Hawaii with a 6-year-old?
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Anonymous
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We're considering taking our 6-year-old to Hawaii in the spring. How terrible are the flights/jetlag? I'm especially worried about the return. We'd be stopping in CA after a red-eye, so it's not even like it's an overnight to DC.
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Anonymous
| The flights are rough, but your kid will survive. The jet lag isn't as terrible as the distance would suggest, and then you're in Hawaii! Can your kid sleep on airplanes? |
Anonymous
| We did it with a four year old. She acclimated and recovered better than the adults. But your mileage may vary. |
Anonymous
| We took our 6 year old this year, it was a piece of cake, have a wonderful time! |
Anonymous
| I took my 6 yo last year and it wasn't too bad... He somehow was able to sleep on the plane. Waking up at midnight in LA and transfering was annoying though. But still, it wasn't that bad. I'd definitely plan for a day after you get back to rest and recover though. |
Anonymous
| Highly recommend with a little kid that instead of doing the twin 5-6 hour flights and changing planes in California that you do one short flight and one long flight and change planes in Chicago or Atlanta. That way coming home it can be a true red eye. Otherwise sleep will be really disrupted. |
Anonymous
| Echo the above. We did the redeye return via Dallas, leaving HNL around 8pm. And you need a couple days buffer before you go back to school. |
Anonymous
| It's not bad at all. Coming back home is worse! |
Anonymous
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We’ve had great luck taking a 6 yo to Hawaii. Your DC will love it.
We have two kids, and we’ve gone a few times. I recommend taking the nonstop from Dulles to Honolulu, then Hawaiian if you’re going on to a different island. The direct from Dulles flight is pretty nice, and I am not generally a fan of UAL (but i am for this flight). On the way back we budget time and money so that we can stop in California for one or more nights. So we try to fly Hawaii to LAX or SFO during the day - not a red eye. Then we stay overnight in CA, flying out the next morning. It’s definitely a more long, drawn out way to come home, but I don’t sleep on planes and neither do my young kids. Lots of people do the red eye with kids just fine - I’m just weird about sleep and jet lag, and it’s definitely worse going East. |
Anonymous
Unfortunately the one nonstop is nearly 2x the cost of the connecting. |
Anonymous
| ^^ About the nonstop, sometimes that fare goes down quite a bit over time. If you don’t have to book the flight right now, it might be worth watching the price over a few weeks. |
Anonymous
| Why not go to someplace in the Caribbean instead? Hawaii is super far. I went in March and it took forever to get home |