This was an unusual trip in terms of costs, even for us. A typical Grampies trip does include an inordinate cost component for grandkids' souvenirs, including mailing them back so we don't have to carry them, plus normal mailbacks as we always find we have too much gear. This time around, souvenirs played an even greater role, since we thought the kids would be extra interested in the unique Hawaii things that had brought us here in the first place.

But accommodation loomed as a big item too, for a couple of reasons. First off, accommodation, of any type, is just plain expensive in Hawaii. That includes camping, where $42 is the price for us at a County park. The next thing that happened was that even with a number of camping places already pre-paid, we had to switch to B&B or hotel, because Dodie's knees were keeping her from tenting. So not only did we forfeit prepaid camping fees, but we scrounged up indoor accommodation at the last minute. That opened us to paying up to $160 for a single night.

Overall, accommodation became almost half our cost, and souvenirs were a quarter of the total! How crazy is that!

Other than food, these categories were the only ones that mattered (we included transfer to and from airports in this, but not the airfares or baggage charges themselves). Thankfully, we had no cost for bike repair (and not even one flat) and no medical cost. We needed no new or different clothes or gear. Had we hopped on a tour to the top of Mauna Kea, that would have jiggled the figures, because such a tour would have cost $400. We passed on it, because of the high accommodation costs.

Overall, cost was $3700 excluding airfare, for 24 splendid days. That's almost 50% more per day than we expect for a trip in "America". But then Hawaii is not really America, is it?

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