3 nights enough time?

kstaack · Jan 20, 2017

For those that have been to Aulani before do you think 3 nights is enough time before heading to another island.

I think we would spend most of our time at the resort. Maybe leaving one day for a island tour from 3 - 9.

That would give us a a solid 1.5 days at the resort uninterrupted. And then .5 day on arrival and .5 day before leaving for another island. I was thinking of taking a 3:30 interisland flight but could do later in the evening.

I don't see us laying by the pool all day. We are more morning pool people to try to avoid the crowds.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

cedricandsophie · Jan 20, 2017

We are probably not the right people to respond, but we have been there four times and going again in May. We go for 10 days at A time, one bedroom ocean view, using DVC points. We never leave, just hang out at pool all day, play tennis at the hotel next door, go out to eat, spend hours in the lazy river, work out,
Etc. We have been all around the island so there is no reason to leave. We always hate leaving so three days would kill us!

CaliAdventurer · Jan 20, 2017

I also have to say that 3 days would be a tease. I would suggest that if you are only going to do a few days that you do it at the end of your trip rather than the beginning. We did it the wrong way in Asia once and it reuined our trip. Do the most relaxing resort last.

KBinCO · Jan 20, 2017

cedricandsophie said:
We are probably not the right people to respond, but we have been there four times and going again in May. We go for 10 days at A time, one bedroom ocean view, using DVC points. We never leave, just hang out at pool all day, play tennis at the hotel next door, go out to eat, spend hours in the lazy river, work out,
Etc. We have been all around the island so there is no reason to leave. We always hate leaving so three days would kill us!

Sorry to interject, but is it easy to get a tennis court next door? Do you need to pay/reserve them?

CalifLynn · Jan 20, 2017

It probably depends on your family. We are doing our first trip to Aulani in March and are only doing 3 nights, but we are not planning on leaving the resort. Our thought is arrive day 1, figure out where everything is, etc. day 2 spend entire day at the pool and beach, day 3 check out the spa maybe walk up to the beach to see if there are any turtles, day 4 check out and explore rest of Oahu. We have done Hawaii many times and at any resort after about 4-5 days we are bored with the resort and ready to explore something different. That is just us, maybe we get bored easily. Also, our only child is now a 15 year old, so much of the amenities won't be of interest to us. I could see if we had younger kids who would enjoy Auntie's then maybe we'd spend more time. We love Disney and my DD has been begging to go to Aulani, but even she feels like there are only so many times she can go down a water slide.

kstaack · Jan 21, 2017

Thank you. I think we are going to change things up and stay four nights. This will give more time at the resort and more time to enjoy the island maybe some side trips in the afternoon if we get bored with the pool. I don't see us laying by the pool all afternoon. I really think the Maui portion of our trip will be more relaxing than our time here.

alohamom · Jan 21, 2017

kstaack said:
Thank you. I think we are going to change things up and stay four nights. This will give more time at the resort and more time to enjoy the island maybe some side trips in the afternoon if we get bored with the pool. I don't see us laying by the pool all afternoon. I really think the Maui portion of our trip will be more relaxing than our time here.

I think you wont regret adding the extra night. I assume you are coming from the mainland and if you are hitting Aulani first it takes the first day or two to adjust anyway. Our family will spend hours in the lazy river alone, I know it sounds crazy but the time just seems to pass by and the next thing you know you are hungry or the sun is setting. Even with traffic, you can get around Oahu pretty quickly so I like your idea of taking some extra time to explore. It takes about 45 mins to an hour to get up to the North Shore from Kapolei and about the same to get over to the beautiful east side beaches like Kailua, Lanikai or Waimanalo. They are well worth the drive, as they are much different than the man made lagoons at Aulano/Ko Olina.

