, airier. 
HNL-KOA
Uneventful flight on HA, 30 minutes from HNL to KOA. 
KOA-LAX
I am sure this has been covered in the forums already, but just in case, American designed their new regular economy seats for midgets. I am a little on the tall side — 5’11” — and I felt totally squished. Even much shorter DW, felt totally squished. 

Hotels, costs

Stayed at the Westin Hapuna Beach for 4 nights. We arrived on Sunday, but didn’t want to stay for Shabbos so couldn’t take advantage of 5th night free. When I booked, the hotel charged 35,000/night, and then I checked closer to our booking, and they upped the fee to 50,000 points/night. 

Hotel, experience

The Westin has a sister hotel one mile north called the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. The Westin provides a nightly shuttle between the hotels for those with dinner reservations at the Mauna Kea. We didn’t have a reservation at the Mauna Kea Hotel, but sort of just smooth talked the driver into letting us on the shuttle. I give this intro only to say that while the Mauna Kea charged a lot more per night, the Westin has a much nicer lobby. The lobby is indoor-outdoor, and has a panoramic view of the beach. 
We had a regular room with two twin beds, a balcony and a bathroom with a standing shower, bathtub, and separate toilet room. The toilet had one of those Japanese controllers on it, but I never used it. The TV came with HBO Go, and you could sign into your Netflix and YouTube accounts. 
The hotel billed the room as a, “partial ocean view”, Hawaii Revealed called out that description as inaccurate, but I disagree and think the description fair. The quality of the bathroom surprised my wife and myself — it didn’t quite meet 5 Star standards, but definitely beat your average Westin. 
The room didn’t come with any shades, just a door with slats on it separating the glass balcony door from the room. We called engineering and they hooked up blackout shades to the door, which basically solved the problem, but still let in an annoying ray of sunlight or two in the morning. 
We forgot to ask, but the fridge came empty, and they also gave Starbucks Mr. Coffee pouches which did the trick for our morning coffee.  
The tap water tasted kind of funny, I am not sure if the problem was with the entire Island, or the hotel, but I couldn’t/didn’t want to during the tap water. 
Self park cost $25/day and valet cost $30/day we got lazy and did valet everyday. We would call down 10 minutes or so before we went out for the day, and the valet had the car waiting. 
The $30 resort fee didn’t feel as much robbery as it normally does — we got freeWiFi (would have gotten anyways with Marriot Silver, but still) free towels and chairs by the beach and pool, free bottle of water, and free snorkeling gear. 
We spent some time just lazing by the beach and pool. You get free refills on soda, so I would order a cup for $5 (Diet Pepsi, I prefer Diet Coke) and get a bunch of free refills throughout the day, which made it into a decent deal. 
According to Reveal Book Hapuna Beach is voted one of the best beaches in Hawaii, if not the world. I am sorry to say, but I didn’t see it. The beach at the Mauna Kea one mile away is a bit nicer, but neither of them compare to some of the nicer beaches we went to in Maui. 
The staff didn’t go out of their way to make the stay great, and it occasionally took a while to get someone at the front desk, but overall I cannot complain on that front. 

Food

When we went to Maui last year we ordered frozen meals from Pomegranate, which worked out really nicely. This year, because we had a 6 hour stop over in HNL we didn't want to risk it with frozen meals lying out for 6 hours, and/or losing our bags. Therefore, we ordered food from Chabad of TBI, Rabbi Gerlitzky. We ordered pizza, meat lasagna, meatballs, and a few sides. Rabbi Gerlitzky was very easy to work with, and we picked up our food from his house after we landed. The food was very good, just one hint, when heating up the pizza, first remove it from the tin foil, and then heat it up, otherwise the cheese sticks to the foil. 
We supplemented the meals from Chabad with the usual assortment of Walmart, and local supermarkets. KTA in Kolala Village had a nice selection of kosher products. 

