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Published: February 1st 2011
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You'll find a lot of photos in this entire travel blog as my ultimate hobby is photography and I'm a definite believer in "a picture is worth a thousand words".
Normally at Christmas I'd go to a Travel Agency and tell them what I want to do, but this year I booked everything online myself and started researching my trip in August, for a December departure.
It all started with the idea of maybe I'd take a cruise out of the States around the Caribbean, which I'd never seen before. I also thought that booking everything early would also give me cheap fares.
As I have a friend in Las Vegas, I thought whilst I'm there I may as well pop up to see her also, but trying to book one way flights from Sydney/Miami/Las Vegas/Sydney proved so astronomical, that I decided to get a return to Honolulu (a favourite place of mine) and do Miami/Las Vegas/Honolulu as one-way airfares.
Consequently, I did a lot of research for this trip. I decided to pop into Hawaii for 2 days on the way over to help break the long haul, then join an American 50s Singles New Year's
cruise out of Miami around the Caribbean for a week, spend a week in Las Vegas to catch up with my friend and come back through Honolulu for a week's holiday. (I've also included some of the websites that were really useful.) As I knew Miami was hot and of course so is Honolulu, I packed only summer clothes thinking I could wing Las Vegas. (That was stupid of me, because as luck would have it, the east coast of the States had their worst winter in years which spread all the way down to Miami.)
I left Sydney, Australia on Christmas eve 2010 (Australia's summer) at 10.00 at night, as the plane was an hour late taking off. Had a 10 hour overnight flight, so it was impossible to sleep as it was so cramped, plus you get pins and needles in your tush through sitting so long. Arrived Honolulu at 11.00 in the morning on the same day I actually left (you gain a day on the way over as Australia is one day ahead of the States), and with no sleep to speak of, I was feeling tired. The Shuttle buses into Waikiki are just outside
the arrival area of Honolulu Airport and $15 will get you a return trip.
I also gained 4 hours to my day, which essentially means it throws out your appetite and sleeping pattern as your bodyclock might be saying its midnight, but your watch is now saying its only 8.00 p.m. Anyway, it was beautiful weather in Honolulu for the 2 days there - just swam in the sea, ate good food and drank a toast (or 2) to all my absent friends on Christmas Day.
Hawaiian Airlines – www.hawaiianair.com
Hawaiian Hotel - Hotwire.com
U.S. Flights - Orbitz.com
Package Deals - Bookit.com
Hawaiian Coupons - www.ecouponshawaii.com
Temperature Centrigrade to Fahrenheit - www.wbuf.noaa.gov/tempfc.htm
Money Exchange - www.travelex.com.au)
Travel Insurance - iTrek.com.au
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