It’s wild to me that I have taken my family to Hawaii twice in the past two years. If I can do it, so can you!

Flights / Transportation: Roundtrip Kansas City (MCI) to Kauai using our Southwest Companion Passes and points. The cost for the 4 of us to fly was just under $45. Check out this blog post if you want to learn how to earn Southwest Companion Passes on Repeat. If I had paid cash for our flights, it would have been $4,865.

I booked our rental car using the Chase Travel℠. I always pay $5-$10 for my rental car with my Chase Sapphire Preferred since it offers excellent rental car coverage, and the rest is taken care of with Chase Ultimate Rewards. 

I paid 30,000 points for a midsize car for the 6-night stay this time.

Stay: We transferred Chase Ultimate Rewards to Hyatt. I booked the Grand Hyatt Kauai for six nights using 25,000-30,000 points per night, depending on whether it was considered PEAK. This was made possible because I hold the Chase Sapphire Card, which gives me access to 14 incredible transfer partners, including Hyatt. 

The total cash value of the hotel room would have been $6700! We would have never spent this much money! Thank goodness for points.

Oh my gosh! We loved this property. There were so many incredible perks that we took advantage of with Globalist Status and from the resort fees that paying guests pay.

The resort fee covers complimentary sunscreen, beach chairs, and umbrellas that you are welcome to take off property, activities for kids including a bracelet and tei lei making, a lobby scavenger hunt where the prize was the cutest stuffed animal sea turtle, and much more. My daughter loved these activities and bonus a free souvenir!

Snorkeling: My number one goal on this trip was to help my daughter become more comfortable snorkeling. We hit up some pretty epic beaches and snorkeling. Poipu Beach is where we saw the most sea turtles; we had the entire beach to ourselves at Anini Beach, which was magical. At Ke’e Beach inside Haena State Park, the water was so many shades of navy and turquoise. You need to have a parking pass to access this beach. My favorite beach was Tunnels Beach. The water was so calm, sand bottom, and so many beautiful fish.

Hiking: We did a short hike recommended by my favorite tour guide app, Guide Along, near Waimea Canyon, but my favorite hike was Heritage Trail right next to Grand Hyatt Kauai. The views were incredible, and it was easy to moderate.

Food: Thanks to my Hyatt Globalist status, we ate breakfast at the hotel lounge every morning and dinner or snacks there about half the time. My kids loved being able to grab a bag of Maui chips and a cookie to eat by the pool in the afternoons. This really helped with the overall cost of food. Eating in Hawaii is expensive, and every little bit of savings helps.

Here are some budget-friendly restaurants we visited while in Kauai. Puka Dog is across from Poipu Beach, Porky’s, Koloa Pizza, and Koloa Mill ice cream in Koloa Villiage, and Eden Coffee and a delicious taco truck across from Koloa Villiage.

Final thought:  Before I started traveling with points and miles, I never thought Hawaii would be within my budget, let alone at a bougie hotel. Thanks to points and miles, we are taking our family on many incredible adventures and have no plans to stop!

Cards that made this trip possible

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card

Ink Business Cash® Credit Card

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