How expensive REALLY are the groceries, eating out and...

I have only been to Oahu once years ago. I have heard, especially over the past several years, how expensive Hawaii/Maui has become in regards to groceries, eating out, entertainment, ect . . . I%26#39;m just wondering how much more you would pay in the grocery stores, eating out- average prices for lunch and dinner? golfing, spas and the cost of like an evening dinner cruise? (and if possible, comparing it to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and/or Ixtapa, Mexico). Thank you!!

How expensive REALLY are the groceries, eating out and...

I live in Southern California so to me the prices are not that much different. You will find certin items at the grocery store priced much higher, bacon was $7.00 a pound, but on the average I would say the bill is about 10 to 15% more than my local store. As for eating out again I would say about 10 to 15% more, average price is hard to say as there are many choices to choose from. We always stay in condos so we usually make our breakfasts and lunches.

I can%26#39;t help with the Mexico comparison as any traveling we do is to Hawaii.

How expensive REALLY are the groceries, eating out and...

I agree with Sherpa, everything seems to be about 10% higher than the mainland. If your room has a mini frig. stock up on lunchmeats, buy some condiments and have lunches in the room. Whatever you do, don%26#39;t pass up an opportunity to buy some local mango%26#39;s at any roadside stands you may see. They are unbielievable, the grocery store ones don%26#39;t compare, not even in Hawaii. If you belong to Costco, hit the one by the airport as you arrive and pick up bottled waters, snacks etcetera. I think I recall a dinner cruise costing us about 75 each, the food was not impressive though, you%26#39;re basically just going for the scenery, which is very nice looking back at the Maui hillsides.

Can%26#39;t compare to Mexico but here are a few Maui prices I can recall:

@ grocery store...

cereal was $6 vs. $3 at home.

Case of bottled water ranged from $7 to $15 vs. $5 at home.

strip steaks were $8/lb., same as home.

baby greens and onions were same.

Sword and tuna were $12-$16/lb, a little pricey but unparalleled.

The finer restaurants we enjoyed averaged about $130 including a good ($30-50) bottle of wine. 10-15% more sounds right. This includes Pineapple Grill, Kula Lodge, Vino, Casanova, Pacific%26#39;o. Plantation House was more but we went wild there. Lunches can get expensive at the nice places but there are more cost effective alternatives like the Honokowai Okazuya and Deli and Maui Tacos that are delicious but not very expensive.

Entertainment (luaus, helicopter rides, etc.) can be expensive but hard to compare since I can%26#39;t do a horseback ride into a volcano in PA.

Golf is very expensive but there are opportunities to save by going later in the day.

As for snorkeling we paid $8 per day for decent equipment and did our own touring - fantastic.

Hope this helps.

If you are careful and shop at Costco your grocery bill won%26#39;t be much different than home. Over the years we have found restaurants that are reasonably inexpensive by Maui standards: BJ%26#39;s Pizza, Maui Taco, Charley%26#39;s in Paia, so our restaurant bills aren%26#39;t much different than home. The excursions are somewhat pricey - $25 - $40 for a whale watch is the most reasonable way to get out on the water. As far as snorkling goes; we have come to the conclusion that we can snorkle from shore and get just as good a day as the crowded boat full of people, that parted with $100 or more, who are snorkling from their boat anchored 200 yards from where we are swimming for free. (The exception is a day trip to Molokini or Lanai). Most other water activities that I can remember are in the $100 - $200 range.

Golf, from what I%26#39;ve seen, is very pricey although we%26#39;ve never gone.

Hope this helps.

I think we did find grocery prices to be maybe 15-20% more than here in Seattle. I think a lot depends on the type of foods you buy. Some things are a LOT more (milk for example was pretty expensive), while others were not too far out of line.

Restaurant prices were also higher than here - but there are lots of different places to eat at all price ranges, so it%26#39;s still pretty easy to find a ';reasonably'; priced place to eat - even if it means you don%26#39;t eat in quite as fancy a place as you might at home. A lot of places the locals eat at have pretty decent prices and the food is generally very good (though usually these places will have a bit less ambience).

Ken

You can%26#39;t compare Hawaii to Mexico, they are like apples and oranges.

If price is your only determining factor for a vaction look into going to India, food is dirt cheap there as are activity prices.

Things cost more in Hawaii because for the most part they all have to be shipped in.

You can save some by getting a Costco memebership.

Agree with previous posts--HI is more expensive but savings can be had.

Get/bring a Safeway card, get a makai card for Foodland, check out K-Mart and Walmart for snacks and other groceries, check out Long%26#39;s for liquor and macnuts, coffee, etc. We found the bottled water @ Safeway was reasonable. Can%26#39;t comment on Costco because I refuse to pay to shop (we have similar no-fee shopping options).

Safeway%26#39;s specials flyer is available online if you want a sample of grocery pricing.

Eat at local places--plate lunches with a salad make a very fine meal! Splurge on a really nice place every now and again. Buy some Hawaiian coffee and make your own--much cheaper.

My husband was snorkelling, down at Makena, with a group from a charter. He got into the water from shore, they took the boat down. Savings: about $75.00.

We have booked an evening at Mulligan%26#39;s down in Wailea. 3 course dinner and entertainment (Wailea Nights) for $50/person, excluding tax/tip/liquor, which seems quite reasonable.

We always bring a soft-sided cooler with us. Freeze water bottles and that keeps everything chilled and provides refreshment later in the day.

We stayed in Wailea this past July, restaurants in the resort hotels were pretty expensive. Dinner for my husband and I averaged $150 a night( for 1 appetizer, 2 entrees, 2 desserts, %26amp; non-alcoholic drinks. We don%26#39;t drink so increase that figure if you add alcohol. Add another $25 a night for room service for the kids. We got a nanny some evenings so we could enjoy our nights out. Lunches at the resorts (poolside, room service, or restaurants) also ran $12 - $25 for sandwichs, burgers, wraps, or pizzas. Drinks $4 a piece and up. We probably spent $75 a day for lunch for 4 - we were traveling with our 2 toddlers. If you venture out you can find much cheaper alternatives from Mc Donalds prices, to average, to overly expensive. Breakfast buffets at the resorts are $25+ per person, there are many local restaurants where you can get breakfast for Denny%26#39;s prices. We probably spent around $45-$65 per day for breakfast for 4 depending where we ate. Dinner cruises will cost you $70 - $85 depending on the cruise you choose. We travel a lot and it seems that food prices at higer end resorts are about the same no matter where you go - expensive! For a 7 night stay we spent over $2000 for food alone for our family of 4. This was our first time to Maui so we wanted to try all of the best restaurants, i%26#39;m sure you could get by spending much less. Didn%26#39;t do the spa this visit but treatments at the Four Seasons were mostly well over $100 to $300+ depending on the type and length of the treatment or a package of treatments.

I%26#39;m going to keep this sort and sweet....the food is pricy and when dining out alot of times it%26#39;s not worth the $ you spend. For activity pricing go to www.activityworldmaui.com/ for general pricing on most activitys. Just go and enjoy

yourself, there is no place like maui.

Ditto on Costco. You may pay a membership, but the quality of meat can%26#39;t be beat, and the prices do save you more than the membership fee.