According to Star-Bulletin, this blow is going to pass us by by a wide margin. Johnston Atoll, duck and cover, peeps. http://www.starbulletin.com/news/breaking/64778782.html…

Image via WikipediaYou can't make this stuff up. The company is called Crispy Critters. And its coming to Hawaii to smoke out any bed bug issues in the Aloha State. Bed bug incidents in Hawaii had been on the rise…

Fyndhawaii.com is something we contemplated for a while. At first I was doing this as a Hawaii-centric search engine but had troubled tuning it the way I wanted. Then along came Twitter. I wanted to figure out a way…

Image by bobster855 via FlickrJoin the discussion ongoing at SoMuchMoreHawaii.com. Local bloggers talking about what makes their island unique -- for me, Oahu where I live, the diversity is what makes my island unique. I can be hiking a waterfall…

The Hawaii Tourism Authority and Cilantro Media have brought in a team of crack bloggers to give their take on Hawaii. They put together a HUGE site with lots of local bloggers posting, as well. It's called So Much More…

According to Pacific Business News, Hawaii hotel occupancy crept up by 2.5% year-over-year in April. That's stunning, considering how California is still trolling the depths of the worst recession since the Great Depression.…

It's official. Hawaii ranks among the happiest places in the U.S., according to a recent Gallup poll. In fact, only Utah beat out Hawaii. Except there isn't really much difference between the first and the last place states. More about…

Barack Obama and his entourage were in the dark for 12 hours from early Friday evening until the following morning. Many other parts of Oahu had power outages lasting 16 hours or longer. Supposedly, a lightning strike took down one…

This from the Star-Bulletin, according to court testimony, pilots on Hawaii interisland carrier Go! regularly snoozed for 20 minutes or so. Whoa!…

Here's a slideshow / video compilation of some of the best nature in Hawaii accompanied by -- what else? - that incomparable Hawaii Christmas song, Mele Kelikimaka. Here we know that Christmas will be clean and bright. Sun will…

Tourism slump continues. October visitor arrivals continue the year-over-year plunge. On the upside, it's a great time to get a cheap room at a killer resort.…

This profile nicely captures the Maya Sotero-Ng and her down-to-Earth mellowness. She's a school teacher. Awesome. This has nothing to do with tourism but it tells you a bit about where Barack comes from.…

It's been a while since I gave Bruce Fisher and Hawaii-Aloha.com credit. He puts out regular podcasts / vodcasts that are chock full of useful info, like what to expect in Hawaii spas, what types of packages his agents have…

Squirrels of the world, take note. You can buy some aerial real estate in Hawaii for less than $50. Not a bad investment for a well-traveled rodent who wants to do well and do good. Here's the info. The Big…

The numbers are rising steadily as the much maligned Superferry entices more to take the interisland jaunt over water. Hawaii Superferry Blog points out that the numbers are still not high enough to be profitable so we'll see how…

Customers will cough up $15 for the first piece of checked luggage on flights between the Mainland and Hawaii starting for travel after Oct. 1 purchased on or after Aug. 1. This matches other airlines doing the same thing nationally.…

Money Mag sez Hawaii has six of the 25 cleanest air towns around, way out of proportion for such a small state. Mililani, Waipahu, Pearl City, Waimalu, Honolulu and Kaneohe logged rankings 20 through 25 on the clean list thanks…

First it was a charge for a second checked bag. Then it was a charge for a first checked bag. Checkmate and angry interisland travelers. $10 more down the drain but hey, since all the airlines are swimming in red…

Check it out here at search.hawaiirama.com. Tell us what you think and what can be made better -- or if it totally rocks, tell us that, too. Hint -- this thing is best for detailed searches into Hawaii topics. We…

Comedy for a hot day in Hawaii. Gotta love Rap.…

Hawaiian Airlines loves to publicize that it has, year in year out, one of the highest on-time arrival rates in the airline industry. This is good. Except when you consider that all their flights (I think) land in Hawaii or…

Like the rest of the airline industry, Hawaii's remaining interisland carriers have decided to charge for second bags (at least they aren't charging for first bags). go! started with a $25 charge and Hawaiian followed with a $17 charge. I…

So I jumped the gun on proclaiming joy at word that you can put rental cars on the Superferry. Turns out, according to the Unofficial Superferry Blog, the rental car companies have imposed a one-way drop-off fee of $400. Which…

Lots of bad signs .…

We knew it was coming. After Aloha shuttered and with go! apparently on the rocks, you can't blame Hawaiian Air for raising prices on interisland travel. Considerably. We noticed prices had gone up before this announcement but this seems to…

Here's to hoping that the recent spike in ticket prices to and from Hawaii brought about after two of the major carriers, Aloha and ATA, crashed and burned, is a temporary phenom. SmarterTravel peers into its crystal ball and finds…

