A Walk on Waikiki Beach

Last month, we stayed in Hawaii for 8 nights as I spoke about the planning process in a previous post, "How I Booked an 8 Night Hawaiian Vacation for $153.52". Let me tell you how much a DREAM it was. Hawaii was (as you can guess), absolutely beautiful! I was expecting it to be gorgeous, but this was on another level and now I totally get why people travel 13+ hours on a plane to get to this heavenly place. 

We waited to go out exploring on our 2nd day there since we were so jet lagged from the flight and the time change! On our first adventurous day (on the island of Oahu), we decided to take a walk on the famous Waikiki Beach! Our plans for the day included a hike, snorkeling, beach time and sight seeing. I wanted to wear something that was comfortable, light and tropical...so I chose this AMAZING romper by TulaRosa. 

This romper worked out perfectly! It was so easy to wear and was very breathable. I loved the ruffles and the gorgeous lavender/purple color. I typcially don't like wearing purple, but this was kind of a pastel, so I thought it would be okay :)

I rented it from Rent the Runway on their "Unlimited Plan". The plan gives you access to 3 designer pieces at a time (you can choose from thousands of items) and you can also swap them out for new items as often as you want. I typically do the unlimited plan if I have a bunch of events to go to because it is a lot cheaper than buying a bunch of designer dresses that I won't get much use out of later on. Plus it's free shipping both ways and they dry clean everything for you! You get 20% your first month using code: FIRSTRTR20P. It's actually a much better value to do the the plan compared to renting one time from Rent the Runway. They charge you for shipping if you rent one single item and sometimes, the shipping can be around $30 (depending when you need the item). I think it's fun to wear dresses and accessories you wouldn't normally purchase because of the high price tag!

This was our view while walking along Waikiki Beach! That's the famous Diamond Head volcanic crater in the background. It was so majestic to see in person!

I paired my Amethyst Pendant Necklace and Tiny CZ Gold Necklace with the romper. I thought the natural lavender and white colors of the Amethyst pendant matched nicely with the entire look. 

You can't have a day outside in Hawaii without sunglasses AND a hat (especially for this Irish girl!). I picked up these cute rose gold & black sunnies at LOFT (currently on sale for $15) and the straw hat is by Billabong.

This was shot was taken right outside of our hotel, the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach. Overall, our 2nd day in Oahu was a BLAST. I plan to write about our adventures in details soon! Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @wanderandblush for more travel photos!

How I Booked an 8 Night Hawaiian Vacation for $153.52

Hawaii has always been on my travel bucket list! From the bright blue ocean water, to the tropical drinks & the amazing views… not to mention you don’t need a passport to get there, it sounds like the perfect recipe for a fun, relaxing and eye-opening vacation!

Years ago, I thought the flights to Hawaii and the hotels at the various islands would result in thousands of dollars out of my pocket. I now know that if you do spend that much on plane tickets or hotel nights, you are not traveling smart and you must love to throw your money away! :) You don't need to be a millionaire or anywhere close to that to fulfill your dreams of a five-star Hawaiian vacation! All you need is dedication to planning your trip, some flexibility and hotel points & miles! Using points & miles saves you a TON of money and is completely worth it in the end. So, here’s how I booked 8 nights in Hawaii and saved myself almost $5,400:

The Flights

The flight is the first thing on my to-do list when planning a vacation. We booked our flights on United.com using United miles. James (my husband) and I both signed up for the United Mileage Plus credit card a while back which earned us each 50,000 miles after spending the minimum amount required. Since we earned these miles separately, we booked our reservations separately and just selected seats next to each other on the flights.

Our flights cost us 51,000 miles plus $11.20 in taxes each. Typically, you can get a round trip ticket to Hawaii for 45K miles on United; however we booked an extra flight between Oahu & Maui for an additional 6K miles. Without using miles, our flights would have cost over $1200 each, yikes!

Our Flight Schedule:

Orlando to Honolulu (22.5K miles)

Honolulu to Maui (6K miles)

Maui to Orlando (22.5K miles)

Total: 51K miles

TIP: If you book your flights using your United MileagePlus credit card to pay for the taxes (or paid flights) you get two free checked bags and free priority boarding. Something to keep in mind, because otherwise it's $25 for your first checked bag and $35 for your 2nd checked bag. Eeek! Now that we have the flights covered, we need to find amazing resorts to stay at...

