We Spent 10 Nights on Maui for just $400 - Here's how
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We’re back from our 10-night spring break trip to Maui! It. was. fabulous! Tropical and relaxing and full of special family memories :) We showed up with swimsuits and snorkeling gear and zero plans and it turned out to be my favorite family trip to date. And the best part, we spent just $400 on flights and hotels for our 10 nights of paradise. Crazy, right?! Today I am spilling all the details on our budget (but fabulous) trip to one of the most beautiful places on earth.
where we went
Maui is a big island and we split our stay into two spots: 6 nights in Wailea and 4 nights near Hana. Wailea is definitely more posh and full of eateries, shops, and stores and all the modern conveniences. Hana is on the rainy side of the island and more of a remote backpacker’s destination. The road to Hana is a famous 2+ hour drive that’s windy and often just 1 lane and insanely beautiful. We loved both destinations!
Despite having no set plans, we stayed plenty busy. Places we went and recommend: Haleakalā National Park (highly recommend the Junior Ranger program for kids!), Kihei (the food truck court is AMAZING!), Lahaina and Ka’anapali Beach (so many sea turtles!), beaches along Wailea and Kihei had great snorkeling, hiking the lava fields near Cape Hanamanioa, Maui Ocean Center, Pipiwai Trail, Hamoa Beach, Wainapanapa State Park, Paia (oogled all the old houses plus the fish market, gelato, and beach are amazing).
How we spent just $400 on accommodations and airfare
Our budget trip was possible because of these three things: planning ahead, being flexible, and travel rewards. We booked most of this trip 9 months in advance and when I checked back later, many of the costs had doubled or more. Bonus: dreaming of the vacation and knowing it’s coming is half the fun, and booking early allows for more of that :) Another thing that helped with our budget was being flexible with our travel dates and durations, that way we could take advantage of the lowest fares. And as for travel rewards, let’s get into it…
Travel rewards
Welcome to the wonderful world of travel rewards! I used to just dip my toe into its wallet friendly waters, but jumped in with enthusiasm last year and have enjoyed the benefits ever since. Travel rewards are essentially points and miles you earn from having certain credit cards. Depending how much you get into it, rewards can take a bit of management and coordination, but it’s totally worth the effort (and kinda fun if you’re a numbers nerd like me ;). Here are the loyalty programs we used:
Alaska Airline miles (note you can transfer Chase points to Alaska 1:1)
Chase ultimate reward points
Marriott points + free night credits (note you can transfer Chase points to Marriott 1:1)
I have rewards accounts at all three of those and Garrett has ones for Alaska and Chase too. Note that you don’t have to have a credit card with Alaska or Marriott to open an account and gain points when you book or travel with them. We actually opened our Alaska mileage plans back in our 20s and they’ve been accruing ever since. We even opened Alaska mileage plans for our kids so they can get miles when we fly (they will thank us in college!).
Rewards credit cards that made it all happen
Here are the cards we used for this trip. It probably goes without saying, but these cards are beneficial only when paid off in full every month. We also only use them for regular monthly spending and renovation projects, never spending extra just to get points.
Get 60,000 points when you spend $4000 in 3 months, $95 annual fee
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card
Earn 3 free nights after spending $3,000 in 3 months, free night award every year, $95 annual fee
Alaska Airlines Visa Signature
earn 60,000 bonus miles after qualifying purchases, annual comparison fare with minimum spend, $95 annual fee
BTW we’re careful not to open too many credit cards and are thoughtful to close some as needed depending if the annual fee makes sense or not. We have excellent credit and haven’t noticed a negative impact on it.
Budget breakdown
Here’s how the points and dollars shook out for our trip:
5 roundtrip flights at 35,000 Alaska miles per person = 175,000 points
5 free nights in Wailea Marriott (sleeps 5 w/ kitchen) + 22,000 pts extra = 5 free night awards + 22,000 points
1 additional night in Wailea Marriott 40,533 points (transferred at 1.5x from Chase) = 40,533 points
4 nights in cabin on beach near Hana $100/night = $400
Note we didn’t include our car rental, food, parking, or vacation hats/shirts for the kids. More on our excellent and cheap car rental below. Food is expensive in Hawaii but awesome and we ate our weight in Poke and ice cream and fish-and-chips and fruit, mostly at casual spots, health food stores, and food trucks. If you’re wondering how much we spent in total, it was around $2500-$3000 with all those things included.
Flights
I booked our flights back in June, a solid 9 months before our trip and was able to get roundtrip flights to Maui for 35,000 points/person. I checked multiple times after booking and I never saw it that cheap again. Of course we were flexible on days and time to fly and ended up taking a redeye home to get a full last day (plus the kids really wanted to try an overnight flight). It was our first redeye as a family…and hopefully our last. While the kids slept through the 5 hour flight, Garrett and I got maybe 2 hours each between announcements and turbulence and beverage services. The next day was rough!
We used points for the flights, which we accumulated from our Alaska credit cards over the years.
