Planning a trip to Hawaiʻi can be overwhelming—how much will it really cost, and where is your money going?
Our Trip Cost Calculator helps you make sense of your budget by combining official tourism data with your unique travel details. This page explains exactly what information we collect, how we calculate your costs, and what insights you get in your personalized report.
Table of contents
Table of Contents
What We Ask in the Trip Planner Quiz
We start by asking a few targeted questions to understand your travel plans. Your answers help us model realistic costs based on group size, dates, lodging preference, and activity interest.
- Number of travelers
- Trip start date
- Nights per island (Big Island, Oʻahu, Maui, Kauaʻi)
- Accommodation style: hotel or vacation rental (STVR), plus quality tier
- Daily per-person budget for food, entertainment, shopping
- Rental car plans per island
- Activity interests
How the Calculator Produces Your Estimate
Once you complete the quiz, we generate a personalized estimate based on your inputs and the latest tourism data. Here’s how each part of your trip is calculated:
1. Accommodation Costs
We calculate lodging costs using ADR (Average Daily Rate) data by island, month, and accommodation style. We project prices using month-specific trends from 2022 up to the most recently available dataset, which is typically released with a short delay of a few months.
Group size affects how many rooms or guest fees are applied.
2. Rental Car Costs
Daily rental rates are based on HTA visitor spending data, projected forward by island. We adjust costs using island-specific rental usage ratios and include estimated fuel and parking fees. We assume 1 car per 4 travelers.
Estimates include the average daily rental cost for the island(s) you’re visiting, projected using historical spending data from the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority (HTA). We apply multi-year trends to estimate likely future prices. The calculation also includes $100/week for fuel and a $30/night parking fee if you’re staying in a hotel. We assume one rental car per 4 travelers.
3. Food + Activity Budget
Your input for daily budget is multiplied by the number of nights and travelers. We compare this to the HTA’s historical visitor spending and show how your plans stack up.
4. Interisland Flights
We assume one interisland flight per additional island visited, plus one return flight to your point of origin. Estimated airfare is based on typical rates.
5. Group Size Adjustments
- Hotels: 1 room per 2 people
- STVRs: Each unit accommodates up to 10 guests. The base rate includes 2 guests per unit; an extra $25/night is added for each additional guest beyond 2 in each unit.
Calculation Details, Assumptions & Sources
Calculation Logic
Most costs are calculated using: Daily Rate × Nights × Travelers. Lodging and transportation are adjusted for group size, accommodation type, and local pricing patterns.
Why Nights, Not Days?
Each night represents a full spending day. For example, 15 nights implies 15 full days of activity and lodging.
Limitations
- Regional pricing variation may not be fully captured (e.g., Hilo vs. Kohala Coast).
- Some STVR regions only publish quarterly or cumulative data, which we reconstruct monthly. This leads to a larger extrapolation uncertainty for those regions.
- International airfare to/from Hawaiʻi is not included.
Extrapolation Methodology for Future Cost Estimates
To estimate future trip costs, we apply linear extrapolation to historical tourism data sets:
- Accommodation Costs (ADR): Monthly Average Daily Rates are projected independently for each calendar month using a linear trend. These projections are based on historical ADR data from 2022 on. For example, to estimate lodging costs in February 2026, we analyze February rates from each available year and apply the average year-over-year growth trend.
- Daily Visitor Spending & Rental Car Costs: These categories are reported annually by the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority as per-person, per-day averages. We apply a linear model using data from 2010 to the most recent dataset available to project future values. (2020 data is excluded due to pandemic-related anomalies.)
Reconstructing STVR Data for Finer Regional Accuracy
Short-Term Vacation Rental (STVR) ADR data is not published monthly for all regions. To improve accuracy for regions with limited reporting:
- Monthly Reconstruction: For regions with only YTD data available, we calculate each month’s ADR by subtracting the previous month’s cumulative value from the current one.
- Quarterly to Monthly Conversion: For areas with quarterly YTD data (March, June, September, December), we treat each as the cumulative ADR for the previous three months. We then allocate that total across individual months based on the state-wide monthly distribution pattern.
This reconstruction process lets us estimate monthly ADRs for smaller or underreported regions, improving the geographic and seasonal precision of our calculator.
Refining Rental Car Cost Estimates
Rental car costs in our calculator are derived from the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority’s (HTA) annual data on average per-person daily spending on rental vehicles. We project these figures forward to your travel year using linear trends based on historical data.
Because these averages include all visitors — even those who don’t rent a car — they understate the true cost for travelers who do. To correct for this, we adjust the figures using island-specific rental car usage ratios, based on HTA-reported rental car participation rates and known differences in transportation infrastructure:
- Oʻahu: ~58% of visitors report using a rental car, but even those do not necessarily rent a car for their whole trip due to the presence of walkable areas like Waikīkī and hih parking costs. We estimate rental car use for ~50% of trip days → adjustment factor: × 2.0
- Maui: Driving is essential due to limited public transport → adjustment factor: × 1.11
- Kauaʻi: SA rental car is typically needed for nearly the entire stay → adjustment factor: × 1.05
- Big Island: Large distances and sparse transit options make cars essential → adjustment factor: × 1.11
We then convert this per-person-per-day cost into a per-vehicle estimate by multiplying by the average group size (2.3 people), as reported in HTA visitor data. This allows us to model a realistic rental cost for your group while accounting for island-specific usage patterns.
Primary Data Sources
- Monthly Hawaii Hotel Performance reports: (monthly average daily rates for hotels)
- Monthly Hawaii Vacation Rental Performance Reports: (monthly and quarterly average daily rates for short term vacation rentals)
- Yearly State tourism and spending reports from DBEDT: (yearly average spending data)
- Quarterly Visitor Satisfaction and Activity Reports: (yearly car rental usage ratios)
What You Receive
1: Island-by-Island Cost Reports
- Trip summary with lodging type and duration
- Cost breakdown by category
- Spending comparison to average visitors
- Island-specific travel tips
2: Tour Budget Check
- Cost summary of selected activities
- Suggestions for saving and planning guides
3: Money-Saving Tips
Based on your trip details, and including ideas for free and low-cost activities.
Frequently Asked Questions
We use current tourism data and realistic assumptions to generate your estimate. While prices may vary, our goal is to reflect what travelers actually spend based on your preferences.
No — only in-state costs like lodging, rental cars, food, activities, and interisland flights are included.
Yes. The calculator adjusts for group size and accommodation style automatically, including added guest fees for rentals.
Overnight stays better reflect cost exposure — for example, 15 nights means 15 days of spending, regardless of calendar span.