The Hotels

There are so many beautiful resorts in Hawaii; however it was really easy to pick the ones we were going to stay at since we had free hotel nights at certain chains.

Three Nights in Oahu on Waikiki Beach:

I earned two free weekend nights at essentially any Hilton property (with the exception of a few high-end resorts) from my Citi Hilton Reserve Credit Card I had signed up for last year. We decided to book two nights at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort on Waikiki Beach located on the island of Oahu. I also had 36,888 Hilton points from various purchases from the Citi Hilton card that I knew I would probably never use since Hilton’s redemptions for free nights using points is super high. The Hawaiian Village costs 50,000 Hilton points for a free night, so I decided to purchase an additional 13,122 points for $131.12 to get one more free night at the resort. Since I have the Citi Hilton Reserve card, it automatically gives me Hilton Gold status which includes free Wi-Fi, free bottled water, an upgrade to the best available room on the day of arrival, and at this resort we'll get a $10 daily credit voucher for food & beverage at the resort. The credit is for me and one additional guest so since we are staying three nights, we get $60 in free food & beverage... not bad, huh? We would have spent $1040 for three nights if we didn't use points/free night certificates!

Five Nights in Maui:

Maui was super simple to book. We decided to stay at the Hyatt Regency Maui as it comes highly recommended by friends and family and it only costs 20K points per night. James signed up for the Hyatt Chase credit card which gave us two free nights and we transferred 60K Chase points to Hyatt for the other three nights. Having the Hyatt Credit card automatically gives us Platinum status which gives you late checkout, free Wi-Fi, and a few other perks. We earned the 40K Chase points through a combo of credit card sign-up bonuses from the Chase Ink Card (60K points) and various purchases. The 5 night stay would have cost us roughly $1900 if we didn't use points!

Bonus!

We booked a Sunset Dinner Cruise in Maui for 16,488 Chase points (which normally would have cost $206) It’s a great way to use your Chase points since you get 20% discount for using your points and booking through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.  I love to use my points for activities that include a meal & drinks since you get more bang for your buck (in this case points).  

Overview:

• We booked our flights for 51K miles plus $11.20 each. We earned the miles from each signing up for the United MileagePlus Explorer Credit Card (however, the current sign-up bonus is only 30K points right now). I would recommend signing-up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card for the current 55K sign-up bonus or the Chase Ink Credit Card for the current 60K sign-up bonus and transferring your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United miles at a 1:1 ratio. 
• We booked three nights at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Oahu using our two free weekend night certificates we earned from the Citi Hilton Reserve credit card and one extra night using points (36,888 points earned plus 13,112 points purchased). 
• We booked 5 nights at the Hyatt Regency Maui using our two free Hyatt nights earned by signing up for the Hyatt Chase Credit Card. For the other three nights, we transferred 60K Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt at 1:1 ratio. We earned the 60K points by signing up for the Chase Ink Credit Card. 
• We booked a Sunset Dinner Cruise in Maui for 16,488 points using the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. 

Total we WOULD HAVE spent:

$2400 on flights + $2940 on hotels +$206 on dinner cruise = $5546

Totals we actually spent:

$22.40 flight taxes + $131.12 hotel points = $153.52

We saved $5392.50!

So, there you have it everyone! Now... I need to go pack for our tropical trip of a lifetime! Check back for my next post which is going to be all about packing essentials for your next trip! For more Travel posts, check out the Travel section on my site!

 Do you have any travel advice for Hawaii? What are your favorite activities to do on the islands? Let me know in the comments. 

If you liked this post, sign-up to receive free blog posts via email and you will never miss an update!

Follow the journey @WanderandBlush 

A Romantic Getaway: Falling in Love with Paris in Just Three Days

Paris is such a magical place for a romantic getaway: the gorgeous structures, manicured gardens, the laid back atmosphere, and of course the flowing champagne! 

