West Coast to Hawaii from $350 Round-Trip
By Cynthia Drescher. Photos: Getty.
As Audrey Hepburn famously said, "Paris is always a good idea." Well, we'd argue the same goes for Hawaii. It's an even better idea when there are airfare deals of $350 round-trip to the islands—like, right now, with airlines putting several Hawaiian destinations on sale from the U.S. west coast for summer travel.
Flights are available on all three of the "big" U.S. airlines: American, United, and Delta. We searched Google Flights and found fares like Portland to Honolulu on AA in May, July, and August for $350; Seattle to Kona, on Hawaii's Big Island, in June or August for $351; and San Diego to Maui for $351 from May clear through January of 2018.
This is some of the best round-trip pricing we've ever seen to Hawaii and, oddly enough, Virgin America is partially to thank. Even though Sir Richard Branson's American endeavor is now a part of Alaska Airlines, with the brand due to disappear in 2019, it's still competition on routes to Hawaii. Last year at the this time, the airline began flying from Los Angeles to both Honolulu and Maui, complementing their routes from San Francisco. Virgin America shook up the west coast-to-Hawaii business and introduced what were, at the time, unbelievably affordable starter round-trips as low as $350 to $400 when the average airfare on other airlines was at least $700. Virgin America may have lost the battle to remain its own airline, but the rush on flight deals to Hawaii has stuck around, and forced other airlines to offer lower-priced specials to the islands.
So what's Hawaii like during the summer? As you know, it's tropical and close to the equator, so there isn't much variation. The average high is 85 degrees and the water temperature may get as high as 80 degrees. Summer means gentler waves and less chance of rain, but larger crowds thanks to ideal weather and school summer break. Regardless of season, there'll be hidden beaches to explore and the sunrise from Haleakala to Instagram. Check out our Readers' Choice Awards rankings for the best resorts in Hawaii for even more inspiration.
How to book: Visit Google Flights and search your preferred cities and dates of travel, keeping in mind that the best deals are for summer travel to Honolulu (HNL), Maui (OGG), and Kona (KOA) from west coast cities like Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, and San Diego. Other cities, such as San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Spokane, are also showing Hawaii flight deals available from $450 to $550 for August and September.
This story originally appeared on Conde Nast Traveler.
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