The Associated Press' Beth Harpaz has a wonderful story on MSNBC about her family's trip to Hawaii, and how she made it affordable. Rather than going on helicopter tours and attending pricey luaus, the Harpaz family spent time together exploring the islands in a more economical fashion.
"We hiked through rain forests, walked across a volcano floor, stargazed from the world's tallest mountain, and swam in a bay so full of colorful sea life that it was like stepping into an aquarium," she writes. "We visited Pearl Harbor, climbed Diamond Head, sunbathed on Waikiki and body-surfed at Hanalei Bay. We saw petroglyphs on a remote seaside trail, and watched Hawaiian dancers in a park at sunset. We even stopped by the apartment building where Barack Obama was raised (1617 S. Beretania St., Honolulu), because I wanted my city-born kids to see that you don't have to grow up in a mansion to be president.
"The cost for these activities, aside from parking or car entry fees: Zero."
The article is not just a great travelogue — it should be required reading for agents whose clients think a trip to Hawaii has to be prohibitively expensive. There are plenty of experiences throughout the island that are free or very affordable, as Harpaz proves, and families can enjoy a wonderful vacation without breaking the bank.
Best of all, if your clients come home from a vacation that they've not only enjoyed, but that they found was affordable, they'll be much more likely to ask you to arrange their next trip.
Read the story here…
