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Category: Hawaii
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This is our 2nd week on Maui, and we are staying at Maui Banyan in a 2 bedroom unit via Karma RCI External. The unit is fabulous and the whole resort is set way back from South Kehei road and is very quiet. Our unit is Q307 and we were told it is one of the most sought after unit in the complex. We left Brenda and Gary who moved to Sands of Kahana. Their unit is on the 7th floor with full ocean view, simply fabulous. 

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Category: Hawaii
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Over the past few years I have become a fan of the Peer-to-Peer car rental site TURO. Back in Sept I started shopping for rental cars for this Hawaii trip. Got a killer deal for our 2 weeks in Maui via Hotwire to Alamo - about $20 a day. But for the Big Island part of the trip, which spans Christman and New Years Eve, the prices were terrible, starting around $85 a day! So I did some Turn shopping and landed a pretty good deal on a Prius, I forget the exact price, but it doesn't matter because within 24 hour the owner/renter cancelled the deal, probably realzing that they had giving a "normal rate deal" for the holiday season. So, I went back to searching and did finally end up with a fair deal. I communicated with the owner/renter and all sounded great. Back in Sept we left it at, "we'll get back in touch when the trip gets nearer. So this morning I sent her a text; within an hour I go a reply say that she had to CANCEL our reservation. WHAT THE ........! I then spent an hour on the photo with TURO, getting lots of sympathy, but ultimately NO CAR. To get a car with them right now would cost 2 1/2 time what I originally paid. So Nanqi started looking for deals online as I was chatting with the TURO folks and did find a car. But we are now booking last minute, before a holiday week....imagine that, it is a bit PRICEY. 

The outcome of all this will likely be less endorsement of TURO on my part in the future. I am generally a big fan of the growing Peer-to-Peer economy (think eBay, Uber, etc), but this lesson today may make me a bit more reluctant to choose individuals over corporations when it come to decisions of cost and convenience.

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Category: Hawaii
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This is our last trip of the year - clearly we return on the 31st of December.  This is also the longest we will have stayed in Hawaii: 24 days total.  We have been to other tropical regions around the world including Fiji, Tahiti, French Polynesian Islands, Bahamas, Caribbean, we have to say, NOTHING BEATS HAWAII, at least for us.  To make the deal even sweeter, we are here with our dear friends Brenda and Gary.  Happy Hour every hour...

First week we are at Kahana Villa Unit E314: a very efficient 1 bedroom unit with updated amenities and furniture.  This resort doesn't supply beach chairs and unbrella unfortunately.  There is salt and pepper for the kitchen, and that is all.  

Subcategories

Japan

We didn't stay in Japan other than an overlay at Norita Airport.  Yet, the difference is: we stayed in the 9H (9 Hour) capsole hotel. 

Hawaii