EVERETT — A ticket to paradise was 10 minutes from my front door.
Alaska Airlines started a nonstop seasonal flight from Everett to Honolulu on Nov. 17, 2023. Ten days later, I was on it.
It was a last-minute birthday getaway with my husband. Or jet-away, in this case. The round-trip airfare was about $500 per person then. It still is, depending on when you travel.
The flight from Paine Field, five miles from home, made for a relaxed departure. There was none of the torture of getting to SeaTac. Our son simply dropped his parents off on his way to work, with plenty of time to spare.
Getting through TSA was a breeze, not a pain. The plane to Hawaii was filled with people giddy to escape the gray.
Six hours later, we were in the tropics on a shuttle bus on streets lined with palm trees. The shuttle driver was a young woman from Boston, where she’d been a guide on a Duck Boat, so she had the guide thing down pat. Navigating rush-hour traffic, she pointed out the highlights and history of the island.
It took about 45 minutes to go the 10 miles from the Honolulu airport to Waikiki Beach, where many vacationers flock. The driver told us things to see, how to get places using the island’s mass transit, and a way to get free desserts: Say it’s your birthday or anniversary.
Anything helps. Hawaii is not cheap, regardless of where you stay. (And it really was my birthday.)
Waikiki Beach is tourist-centric, like the Las Vegas strip with big hotels, stores galore, bars and restaurants. Very developed, but also with beautiful beaches and an island vibe.
We stayed at The Royal Hawaiian, a resort hotel built in 1927 and known as the “Pink Palace of the Pacific.” Marriott Bonvoy owns it now. Tucked among the cluster of towering high-rise hotels in modern-day Waikiki, its Spanish-Moorish architecture and flamboyant color stands out like a pink elephant.
In contrast to its loud paint job, the Royal Hawaiian is a relatively quiet place, attracting honeymooners, boring old people like us and some families as well. I used Marriott hotel reward points for the first night in the palace for a standard room with ornate pink wallpaper, plush beds and a view of the lush garden. It would have cost at least $500 a night, the going rate at beach hotels that week.
For the next three nights of our stay, I splurged on an oceanfront corner room on the 10th floor of a newer tower addition to the original palace. Our large private lanai had a full frontal view of the infinite sea and Diamond Head crater. Even with a hotel senior discount that beat any Costco or Expedia travel deals, it was more than I’d ever spent in my life for a room. I figured we’d cut corners on other things.
At night the turquoise water turned into a lullaby of crashing waves. When I close my eyes, I can still hear it in my mind.
That’s priceless.
Here’s the lowdown:
1. If you leave something at the Paine Field TSA checkpoint, not to worry. There’s a good chance you’ll be reunited with it. The loudspeaker announced a lost Marshalls bag of items, an Apple pen, and a purple knit beanie were waiting at the checkpoint.
By the time “Group A for Aloha” boarding was called for our flight, the first two items had been claimed. When “Group B for Buttered Biscuits” was called, the purple beanie was still waiting to be reunited with its owner, despite three pleas, and I boarded not knowing its fate.
2. Anyone wanting to escape the gray winter days of the PNW will have a grand time in Waikiki. It rained half the time we were there, but it wasn’t the same as rain in Washington. Something about palm trees and 80 degrees.
3. You don’t have to pack everything under the sun. There are ABC Stores on every block. The stores have beach floats, T-shirts, rain ponchos, snacks, ukuleles, anything you need.
ABC Stores have a lot of buy-two discount deals to entice you on saving money while spending more. I repeatedly tried to get my husband Max to get matching Hawaiian tropical shirts, delightfully tacky at $21.99 each or two for $40. He refused.
Other couples wore them. “That poor guy even has the shorts that match,” Max said on a stroll down the busy main drag.
But he was all-in for the ABC Store deal on bottles of screw-top wine, $7.99 each or two for $15.
4. With so many options, it was overwhelming trying to choose a hotel. A friend suggested the Royal Hawaiian. It was a playground for the rich and famous in 1927 when it ushered in a new era of luxury resorts in Hawaii. At that time, it took seven days to get there by ship. The upper crust wanted to look at foliage, not more water, so many of the rooms have garden views.
The hotel has grand hallways, arches, carved doors and a relaxed elegance.
There is a lot of pink at the pink palace. Pink pancakes at the cafe. Pink-and-white striped bathrobes in the rooms. Pink rubber bracelets serve as room keys and magically unlock the door. If you go to a paint store on the mainland, you can ask for Royal Hawaiian pink. If I painted my Everett house that color, it would stand out like the Royal Hawaiian — but not in such a good way.
The pink hotel is right there on the flat sandy beach that is as pretty as the travel brochures. Two lounge chairs and a pink umbrella were $100 a day to rent. It might have been tempting in blazing sun. No beach umbrella was needed in the warm gentle rain, which felt good. So did saving $100.
A four-course dinner with wine pairing at the hotel’s exquisite Azure restaurant is about $500 for two, including tax and tip. We didn’t dine there. The three-hour luau, at about the same cost, was sold out.
5. There are numerous places within walking distance to eat. A hotel worker told us about the Barefoot Beach Cafe, a casual locals’ outdoor diner walking distance from the hotel cluster. We had kalua pork and cabbage, with smoothies served in a carved-out pineapple, and listened to live music as the sun dipped into the sea. The entire meal was $60.
Some friends living on the island took us to Eating House 1849 in the International Market Place. We shared small plates of ume-glazed pork bao, crab pillows, spring rolls and ribs in the bustling restaurant with island fusion fare. It was $150 for four, including a $40 bottle of Washington wine. And I got a complimentary birthday treat: A fancy little cake with whipped cream, fruit and a sparkling candle.
Another meal was a carryout at a nearby ramen place, where the tab was $50 for two giant bowls of soup and a side of chicken wings. Sipping ABC Store wine, we ate on the balcony of our pricey room and listened to the rain and the music from the hotel bar next door. Our lanai was so private we could have shed the pink-and-white robes and sat there naked. And maybe we did.
6. The hotel offered free activities such as morning yoga, hula lessons, a history tour and crafts.
It was like being a kid at summer camp. We made beaded bracelets and floral leis. It takes about 40 cut orchid petals to make a pretty purple lei. The needle used to make leis is very long and pointed. It can take an eye out if you are not careful.
We wore our handmade leis to hula lessons. So maybe we didn’t need those matching ABC Store shirts, after all.
We could have taken boat excursions, snorkeled, hiked Diamond Head or rented a car for a day to explore the island. Instead we drank cheap wine, took dips in the ocean, napped on the beach using an unlimited supply of free hotel towels, and soaked in the hot tub where we were often joined by kids bored with playing Marco Polo in the pool.
“The minions,” Max called them.
Hawaii never gets boring.
But island time flies by. Before we knew it, we were back at Paine Field, where in the terminal soon a new “Group B for Buttered Biscuits” would board for Hawaii. The fate of the purple beanie remains unknown.
Sound & Summit
This article is featured in the spring issue of Sound & Summit, a supplement of The Daily Herald. Explore Snohomish and Island counties with each quarterly magazine. Each issue is $4.99. Subscribe to receive all four editions for $18 per year. Call 425-339-3200 or go to soundsummitmagazine.com for more information.
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterbrown.
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