Aviator621 · Jan 21, 2017

As a starting point, I think 3 days (or even 4 days) is way too short for any of the islands, especially if you have never been before. In my humble opinion, if you only have a week, stay on the same island. That being said, I think you need to look at it in reverse--what do you want to do on each island, and how much time does it take? For example, a visit to Pearl Harbor can be half a day to a day by itself, especially adding in drive time (and rush hour traffic). A full circle North Shore tour will take you about 3 hours with no stops. So it might help if you outlined what you want to see on Oahu and Maui?

brimorga · Jan 21, 2017

Aviator621 said:
As a starting point, I think 3 days (or even 4 days) is way too short for any of the islands, especially if you have never been before. In my humble opinion, if you only have a week, stay on the same island. That being said, I think you need to look at it in reverse--what do you want to do on each island, and how much time does it take? For example, a visit to Pearl Harbor can be half a day to a day by itself, especially adding in drive time (and rush hour traffic). A full circle North Shore tour will take you about 3 hours with no stops. So it might help if you outlined what you want to see on Oahu and Maui?

+1 on this. Traveling between islands is like throwing away a day. A day in paradise, regardless of the island. Unless you're staying for at least a week on each island, don't do it!!

GooglyBear808 · Jan 22, 2017

Our first trip we stayed 4 nights and I felt that it was enough time to experience and enjoy what Aulani has to offer. To each their own!

Peace.love.mickey · Jan 22, 2017

I think 3 days with NO interruptions is a good way to get a taste of it. I think 4 days would be better!

nkereina · Jan 23, 2017

We spent 6 nights at Aulani, but spent 3 of those days off-site doing other things. That gave us 3 full days at the resort. We are all day lay by the pool type of people, and we felt 3 days gave us enough time to enjoy the resort. During that time, we had spa treatments, breakfast at Ama Ama, lunch and dinner at Ulu Cafe, breakfast and dinner at Makahiki, drinks at Off the Hook and Olelo Room. We also managed to eat at Pizza Corner and Monkeypod, and had time to walk down to the Marriott to check it out. I'd say we did just about everything we wanted to. We would have had time to snorkel too, but we weren't interested. So, if you're not lay by the pool type of people, I think you might do ok with 3 nights.

nkereina · Jan 23, 2017

Aviator621 said:
As a starting point, I think 3 days (or even 4 days) is way too short for any of the islands, especially if you have never been before. In my humble opinion, if you only have a week, stay on the same island. That being said, I think you need to look at it in reverse--what do you want to do on each island, and how much time does it take? For example, a visit to Pearl Harbor can be half a day to a day by itself, especially adding in drive time (and rush hour traffic). A full circle North Shore tour will take you about 3 hours with no stops. So it might help if you outlined what you want to see on Oahu and Maui?

I'll respectfully disagree, just to offer another perspective. We spent 3 nights in Waikiki, 3 nights in Maui, 3 nights in Kauai, and 6 nights at Aulani. It was a lot of traveling which is less than ideal, but I feel we got to see and do a lot of what we wanted during our 3 days. We were surprised at how much we could get done during the time. In Maui, we wanted to relax so we spent a lot of time doing that, but we also did a luau and cruised around Lahaina. We would have had time for Road to Hana and Haleakala, but just didn't want to do it. In Kauai, we did a boat tour of the Na Pali Coast and a helicopter tour. We would have had time to do Waimea Canyon, but didn't want to. Sure we didn't get to see the whole island and there's a ton more to see or do than what I've mentioned, but considering we were on a possibly once in a lifetime trip, we wanted a taste of each island which is exactly what we got. We found it was worth it.

Vernie822 · Jan 24, 2017

We had 6 nights and 5 full days. We did 3 nights with about 3.5 full days at Maui beforehand. I absolutely don't think that 5 full days was enough at Aulani. I personally would do no more than maybe 4 full days, but that's just me, because I enjoyed the resort soooo much! Maui on the other hand, the resort (Grand Wailea) was great, but no Aulani, so after 3 full days I had seen about all I wanted to see at the resort itself.

TagsMissy · Feb 8, 2017

I think the answer is very subjective. Our last trip was 8 nights and I felt it was way too short. Our next trip we're going for 10 nights and staying in a 1BR vs a studio... I know I am going to wish we'd stayed 2 whole weeks. I am considering a split stay between either views or studio/1BR to make my points work without borrowing too much.

happymommy · Feb 9, 2017

I'm totally the wrong person to ask, because while we stay next door at the Marriott, we go for two weeks, and last trip that was too short. This summer I'm going for a month (studio for two weeks just DD and me, then DH and DS join us for another 17 days in a one bedroom, as if we get the tower we want it also has a sitting room that fits a rollaway bed).

