When Hawai'i Was "Cheap"

I have been clearing out my mother's attic this week, as we are getting ready to sell her house. I have stumbled across a treasure trove of items she saved from our years in Kailua, including some pristine-condition photo negatives of our house.

I also came across an old issue of a tourist newspaper, "The Waikiki Beach Press", which I picked up on our way home from Hawai'i for the last time in early June 1966, and an issue of "Sunset" Magazine from 1968. Both had some wild ads!

First up, from "Sunset", an ad for the then-new Sheraton-Kaua'i at Poipu notes that room rates are...$9 to $10 per night. Air fare from the West Coast to the Garden Isle was $100, and if you wanted to stop over in Honolulu it was 5 bucks more.

Two years earlier, Hawaiian Air Tour Service offered a 1-day tour of all 8 islands for $75. This included an early-morning flight from HNL, with a flyover of the Pineapple and Forbidden Islands, then touchdown at Kailua-Kona for breakfast and a limo tour. After a short hop to Hilo and a limo tour of the Rainbow Falls and orchid gardens, the plane then flew over the Valley and Friendly Isles on its way to Kaua'i. After arrival on the Garden Isle, the tour included a visit to Lihu'e, followed by a short trip up to Wailua to take the Smith's Boat Tour to the Fern Grotto. After takeoff from LIH, the plane flew up to the North Shore, down to the Na Pali Coast, and then a flyover of Ni'ihau before the trip back to Honolulu, just in time for dinner. Such a deal!

In the same issue, their competitor, Sky Tours Hawai'i, charged 10 bucks more for an all-day tour, but it had some things the HATS tour missed-after takeoff from HNL and a flyover of Lana'i and Mau'i, the plane landed in Hilo for the same orchid and waterfall tour-but then flew back to Mau'i to Kaanapali, for a ground tour of Lahaina and lunch at the Sheraton there. Then it was back on the plane for a short hop and ground tour of the Kalaupapa colony on the Friendly Isle. Finally, they flew west over Ni'ihau and clockwise up the Na Pali coast, before landing at LIH. Then the touristas got a candlight dinner at the Kaua'i Surf Hotel. This is now the Marriott.

Sounds like both tours were worth doing!

More golden oldies tomorrow.

Click on the post title to see the HATS planes.