Ah...Deals...Beckee's Deals: Travel

Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

Friday, August 11, 2017

Where DID I take that picture?

2:40 PM

In this post I asked you if you could identify where I took this picture:

In case you have been dying to know, it was taken on the Big Island of Hawai'i, at the end of Chain of Craters Road in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. In the picture above, the smoke/steam you can see coming off the land over the ocean is where the current lava flow is going into the ocean.
AND the Big Island is the next vacation location I will be writing about! Stay tuned so I can share all about my plans, what I actually did there, what I loved, and what I cannot wait to do next time-and all my favorite activities and foods there of course.

Labels: #Hawaii, #Travel, Adventures with Beckee, Big Island, Hawaii, My travel, Travel, Volcanos National Park |

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Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Beckee's Deal is all about Travel right now!

10:13 AM

Have you noticed that my deal lately is that I am gone traveling-a lot?! If you are my facebook friend, you are probably sick of my travel posts. It seems like I am rarely home. I kind of feel like Wes and I are making up for 16 years of limited travel by traveling a lot this year. LOL. That being said, since I went to Kauai a couple months ago, I have been on 2 more dream vacations! I will share some of the amazing deals and fun activities on here soon.
First though, I wanted to note that much of our travel has been related to continuing education for my husband. So, when you see me posting fun stuff from exotic locations, it is only part of the story.
Usually my husband spends much of his days in classes for continuing education. On occasion he can skip a day because he doesn't need those particular credits, or we will arrive or leave a few days before his conference starts so we can enjoy the area together for a few days without work plans. One of the ways we are able to stay at nice resorts/hotels is because we get discounted hotel prices in conjunction with the conferences. But, sometimes we cannot get the discounted prices because I booked too late or the hotel sells out, or something like that. On those occasions, I do a lot of "hotel shopping". I look on hotel booking sites like Expedia or Priceline, on the hotel websites, and I check for deals in email offers (I am a part of the points/honors programs for several hotel brands that I frequent: Hilton and Hyatt for example).
We can often also get discounts on activities through the conferences as well. I also get discounted prices on activities often by booking early, online, usually directly from company websites.
And as far as transportation (airfares, cars, buses, subways, etc), I also shop around and try to book early-but not too early. (On my latest trip to New York City, I booked my flights way too early-like 9 almost a year in advance, and tickets got much cheaper about 2-3 months before we traveled. Dang!) All of this is just to say that travel can be costly, but do your homework, plan and prepare and you can do some pretty awesome travel adventures on whatever budget you have! I promise it is possible! :)

Labels: #Travel, Travel |

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Sunday, April 2, 2017

Kauai Adventures (Activities)

10:00 PM

We were in Kauai from March 18-March 26.
Here's a summary and a few notes on the activities we did each day:
Saturday March 18: Travel Day
Today we drove from our home to Seattle, flew to San Francisco, then on to the airport in Lihu'e on Kauai. It was a long travel day, but we finally arrived to our hotel late that night.

Sunday March 19: Exploring
We took today to explore the island by car an by foot (we walked over 18 miles according to the app on my phone).
1: Po'ipu Shoreline Sandstone Hikes: We stayed at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Po'ipu on the South Side of the island. Near the hotel is the Po'ipu Shoreline Sandstone Hikes area, which is 4 miles round trip. The first thing we did today was to walk a good section of that hike. It was beautiful!

We even saw a cool sacred/historic site.

2. Driving. Our next adventure was to drive around the island from Po'ipu East and around to the North where the road ends. We stopped at several places along the way.

3. Kapa'a Stream & Kealia Beach: Our first stop on our Drive was a stop on the side of the road near Kapa'a Stream. From there we walked along the Ke Ala Hele Makalae Shared Use Path past Kealia Beach and to the end of the path. Beautiful and fun. We decided we would need to come back and rent bikes to ride this path later in the week.

This is at Pineapple Dump on the path.

4. Waiakanaloa wet cave and Ke'e Beach: Our next stops were right at the end of the road. We parked and checked out the Waiakanaloa wet cave and Ke'e Beach. Here is the beginning of the 11 mile hike to the famed North shore Na Pali coast. (Which we want to attempt next trip) We even saw a protected Monk Seal at Ke'e Beach. It was pretty awesome.

5. Back to the hotel. After all the adventures, we headed back toward the hotel (we stopped for food on the way back).

Monday March 20

1. Driving. We started the day by driving around the island from Po'ipu West and around to the North where the road ends at the PoliHale State Park.

2. Spouting Horn: We accidentally happened upon an awesome not to be missed, really cool blowhole: Spouting Horn Beach Park. It was "spouting" so high for the time of year! That was fun to watch!