During that trip, after they join us, DD and I are going over to the Big Island to visit a friend living there and to spend one day at the volcanoes park, so we'll be likely there for 4 days.

We do tend to leave the resort almost daily, either to go out to lunch or to run to a store, or the flea market, north shore once, Kailua (where we used to live) once, make Costco runs, etc....

ktlm · Feb 9, 2017

Last summer we spent 4 nights at Aulani and 4 nights on Maui. One of our Aulani days we left the resort and went to Dole and the PCC. After that, we cancelled our plans to go anywhere else because we did not want to leave the resort. We decided we would do our island exploring on Maui. There are certainly plenty of other things we could have done on Oahu, but we were on that particular island mostly because of Aulani anyway. 4 nights should give you enough time to experience Aulani itself--- you probably still won't be ready to leave Aulani, but you will still get a good Aulani experience. Just FYI- there pretty much is no avoiding the crowds in the Aulani pool area. The pool chair race starts when they open. Plus, at Aulani- a pool day is much more active than at a typical resort pool area. It is not really just laying at the pool all day. There are multiple pools and the lagoon, the lazy river, the slides, the activities, the characters etc. Our day went more like--- hang out at the pool a bit-- go float the lazy river awhile--- go meet and greet Goofy at the edge of one pool--- do the slides a couple times-- walk over to see some characters on the lawn- walk back to the pool for a bit-- have a mango mojito at the pool (not DD) --- walk over to Off the Hook Poolside dining- or grab CS at one of the other places-- watch the pool party while DD participates- go snorkeling at Rainbow reef (DD and DH- not me) -- go to the pool that overlooks the ocean-- decide to walk down to the lagoon-- go paddleboarding in the lagoon--- swim or lounge a bit at the lagoon-- have a mango mojito at the lagoon-- go for a walk-- go back up to the main pool etc. Basically, at Aulani the only time I was dressed other than in a swimsuit with a cover up over it was for dinner. That doesn't count the activities you can sign up for like learning the ukulele, drawing characters, and several more, none of which we found time for. It doesn't count the time you could spend doing the Menehune Adventure Trial (similar to Agent P missions at EPCOT) and DD wanted to do every bit of that. I'm not one to spend much time at a resort itself when I travel, but I could easily park myself at Aulani and not move for a week.

FireflyTrance · Feb 9, 2017

I’ll give an alternative opinion since the last time we went to Aulani we only stayed 2 nights. It’s a beautiful resort and I could easily spend a week there, but I think a shorter trip is still worth doing. Last time I went it was peak season and I wasn’t able to get a DVC room. We decided to pay cash for a room but since that’s expensive we only stayed 2 nights. The rest of the trip we stayed in Honolulu. We arrived at Aulani early in the morning and never left the resort until the afternoon of our check out day. We were able to visit all the pools, the beach, do the character breakfast, Starlit Hui and have dinner at Ama Ama.

This year we are going for 3 nights and then going to Maui for 4 nights. I plan to stay at Aulani the entire time we are on Oahu. If you’re staying 4 nights or less I suggest not making plans to go elsewhere and just enjoying the resort.

William Z00mer Groom III · Feb 9, 2017

kstaack said:
For those that have been to Aulani before do you think 3 nights is enough time before heading to another island.

I think we would spend most of our time at the resort. Maybe leaving one day for a island tour from 3 - 9.

That would give us a a solid 1.5 days at the resort uninterrupted. And then .5 day on arrival and .5 day before leaving for another island. I was thinking of taking a 3:30 interisland flight but could do later in the evening.

I don't see us laying by the pool all day. We are more morning pool people to try to avoid the crowds.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

I think it would depend how often you have been to the islands, My family look at the Aulani as the destination and not some where to lay our heads as we would do at the parks. The beaches at the Aulani are great and not crowded, the pools likewise, but saying that we have left the resort for the day exploring and hiking the island.

OKW Lover · Feb 12, 2017

Obviously there are different "right" answers for each family. Our first visit to Aulani was for 3 nights (which was after an 18-night cruise from Sydney) and we really enjoyed it. The next year we decided to go for 7 nights, followed by a 7-night PoA cruise. The following year we decided that we enjoyed Aulani so much we would spend our entire vacation there - 11 nights.

3 nights enough time?

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