Kauai Travel Guide: How We Traveled on Points & Miles
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Nicole is a mom, wife, travel enthusiast, teacher, and audiobook nerd ready to show you how to travel for nearly free using points and miles!
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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 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 and booked the Grand Hyatt Kauai for six nights using 25,000-30,000 points per night. The total cash value of the hotel room would have been $6,700! Thanks to points, we stayed at this luxury resort without the hefty price tag.
The resort fee covers complimentary sunscreen, beach chairs, activities for kids, a lobby scavenger hunt, and more. My daughter especially loved the bracelet and lei-making activities, and she got a free souvenir—a stuffed sea turtle!
Activities & Excursions
Snorkeling in Kauai
My number one goal on this trip was to help my daughter become more comfortable snorkeling. We hit some incredible beaches:
Poipu Beach – Saw the most sea turtles
Anini Beach – Had the entire beach to ourselves; magical
Ke’e Beach (Haena State Park) – Stunning shades of navy and turquoise (requires a parking pass)
Tunnels Beach – Calm waters, sand bottom, and beautiful fish
We did a short hike near Waimea Canyon, recommended by my favorite tour guide app, Guide Along. However, my favorite was Heritage Trail, right next to the Grand Hyatt Kauai. The views were incredible, and the hike was easy to moderate.
Before I started traveling with points and miles, I never thought Hawaii would be within my budget—let alone at a luxury resort. Thanks to strategic use of points, we are taking our family on incredible adventures with 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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Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
I was researching index funds and happened upon the points and miles community through creators who also post about budgets, financial independence, and investing.
Points and miles allowed those people to travel and work toward financial independence simultaneously.
Thank goodness I got started when I did. The past almost two years of travel have been something we will never forget.
Earning points and miles through credit cards is only a good choice if you have the financial discipline to use them, like cash/debit cards.
Since we started traveling with points and miles, we have had more money going into our investment and savings accounts than ever.