3. Polihale State Park: This adventure was one of the reasons to rent a Jeep! The video I posted in this blog was from the drive to Polihale State Park. Here is another video of that drive:

BEAUTIFUL beaches and we pretty much had them to ourselves! It was so nice to hang out here and walk around for a while. Lots of fun! Here are a few pics:

4. Waimea: We stopped in Waimea on the way back to get a Shave Ice and some Red Dirt shirts.

5. Grand Hyatt: Back a the hotel there was entertainment going on in the Lobby area. So fun!

Tuesday March 21

Sigh...this is the day Wes had to start going to classes for his conference. He had classes in the mornings from Tuesday 3/21-Friday 2/24. I spent my mornings either relaxing or walking around the hotel or swimming. It was relaxing, but really I could hardly wait for Wes to get done so we could play! :)

1. Morning Walk: Both Wes and I woke up well before his 7am conference start time, so we started the morning walking around the Hotel.

2. Biking from Kapa'a: We went to Kapa'a where we rented Cruisers (bikes) from Hele On Kaua'i (Behind Ono family restaurant). They were SOOO nice and it was easy and really inexpensive to rent from them. Definitely recommend them!!!

3. Snorkeling at Anini Beach: One of our FAVORITE things to do in Hawaii (or even California) is to snorkel. We will pull off the road and try just about any beach that looks reasonable. I forgot to bring my waterproof camera with me on this trip, so I only have pictures of Wes snorkeling, but trust me I did it too! Today we stopped at Anini Beach to snorkel for a while.

That is Kilauea Lighthouse in the background there.

Wednesday March 22

1. Morning Alone: This morning as Wes was in conferences I walked around then went swimming at the pool.

2. Whale Watching Tour: That afternoon Wes and I went on a Whale Watching tour with Blue Dolphin Charters leaving from port in Ele'ele. We thought the 2 hour Whale Watching would be the perfect length for us and Wes loves watching for wild life. In fact, he's the one that found the Whale we found on our tour! Yes we saw Whales, no I did not get any pictures. I had terrible timing on that...

Thursday March 23

1. Swim at Hotel: I got burned the first day on Kauai, so Wes bought me 2 different rash guards to wear. I had a hard time deciding what suit/rash guard to wear to the pool this morning... (Eventually I picked and went swimming)

2. Po'ipu Beach Park: Snorkeling and Turtle watching (because one came up on shore). We spent some time here playing (with a whole lot of new friends at this busy spot).

3. Grand Hyatt Kaua'i Lu'au: That evening we went to the Lu'au at our hotel. the food was SOOOOO good and the entertainment was fantastic! It was a lot of fun and I would absolutely do it again!

Here's a short video:

Friday March 24

Today we walked around beaches a lot and hung out at the pool, but we did do one BIG Splurge:

1. Heilcopter Ride: We splurged on a Helicopter ride through Blue Hawaiian Helicopters of Kauai. It was SOOOOOO worth the splurge. I must have taken like 400 pictures, but I will share just a few here. It was amazing! If you are going to splurge on something, it should be this. I think it was in the guidebook that I read that going to Kauai and NOT doing a Helicpoter ride is like going to Paris and avoiding the Eiffel Tower. Seriously, this is a great way to see the island-even the northern Na Pali coast! And here is a tip to save on it-reserve your flight online at the Blue Hawaiian website at least 5 days in advance and you can get the ride for $216.97 per person instead of $246.56 per person. (At least that is the prices as of the pricing and advanced deal as of writing this post on 4/2/17-check their website for the latest updates). Just a few pictures from our flight (and FYI, I did purchase the video of our full flight which is awesome and I cannot wait to share with my kids).

Waiting for flight

In the helicopter right before take off.

"Jurassic" falls

Na Pali Coast

Can you spot the Whale in the picture below?

Us again during flight

After the flight

And a short video I took:

Saturday March 25

Wes finished his conference Friday, so we had the whole day to spend together. We spent our day at a couple different beaches.

1. Secret Beach: We made the somewhat difficult (but short) hike down to Secret beach this morning. It was formerly a nude beach but is thankfully not anymore. As with all the things we saw in Kauai, it was beautiful! And we had a blast hanging out there. Here's a video and a few pictures:

2. Kawailoa Bay at the Maha'ulepu Beaches: Wes snorkled here while I hung out on the beach (it was a little harsh waves for me). But what a great beach! Beautiful and not too busy. But it is a place you should have 4WD to get to, and you MUST be out by 6 pm. (If you decide to go there, get The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook, Kauai Revealed, 10th Edition and read about it in detail on pgs 114-115).

Sunday March 26

As with all great things, the fun had to come to an end. We spend today traveling from Kauai, to Honolulu to San Francisco to Seattle, THEN driving home a few hours from Seattle. We had to drive through snow...what a sad welcome home.