First Aloha Airlines goes belly up, leaving travelers in a lurch and decimating the interisland market. Now it looks as if go!, the upstart that shut down Aloha with low, low fares and a nasty fare war, could be circling…

What they don't mention in the release, however, is price. It's not what you think you should pay to fly to Hawaii. It's what the market will bear. Methinks that bankruptcies of carriers can mean one of two things. Either…

I'd hate to be a travel agent with a large Hawaii client list today. As if the Aloha Airlines shutdown didn't cause enough chaos, the ATA closure comes right on its heels -- and was equally abrupt. Heck, the airline…

Lotsa fallout from the sudden closure of Aloha Airlines. Experts are saying interisland airfares will likely rise. No doubt, considering that roughly 25-30% of the carrying capacity inventory has been ripped off the market. I managed to book a trip…

The Hawaii Tourism Authority just sent out a release offering assistance to travelers holding Aloha Airlines tickets on transpacific or interisland flights. The struggling airline is shutting those flights down this Monday. HTA lists a bunch of places for travelers…

Matson, one of the two primary shipping lines servicing the Hawaiian Islands, announced that it would soon boost its fuel surcharge on island container shipping to a whopping 33.75%. That's on top of the regular shipping costs, some of which…

This video explains why you might not want to ride this big boat. It also inspired Brad's Barf-o-Meter.…

So Hawaiirama blogger / contributor and most excellent Hawaii-based travel agent Bruce Fisher was right. A while back he posted a story on his blog about NCL pulling all of its boats out of Hawaii. NCL said no, we retracted…

The much maligned Superferry has had its fare share of problems. First, there was the surfboard flotilla protest. Then came the court mandated stoppages. Then came the resumption of passages but with extreme seasickness (crew members were handing out barf…

My friend Carnet and his team at Sprout Builder have made building rich widgets incredibly easy. Here's a quick and dirty Hawaiirama newsfeed widget with an excellent graphic from PK at House of Pretty. Put this widget wherever you want…

Well, that's an exaggeration. But Bruce, who blogs here, is one of the first to post prominently about a splendid trip on a boat better known for delays and barf bags. Here's a bit about what a Superferry trip is…

The upstart launched by Mesa Air buckaroo Jonathan Ornstein probably played a key role in parent company losses in the most recent quarter. go! has been offering A LOT FEWER dirt cheap specials, from what I can tell. An $80…

UPDATE: I spoke to NCL and Hawaii cruises are NOT CANCELLED so Bruce's report was apparently wrong. However, you STILL will have trouble booking a passage in 2008 b/c according to NCL they are almost completely booked. So book now…

A mahalo to Hawaiirama contributor Bruce for telling me about the breaking drama regarding Norwegian Cruise Lines and the rumors / news that it would be suspending all Hawaii cruise operations. I did a quick Web search on the topic…

Doh. According to Pacific Business News' coverage of the annual Hawaii state government survey, more visitors to Hawaii from the Mainland U.S. rated Alohaland as an "excellent destination." That doesn't surprise me as I've long suspected Hawaii is at a…

I don't know how better I can describe the situation on the Hawaii Superferry on its maiden re-voyage from Oahu to Kahului than Honolulu Advertiser writer Dan Nakaso. "At least 25 passengers all over the Alakai were openly vomiting, said…

Upstart go! airlines has been keeping the two incumbents, Aloha and Hawaiian Air, on their toes with unsustainably low-priced tickets for interisland travel (as in, sometimes less than $20). This has been hurting Aloha and Hawaiian, which have much higher…

My name is Bruce Fisher, I am a Hawaii based Travel Agent and the founder of Hawaii-Aloha.com. So why am I posting here? Millions of visitors come to these islands every year without ever speaking to a real person…

Here's why the environmentalist opponents of the Hawaii Superferry say it's a nautical nightmare. This is one side's POV so take it in that light.…

I've been remiss in blogging about the ongoing Saga of the Superferry. A lickety-split Hawaii State Legislature session churned out a law specifically designed to answer a court injunction won by ferry opponents that had convinced a Hawaii State Court…

Hawaiian Air flying from Phoenix to Hawaii for $278. That's pretty dang rockbottom. Wide travel window, from Nov. 26, 2007 – Mar. 14, 2008. Book before Nov. 27. Cheap wings, friends.…

What is it about Oahu that encourages actors to drink and drive? Particularly actors from the cast of "Lost"? First it was former cast members Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros, busted for DUI in 2005. Then, last week Daniel Dae…

The CEO of the beleaguered Hawaii Superferry told the State of Hawaii that the Courts needed to quickly decide whether the ferry would run or the company would shutter operations for good and flee to kinder shores. This could be…

Summer travel for 2008 is starting to look pretty pricey so don't book early -- they should drop. Otherwise, Hawaii fares out of SFO to Honolulu tracked by travel supersite Kayak.com seem pretty cheap. Still a good time to go…