Hotel
We stayed at the Residence Inn Wailea on Maui. It’s an extended stay hotel so all of their rooms have a kitchen and living space and by some miracle we were upgraded to a one-bedroom. The pool and free breakfast were a big hit with the kids and the location is within walking distance to the beach.
I originally booked 5 nights, since I had 5 free night awards to use. Marriott’s credit card used to offer 5 free nights when you signed up, which my brother-in-law kindly turned me on to - unfortunately that deal is now down to 3 nights. When we decided to use our free nights for a spring break trip, I searched on Marriott’s website about 9 months before and selected the flexible dates feature, inputting 5 nights in March for 5 guests. The Residence Inn Wailea hotel was the only one that popped up (aka it was their only hotel in Hawaii where we could use our free nights - everything else needed more points or didn’t fit 5 people). It ended up costing 22,000 points on top of the 5 free night awards.
In December we realized that we needed a 6th night at the hotel after we booked our cabin due to availability constraints on the cabin and by this point, the room rates had increased. But I watched the price carefully and was able to take advantage of a special deal where Marriott discounted the room to 60,800 points (at one point the room was over 70k points for a night) and another deal where Marriott was offering 1.5x points for transfers from Chase, so in the end the extra night used up an additional 40,533 of our Ultimate Rewards points.
Cabin
The Wainapanapa State Park cabins are basic but so dang cool! They each have a bedroom with double bunks and another set of bunks in the living room. There’s a basic kitchen with microwave, fridge, and hotplate, and a full bathroom. There’s no wifi or screens at the cabins making them the perfect place to unplug and connect as a family. We played cards on the front deck, read, hiked along the ocean, and just spent time together. Basically my dream beach shack!
Booking these cabins is no small feat - they get scooped up within seconds of opening. Garrett and I had to wake up at midnight Hawaii time, exactly 3 months before our stay, hop on our laptops and try to out click everyone else trying to get them. Garrett was able to snag cabin number 2 (while I tried and failed to get two of the other open cabins, getting a ‘this cabin is being booked’ announcement within seconds of midnight). Our backup plan was to check a tent on the airplane and camp in their campground, which had plenty of availability.
You can see more about the cabins here and click the reservation tab and sign in in order to book a cabin. Note cabins don’t come with plates, utensils, bedding, towels, etc so you have to bring those or rough it.
Rental Car
I didn’t include the rental car in our $400 budget, but we ended up renting a minivan through Turo. It was a great experience! We booked it 9 months in advance for $700 ($800 with the optional insurance) and the car was sitting in the airport parking lot when we arrived and we dropped it off right outside the departures gate.
So if you wanted to to create a trip like this using points here’s the quick summary steps:
Select the credit cards you want for your trip and apply for them well in advance of when you’d like to book the trip - we found that booking ~9 months ahead gave the best deals. Note the free night awards from Marriott arrive after the 3-month initial spend period and expire 12 months after that so you’ll want to plan accordingly. Chase points don’t expire as long as you keep your card.
Get on airline email lists and keep an eye out for airfare sales to your destination.
Book your accommodations once you have your free nights/points. Remember Chase points can be transferred to Alaska or Marriott. The best deals will usually be through the the airline or hotel chain itself, so transfer points and book directly from them.
Look for additional accommodations at cool cabins and houses in state and national parks, or other camping opportunities nearby.
If we were going to do recreate our exact trip with the same points, here’s how I’d do it:
As early as possible, Garrett and I would get chase sapphire cards and put all our expenses on them for 3 months, making sure we’d both meet the minimum spend to get 60k points each. We’d also continue to use the cards for our basic spending to accrue additional points.
12-15 months before vacation: Both Garrett and I would apply for Marriott cards, staggering the applications by one month. We’d then put all of our expenses on one card for one month or two and then switch to the other card the next month, to assure we both met the minimum spend and get our 3 free nights each.
12 months before vacation: we’d look and see how many chase points we had. Based on our trip totals, if we had accrued over 200k, then we would have enough for our airfare (175k points) and additional Marriott points with the free night awards (these can vary from 0 to lots more but our booking required an additional 22k). We’d simply open an Alaska miles account (with no credit card attached). If we don’t look like we’ll have enough Chase points, then we’d open an Alaska card or two and meet the minimum spend and get the bonus 60k miles.
~9 months before vacation: we’d book our 6 free nights at a Marriott under two reservations (my 3 free nights and then Garrett’s 3 free nights). If the booking required any additional points, we’d transfer them from Chase.
With our hotel booked, we’d start watching airfare and as soon as we found a great deal, we’d transfer any necessary points from Chase to Alaska and book it.
Book any additional cabins or camping as soon as they’re available (3 months out in the case of the cabins we stayed at).
Then we’d enjoy the heck out of the vacation!
That’s how we stayed in Maui for 10 nights for $400. And we’re definitely already thinking about inexpensive travel for next year :) Someday we may try a house swap service too - seems like a fun way to go!
Safe travels!
xx
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