Activities

We dropped the ball on Pearl Harbor and didn’t get out tickets for the Arizona Memorial and movie 60 days in advance, and we left LA on Sunday morning, so we got my friend in Israel to buy the tickets for us 7 PM Israel time (7 AM Hawaii time). However, by the time my friend got online all of the tickets sold out. I felt pretty stupid that we made a special stop for Pearl Harbor, but would miss a big part of it. When we got to PH the ticket booth confirmed they sold out. 
Besides for the Arizona Memorial and the movie, PH also has a museum with an audio guide. We resigned ourselves to only doing the museum with the audio guide, but the guy at the audio guide booth told us we could wait by the entrance to the movie, and maybe we could get the space of a no-show. As luck would have it the tour had a lot of no shows and we got in no problem! 
The movie they show is OK, and the memorial itself is also OK, I personally, liked the museum part a lot more. You learn a lot about Pearl Harbor, and the museum has some fascinating artifacts from the war, and some amazing recreations (the Japanese bomber plane stands out). In short, I can see why after taking the museum tour you would pass on the Arizona Memorial, but if you can go to both I would recommend it. One last point, PH also has a submarine and old battleship in the dock, we didn’t have enough time, and I don’t think we would have liked it anyways.  
We couldn’t do the two main activities on TBI — Mauna Kea and Lava Flow. As many of you know, after the eruption(?) last year, tourists can’t see the lava flowing anymore, and locals have blocked Mauna Kea in protest of the installation of a new telescope. The Friday before we arrived the Government reached an agreement with the protestors to allow for people to go up to Mauna Kea again, so we got excited. We then read in the newspaper that Mauna Kea wouldn’t open up till later in the week, so we didn’t know if we would make it to the summit or not. We decided to try and go up anyways, so we left our hotel hoping for the best, but when we got to the access road, the protestors still had their blockade setup, so we turned around at went home. 
HR raves about the snorkeling near the Captain  Cook monument. Accessing the choice reefs requires a semi difficult hike we didn’t want to do, so we joined a tour organized by Seaquest. We picked Seaquest for two main reasons: 1. They had an afternoon excursion that left their dock at 12:45, as opposed to early AM. 2. The 12:45 excursion didn’t have a lunch we couldn’t partake in. 
The tour goes out in a Powntoon boat, and the guide seemed pretty knowledgeable about the local area, and got us pretty close to some lava tubes, and small Grottos. The tour comes with scuba gear, and a life vest, but no wet suit. They don’t give you much info about the different fish in the reef, but they have a book on board with the different fish in the Captain Cook area. The two most common fish I saw were the Yellow Tang, and the black durgon triggerfish. Interestingly, the black durgon looks totally black underwater with a white stripe outlining it’s dorsal tail, but when properly lit its skin is teal and black stripe. 
On our last day on TBI we visited Greenwell Farms. Greenwell has free tours throughout the day, where they teach you about Kona Coffee and why you should pay so much for it. They take you to different parts of the coffee farm to teach you about the growing process, the harvesting process, and the roasting process.  You can sample the different types of Kona coffee for free, and decide if you would like to spend $30/lb for the coffee. I didn’t like the coffee so much, jus tasted like a weak coffee with a slightly sweet aftertaste, but we bought some for my in laws, and a few other people we thought might enjoy it.  
Overall, would have preferred to go to Kaui, but happy we got to spend a few days in 80 degree weather in one of the most beautiful places in the world. 

Offline ltttc

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Re: TBI TR
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2020, 12:01:00 PM »
Nice TR! Thanks for sharing

Offline PBaruch

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Re: TBI TR
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2020, 02:08:50 PM »
"I didn’t like the coffee so much, jus tasted like a weak coffee with a slightly sweet aftertaste, but we bought some for my in laws, and a few other people we thought might enjoy it."

I'd have to disagree with your assessment of the coffee from Greenwell Farms.  While it may not be the very best in the world, it is very very good.  They have different varieties and we all love it, including my now 5 year old.
What do you do after your dreams come true?

Offline mme

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Re: TBI TR
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2020, 11:25:34 PM »
very nice TR! thank you!