Bertsch family trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, April 22-30, 2002.
The images below are all photos. Click here for movies
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I arranged for a passenger van to pick us up and take us to the airport.
We have 6 people travelling including 4 adults, 2 kids, two car
seats for the kids, a stroller for Danny, and all our luggage. There
was no way all our stuff would fit in an ordinary cab or town car. 9am
the van picks us up at home.
Flew MSP-SEA and same plane on to HNL on the 22nd. Depart MSP at 1130am
or so, local time. Arrive HNL at 530pm or so, local time. Flew on a DC-10,
Northwest airlines, first class.
At HNL, changed planes to Hawaiian Airlines (first class again),
depart HNL at 7pm or so
and arrive KON (Kona) about 8pm.
We rented a van from Alamo and drove 20 miles
or so north from the airport, to the resort. Amazing, but
all of our stuff fit in the van. Four adults, one 4 year old, one 1 year old,
2 car seats, a stroller, and all our luggage. We had a chevy venture which is
a nice mini-van with sliding doors on both sides, and a lift-up door in the back.
Alamo had the best deal by far for this sort of transportation. The only thing
bigger I could find was a "club van" from Hertz at a huge price. I tried to
find a suburban but could not locate one.
We stayed at the
Hilton Waikoloa Village, an amazing resort originally built by Hyatt
for almost $400 million, and later sold to Hilton for about $200 million.
It sits on about 65 acres and has a train and some shuttle boats to get
around, many interesting pools, water slides, and man-made lagoons, and
over $3 million worth of artwork throughout the property. And some of the
most expensive restaurants on earth! Had we purchased breakfast, it would
have been $20 or more per person. Luck that I am a Hilton Diamond and we
were able to eat for free in the "Executive Lounge" reserved for high
status Hilton Honors customers.
Monday April 22nd - travel to Hawaii. Check in to our suite and go to bed.
Tuesday April 23rd - settle in to the hotel. Not much going on.
Wednesday April 24th - drive north a few miles to
Hapuna beach. Very nice,
rated in the top 10 for the whole USA.
Thursday April 25th -
almost 12 hour van tour of the island - 7am to 630pm
in a 24 passenger van with 23 people including the driver. We covered
about 260 miles. Wow. What a beautiful island and so much variety!
Friday April 26th -
visit the city of Kona and go to a nice restaurant
for lunch - the restaurant used to be a "Chart House" and has a beautiful
view being right on the water in an area with lots of waves.
Saturday April 27th
Sunday April 28th -
boat cruise on a 60-foot catamaran
to historic Kealakekua bay, including 90 minutes or so
of snorkeling
Monday April 29th -
Eddie got to make "Smoothies" with the kids at Hilton's
"camp Menehune." Ed and Betty go to Kona for dinner while Arlene and
August watch the kids.
Tuesday April 30th - check out of hotel, have lunch and begin our trip home. Flew
first class from KON to HNL on Hawaiian airlines and then direct HNL-MSP on
Northwest, in first class (world business class seating) on a Northwest 747-200
jumbo jet. The upstairs section was full so we sat downstairs, row 18. Flew all
night and got home about 1 hour early - at 530am. Was met by the coach driver
who got a skycap guy to help with all our luggage. Got the luggage pretty
quickly and proceeded to the "special call" section of the MSP airport where
our coach waited for us - they had upgraded us
to a
12 passenger coach instead
of the van. It was much nicer. We arrived home at 630am or so.