As I talked about in my two previous posts here and here, we stayed in Paris for three nights on our way home from our honeymoon and it was such a delight! We both have never been to Paris before, so experiencing this amazing city together for the first time was a dream. We decided this was going to be our “relaxing” part of the trip as we just came from doing every major thing there is to do in Rome and we wanted to wind down and just relax.

Paris is a place you can go back multiple times and experience new things every time, so I wasn’t worried about seeing everything as I know we will go back someday.

Day 1: An early start and a wonderful surprise

With a VERY early morning flight from Rome and one connection in Germany, WE ARE FINALLY HERE! Baguettes and champagne here we come!

We decided to be adventurous and take the train to get to our hotel instead of spending €50-€60 for a cab. With our dependence on Siri to tell us how to get everywhere basically all of our adult lives, this sadly was going to be a challenge. As delirious as we were, we thought this was a GREAT idea!

Well, with a little help from the English speaking airport employee, a detailed map he gave us and Google maps on our phone... we found our hotel! It only costs €10 per person for the train so we were pretty proud of ourselves for figuring it out.

TIP: You can use your phone’s Google maps even if the data and cellular service is turned off. It just shows where your blue dot is in relation to the city’s maps but it’s very helpful still.

We checked into the Park Hyatt Vendôme, however since it was about 10am our room wasn’t ready so we decided to walk to a café to grab a bite to eat. 

We got burgers A LOT.

Product Review: The NuMe Travel Kit

About two years ago, I discovered a hair tool that 100% changed my hair styling game. I have naturally curly hair; which is a blessing AND a curse sometimes as I’m sure everyone feels about their own hair at some point in their life. As a teenager, I wanted stick straight hair and I spent countless hours trying to achieve that look. As you guessed it, this was a complete waste of time and all that resulted was a frizzy fro at the end of the night & damaged, split ends. Over the years, I have learned to embrace my natural hair and the NuMe wand has really helped me do that.

Some days, it’s easy to just wash and go and wear my hair naturally curly, but other times I want my hair to look more defined & put together. My go-to tool used to be a curling iron, but those curls never held throughout the day & night…no matter how much hairspray I used!

One day, I stumbled upon the NuMe Products website and decided to purchase one of their curling wands, and let me tell you… it is my favorite hair tool to date! The curls stay ALL night long... even without using hairspray! I have turned all my friends & family onto this tool and they are as obsessed as I am. I even made my hairstylist use this tool on my wedding day and she loved it so much she bought one too!

Planning the Trip of a Lifetime on a Small Budget: Booking Luxury Hyatt Hotels on Points

We have all heard the saying “you get what you pay for” implying the less you pay, the less value you get out of it. In most situations, I totally agree with that statement, however with traveling on points & miles this is not the case AT ALL. 

Today, I am going to talk about the logistics behind booking luxury hotels using points instead of real money and the two different ways that lead me to three free nights at a luxury hotel in Paris! 

As stated in my previous blog post, James and I stayed three nights at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendôme during our honeymoon and it was magnificent! We loved the level of service we received, the location of the hotel and the overall feel & look of our room and the hotel surroundings. We saved thousands of dollars by booking our stay with points (see my previous post for a breakdown of the savings) and today I will explain how we did it exactly.

First off, when planning a trip I almost always look to see if there is a Hyatt we can stay at. Not only because their hotels are almost always clean & beautiful, but because their hotel points give you SO much more value as opposed to programs like Hilton or Marriott.

I have always wanted to stay at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendôme. Park Hyatt is Hyatt’s luxury brand of hotels and when something is free, why not go for top shelf?

The front of the Park Hyatt Paris

Here are the steps I took to stay here for free:

Intro to Planning the Trip of a Lifetime on a Small Budget: Three Days in Paris

James and I spent our honeymoon touring Italy, France & Spain and this week I'm going to talk about my favorite city we went to, Paris! Paris is everything you want it to be and more. From the quaint cafés nestled along the The Avenue des Champs-Élysées, to the gorgeous glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower at night, it really does have that magical feel you see in the movies.

Gloomy day in Paris, still beautiful!

Our first Parisian café

Since we were already flying from Orlando (MCO) to Italy (FCO) for our 7 night cruise along the Mediterranean, we decided at the last minute to book a stopover in Paris on our way home and I couldn't have been happier with that decision!