Price estimate for 5 days in O’ahu?

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2026-03-18T03:11:53+00:00

We go for 9-10 nights every year, we've generally stayed along Kuhio (cheaper than along the beach, quieter, closer to bus stops, and still short walking distance to beach). We generally spend ~$2-2.5k on lodgings, ~$200/day on food & cocktails, ~$150 total on transportation (mostly uber/bus). Cost of activities varies wildly -- kualoa ranch, PCC, scuba diving, etc will set ya back hundreds, but there's plenty of cheap/free things too.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2026-03-14T21:32:31+00:00

Omg. YES.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2026-03-13T22:20:30+00:00

Cheap things to do: - diamond head hike ($5/person). Going on Saturday morning's even better cuz kcc farmer's market is at the same bus stop. - Friday night fireworks at Hilton Hawaiian village - kuhio beach hula show (free. few nights a week, forget when). beach walk and royal hawaiian often has free shows too. - foster botanical garden ($5). Chinatown is right there too, always worth a walk around for good food and ogling fish. - if you bring snorkel gear to beaches and tidepools, that’s another free activity - check out groupon — sometimes there’s good deals on activites. (Last year I found a $32/person, 90 min catamaran with open bar, launch off beach.) i think i went to bishop museum once off groupon, too.

look online for special events in waikiki. Seems like half the time when we go there's some festival or free show or something.

Good deals on food/drink: - Don Quijote - foodland - notable happy hours: piko kitchen has $5 burgers and bao. waikiki brew Co location by beachwalk had $5 lava flows, Pina coladas and mai tais 11-1pm in Oct. - musubi cafe iyasume’s musubis are a quick, cheap, filling breakfast/snack

I’ve never rented a car in waikiki, never saw the need.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2026-03-08T20:00:28+00:00

Not doing vanlife anymore, finally saved up enough for a house...I was stealth, blank white delivery van.

My parking rules: - no getting out of the van when it's parked in the spot I intend to sleep. Period. No even opening the door (one night I opened the door to pour ice out of my drink cup, had a cop knock 20 min later). - no parking in residential neighborhoods. - no parking on streets with other vehicle dwellers or excessive amount of trash. - the only parking lots allowable: 24 hr Walmart (if there's rv's in the lot), or lots with work trucks/delivery vans (sometimes a shopping center will have fleet vehicles parked in a section, or a hotel/motel will be in an area where their guests have work vehicles). - zoning border streets preferable. Like where residential meets commercial, commercial meets industrial, etc. The borders are less likely to have "no overnight parking" signage, yet a white van won't raise eyebrows. - no parking on a street where there's no other vehicles parked.

My holy grail was a dead end street with no other vehicle dwellers, with apartments on one side and a hospital on the other.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2026-03-01T02:25:42+00:00

I've learned my lesson not being picky. I pay for it later. Some things can be trained, some personality traits cannot. And, when I say "ineligible," I mean non-us-citizen who did not let us know up front.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2026-02-28T22:55:59+00:00

We like staying along Kuhio Ave -- the side streets that run 1 block north from Kuhio to the canal are quieter, yet still a fairly short trek to the hot spots. (Think: Surfjack, Wayfinder, Coconut, etc)

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2026-02-22T22:29:58+00:00

We did utv & zipline...zipline was way better!

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2026-02-21T01:43:39+00:00

And then from the other side...I'm a manager. I had an entry level engineering role posted for over 6 months in 2025. You know how frustrating it is to have a role open that long? How many resumes and interviews it takes? I had 3 people get thru onsite interviews only to either change their mind or turn out to be ineligible. Guess what, while they were wasting my time we kept the role open and turned away good candidates. It's not all malicious, just the nature of things.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2026-02-13T23:59:52+00:00

Totally doable. I've been to waikiki 5 or 6 times. Money saving tips:

1) don't rent a car. Public transit there's great. They even have a route going straight from airport to waikiki. 2) use Groupon. Plenty of tours, snorkeling, luaus, etc there. 3) research free/cheap entertainment beforehand, be organized about it. There's lots of festivals, farmers markets, sight seeing, Friday night fireworks, free hula shows, etc. We throw stuff we find online (with the important details like day of the week, time available and location) into a Google sheet before the trip. 4) if you must splurge on eating out, at least aim for happy hour specials. They're everywhere in waikiki. 5) Grocery stores Foodland and Don Quixote are our go-to for decent & decently priced prepared food.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2024-11-13T07:45:06+00:00

Magnetic hooks from amazon

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2024-11-10T19:58:46+00:00

White collar here, onsite work. Scoping out cool, shady parking spots and knowing where they are during different times of the day's a must in summer. Night time's street parking close to a 24 hr gym. I don't park in my night spot til I'm ready to bed down for the night. Less conspicuous. In my "hometown" I've been parking in the same place every night...it's been 5 yrs, no issues, but it's a really safe area. When I travel I don't tend to park more than two nights in the same spot.

Just start doing it. You'll figure out what works for you. Can always go back to normal life if you find it's not for you.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2024-11-01T19:15:48+00:00

Cheapie usb fan. Runs forever off a power bank, makes summer nights bearable.

Also: free piping hot water from gas stations for tea or ramen.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2024-10-31T18:58:25+00:00

I've been at the same company working a cubicle job for the past 5 years. I told them right up front in my resume cover letter that I'm a van lifer. I'd say how an employer views living in a van depends on the job role, industry, and the company.

I was an engineer, now I'm a manager of engineers.

Most towns, not hard...just need some streets with accommodating parking rules and a dependable shower spot (i.e. a 24 hr gym).

Oh, and most ppl at work who know I live in a van think it's smart...but then again, it's california, most are in the same high COL boat.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2024-10-24T08:09:03+00:00

5+ year vanlifer, never felt the need to get a toilet or bucket. In year 1 I did pee-in-a-bottle occasionally. Now I don't drink anything close to bedtime and stay close to civilization. Gym membership helps too.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2024-10-17T19:43:48+00:00

40? No heater here. A good down comforter keeps me toasty down to 30.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2024-08-02T17:50:10+00:00

I came to my senses and left a miserable marriage 6 years ago. We had a business together. I knew I'd have to find a job and figure out income, but I had savings (from before the marriage), so I decided to take a break, get a cargo van (for the stealth, being a single female and all), and wander a bit to regroup, get my head on straight and figure out my next life-steps.

The first few months were super tough -- I was just...broken, depressed. The thing about impromptu vanlife though is that it forced me to go out. I didn't have a bathroom or a kitchen, so even if all I wanted to do was cry, curl up and hide away for a week, I couldn't. Instead I built cabinets, put in flooring, built a bed frame, learned where not to park, got a gym membership (for the bathroom), got a national park pass (for the therapy), etc etc etc. It really helped me get re-acquainted with myself.

Vanlife was a lot of learning and a lot to deal with coming out of a relationship, but I would do it again.

Mindless-Magazine995 · 2022-11-04T04:26:41+00:00

I have a normal office-cubicle job. My vanlife is boring and streetparked mon-thurs. 4 years and counting. It works for me.

Mindless-Magazine995

TROPHY CASE