Hawaii vacation news & deals: October 19, 2016

* Outrigger Hotels and Resorts just launched a loyalty program, Outrigger DISCOVERY. It’s free to join. After you’ve joined, you can enter to win a great sweepstakes of 18 nights free at nine Outrigger resorts across the Asia-Pacific (including Hawaii) and Indian Ocean. See this link for more information about the sweepstakes.

* Have you heard about the new animated Disney movie Moana that’s set in the Pacific with Polynesian and Hawaiian influences? Hawaiian Airlines is offering a sweepstakes to win a trip to the premiere or HawaiianMiles (enough for two roundtrip tickets to Hawaii from the US mainland) and other prizes. See this link to learn more and enter.

* Right now is a good time to be thinking towards a winter warm up in Hawaii as lower fares are starting to become available. (Actually, just this week, we just booked our own winter warm up trip for early March.) Hawaiian Airlines has fares starting at $398 for travel dates between January 9 and March 15, 2017. For the lowest fares on Hawaiian, you must book by October 20 and travel on Mondays through Thursdays. If Hawaiian doesn’t fly from your city, see these strategies for getting the best airfare from your area.

* Conde Nast Traveler announced this year’s Readers’ Choice Awards for the 30 Best Resorts in Hawaii. We’ve stayed at 22 of the 30 resorts on the list. If we could, we’d rerank some of the winners, but overall we agree that these resorts are the among the best in Hawaii.

* You might want to think twice about bringing home a lava rock or sand as a souvenir after reading this article

about the mysterious reason tourists keep mailing rocks back to Hawaii.

* If you are going to Maui for New Year’s Eve, we’ve updated our annual list of things to do and ways to catch the island’s big fireworks event. See this post: Maui New Year’s Eve fireworks & Special Celebrations 2016/2017.