Tag Archives: Hawaii

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My Mix of Emotions about the Devastating Fires on Maui and Lahaina Town

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Good afternoon everyone.  My heart goes out to everyone (residents, businesses, and visitors) affected by the terrible fires on Maui and the devastating images from Lahaina Town.  It is hard to find the right words to describe the terrible scenes from such a beautiful, tropical paradise.  I’ve been lucky enough to visit Maui a few times throughout my life and I have always made sure to spend a day or two walking around Lahaina.  Looking through my photos from Maui, here is the last one I took of Laura and I under the iconic Banyan Tree in the heart of Lahaina.

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Grant & Laura under the Banyan Tree in Lahaina (June 2022).

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Have you Read my Most Popular Posts of 2022?

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Good afternoon, from rainy Northern California.  Every year, I like to check out my stats from Google Analytics to see which blog posts were the most popular.  I created 2 lists by looking at all blog posts written in 2022 and then I looked at which posts were read the most in 2022, but written in previous years (#stayingpower).  I will list the blog posts from top to bottom based on pageviews, share the original published date, and provide my thoughts or a short summary of each blog post.  If you are curious, here were the most popular posts from 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.

2022’s Most Read Posts (Written in 2022)

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Ask Me Anything (AMA) about Vacasa Vacation Rentals or Booking with Wyndham Rewards Points

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  A few weeks ago, Laura and I went to Hawaii for vacation.  During that trip, we stayed at a total of 3 Vacasa Vacation Rentals on Maui and Oahu.  I have 7 different Vacasa stays under my belt, so I wanted to reach out to readers to see if they had any questions about booking or staying at Vacasa properties.  A few months ago, I wrote Stop Ignoring Vacasa Vacation Rentals! Get Awesome Condos for 13,500 Wyndham Rewards Points per Night.  I also wrote Booking Vacasa Vacation Rentals with Wyndham Rewards Points is Really Easy (Just Call).  With that said, here are the Vacasa properties and dates of my past stays:

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AutoSlash Saved Me $425 on 2 Hawaii Car Rentals (Final Results)

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Good evening everyone, I hope the first day of Summer is treating you well.  A few weeks ago, Laura and I went to Hawaii for vacation.  We needed to rent a car on Maui (OGG) for 3 days and another car on Oahu (HNL) for 4 days.  Naturally, I turned to AutoSlash to help find the cheapest car rentals for my vacation.  Last August, I wrote AutoSlash Saved Me $1300+ on 2 Hawaii Car Rentals (Final Results).  Rental cars were crazy expensive in 2021, so I didn’t expect huge savings in 2022, but AutoSlash did a great job and saved me $425 on 2 rental cars.  In this post, I will show you the final results and how many times I rebooked each reservation.

To get started, my original 3 day car rental on Maui was $360 and my original 4 day car rental on Oahu was $463.  I booked these reservations on April 9 and the car rentals were for June 7 and June 10.

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My Good & Bad Experience with 2 Vacasa Vacation Rentals in Hawaii (Booked with Wyndham Rewards Points)

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  A few months ago, I booked 6 nights in Kauai (4 in Princeville and 2 in Poipu) with Wyndham Rewards Points for stays at 2 different Vacasa vacation rentals (read My Experience Booking Vacasa Vacation Rentals with Wyndham Rewards Points).  Since I have the Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card, I get a 10% discount on all awards stays, so the cost per night was 13,500 Wyndham Rewards Points (or 81,000 points total for 6 nights).  In this post, I will share the good and bad experience I had with these 2 Vacasa vacation rentals.

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