Travel Advisory: Help Maui By Not Traveling There

By now, we've all heard about the horrible wildfires in Maui. The historic cities on the island are being evacuated and many people are facing homelessness, because they have nowhere to go. If you have plans to travel to Maui, change them, and if you were thinking about going to Maui, don't. So, what can you do? 

Photo by Logan Armstrong on Unsplash

Traveling enables us to see new places and help preserve them by putting our vacation dollars into those communities. While you can't see Maui right now, you can still help the communities effected by the wildfires and hopefully preserve the culture and history before it's completely destroyed, ensuring others are able to enjoy it in the future. 

If you want to help those in need, you can do so by donating to the following organizations:

• The Hawaii Community Foundation– Supports communities affected by the wildfires.
• Maui United Way– Provides immediate financial assistance through grants to nonprofits spearheading relief efforts, and to individuals who have been affected by the fires.
• American Red Cross– Disaster relief for those forced to flee their homes.
• Maui Food Bank– Accepting money, food, toiletries, and other household items for those in need.
• Maui Humane Society– Looking for volunteers to foster dogs displaced by the wildfires, as well as donations of pet food, litter, and pop-up kennels.
• Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement– This nonprofit organization that supports Native Hawaiians is raising support “for ‘ohana impacted by the devastating wildfires on Maui.”
• ‘Āina Momona– A Hawaiian nonprofit aimed at providing environmental sustainability, food security and resilience, and social justice to Hawaiians.
• Malama Maui– Here are other resources for helping Maui and Hawaiian families, including resources for residents and where you can donate supplies directly if you're on the island.

What you need to know right now is that all non-essential travel to the island is suspended and people are being asked to postpone or even cancel their trips amid the evacuating and disaster response. Visitors to the island are trying to figure out how to cope, with many staying in the airport and some sleeping in their rental cars and having to flee their hotels with the bare minimum. You don't want to add to that, especially with so many fires burning and spreading across the island. The historic city of Lahaina has been mostly decimated, and there are also wildfires burning on The Big Island, though not as severe.

Photo by Logan Armstrong on Unsplash

Unfortunately, like much of the country, Hawaii has faced a very dry season and high winds, so any sort of spark can use those two things to its advantage and cause a fire to rage out of control. This has happened on a larger scale than Hawaii is used to and the damage has been surprising and devastating. 

The wildfires aren't just affecting those on the islands, but there are many Hawaiians living on the mainland who don't know if their loved ones are safe or not, because they can't get in contact with them, and others who have the same issues with their family and friends traveling amid a disaster. 

If you still want to visit Hawaii, you can still go to the other islands and you can enter to win a trip for 2 to Kauai from Fodor's and Dollar Flight Club. And if you're looking for an alternative to Hawaii, check out these 8 destinations.

Have you ever been to Hawaii? We last went in 2013, but were looking to go in January next year.

Family-friendly Las Vegas Attractions

A friend of mine said she was taking her daughter for the first time to Las Vegas. She's under 21, so going to the casinos or bar is not a thing. I haven't been to Vegas this year, which means I didn't actually write any updated lists for cool things to do for all ages, because Vegas is a town that has something for everyone, if you know where to look. 

You can take an elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower

Usually, people only know about Circus Circus, which is not the best hotel to stay at, but it has circus acts throughout the day and in the back is the Adventuredome, an indoor theme park that feels like it's outside that is for big and little kids. Eric and I spent an afternoon there on one visit and we had a great time.

The Fremont Street Experience canopy show

Here are some other ideas for your trip with those that are under legal drinking age:

• Pinball Hall of Fame on S. Las Vegas Blvd moved a few years ago from their nondescript location on Tropicana. The new location is larger and very easy to find. You can learn a little bit more about it here.

• Springs Preserve, which is part living history, part zoo. They have hands-on exhibits, videos, walk-thru exhibits, animal talks, and a hiking area, or you can take the tram around. The restaurant is fantastic, too. Check out my whole post on it here.

• The Mob Museum downtown has a bunch of interactive exhibits that gives you the history of Las Vegas. I've been here several times and it's a perfect place to beat the heat and learning about where you're visiting, and it's literally one block from the excitement of Fremont Street. If you aren't traveling with kids, head downstairs to their speakeasy, where you can get some of the best drinks in the city based on prohibition times. Here's a link to my large post.

• The Neon Museum is great for seeing retired neon signs from hotels and The Strip in general. They have a night tour and a day tour. Both are great and are a bit different. Only about 5-6 signs are wired to light up at night, but the whole space has lighting, so you can still see all the others well, too. Here are links to my full nighttime tour and daytime tour.

• Ethel M’s Chocolate has a free little chocolate-making viewing and outside has a free cactus garden that’s really beautiful. We try to go see this every trip, because it's free and chocolate is awesome. Many nights you can visit the cactus garden all lit up. I have yet to make it there after dark though. Check out my post on that here.

• Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef has a ton of cool aquatic animals. You will have to walk all the way to the back of the hotel, which seems like a mile, but it's probably not. I do this every 5 years or so and it's always worth the price and you completely forget you're in Las Vegas.

• Downtown on Fremont there’s a vintage toy shop that is like a museum, but they sell everything there, called the Toy Shack. I spent a good hour here wandering around and marveling at everything. We bought a few things as well. The prices were really reasonable, even for vintage items. You can view my post with this included here.

• Fremont Street also has free concerts on certain days, with a lot of well-known artists, and it’s free. There's a bit of a more adult vibe here, but I still think it's worth the visit. If you aren't going there during the summer, you can still enjoy free concerts, and the canopy lights up every night with random dance parties, so I highly recommend it.

• I definitely always recommend people walk around downtown (Fremont St and then a couple blocks on both sides) to see all the street art and sculptures that came from Burning Man festivals over the years. It’s particularly great to go as the sun is going down and you can end at the Container Park to see the mantis spit fire every 15 mins or so. He dances to music. You can see my post on the downtown arts district here.

• Everything at Area 15 is awesome, but absolutely Omega Mart. It’s an interactive museum experience with a mystery you can solve. We were there for 5 hours and only left because we were hungry. There is a lot of crawling and climbing steps, if you want to do that, so wearing comfy clothes and shoes is important - You can also just go to Area 15, but you need to have a free ticket that you can reserve online. There’s a little art park out front with amazing stuff. See my post about Omega Mart and BTS (behind the store) of Omega Mart.

• The Park between the MGM and New York New York has some really fun places to eat, including a Hello Kitty Café, and you can see some wonderful art pieces here as well as see musicians play live music in the evenings. Here's a little piece I wrote on it in my post on freebies, which might give you other ideas for your kids.

10 Tips For Saving On Travel Food

Food isn’t like souvenirs. No one goes on vacation without buying it. You have to make room in your travel budget to eat, but there are many ways you can make that part of your expenses smaller. Just because you are trying to save money doesn’t mean that you have to eat fast food or sandwiches for every meal or can’t experience the best cuisine a place has to offer. Below is my top 10 list of ways to stretch your food funds.

Ask the locals where they eat

Odds are, people who live where you’re traveling don’t eat at the fanciest restaurant in town. You know who eats there? Tourists and people celebrating their anniversaries. The “normal” people eat at affordable dining establishments that are also delicious and serve food from the local area. They are going to want to point you towards some of the city’s gems and impress you because, unlike hotel staff, they don’t get paid for recommending the crazy expensive steakhouse down the street.

Look forward to lunch

You probably aren’t always frugal. While on vacation, it’s okay to splurge sometimes. If that includes going to a top-rated restaurant that you know is spendy, make reservations for lunch instead of dinner. The food will be just as tasty, but cheaper than at dinnertime.

Split an entrée

Most restaurants serve you at least twice as much food as you can eat. Don’t be weighted down having to carry around leftovers or feel bad about food left on your plate. Share a main dish with your travel companion. Most hotels will split an entrée for no fee, but even if you have to pay for an extra plate, it only costs a few dollars, which is cheaper than paying for a whole other meal.  

Order an appetizer for a meal

Most appetizers can be plenty to fill you up and can be as little as a third of the price of an entrée. This is also a great option for you if you like to try many different dishes. Order two to three for the same price as a meal.

Hit up the food carts

Food carts can offer a huge variety of different local and international foods, but can be half the price of (or less) than dining at a sit-down restaurant. With this kind of savings, you can try fare from several carts with no regrets.

Shop the farmers market

There’s no better way to experience local cuisine and interacting with residents than a visit to the closest farmers market. You will find a variety of food, including meats, fruits, vegetables and cheeses. Purchase enough for lunch and enjoy the afternoon having a picnic in a nearby park.

Rent a vacation home or stay in a hotel with a kitchen(ette)

This is my favorite way to stretch my food budget, because there are so many options. Renting can be a great value over hotel stays if you’ll be visiting for a week or more, plus it gives you the chance to check out the local grocery store. Make many of your own meals and save considerably. I don’t often like to spend money on eating breakfast out, so I love to buy new cereals and pastries I can enjoy in my room.

Sign up for Groupon

If you haven't been using Groupon, what are you even waiting for? Save 40-90% off food and more, meaning you can eat for way less than you originally planned, meaning you can splurge on a fancy meal, spend that money elsewhere, or actually just stay on budget. Sign up at Groupon for the destination of your next vacation (they cover many international locations as well as the United States) and eat for less!

Stay at a hotel that offers free breakfast

You don’t realize how much dining out can cost until you go on vacation. A reasonable breakfast can cost between $8-15 per person. If you multiply that by the number of people you’re traveling with and the number of days you’ll be staying, that number can be huge. If you find a hotel in your price range that offers free breakfast, you’ve hit a jackpot of savings.

Don’t order off the kids’ menu

If you travel with children, you’ll notice that most kids’ menus seem to have the same small rotation of foods. Obviously, little ones don’t just live on hot dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets and PB&J sandwiches. Not only do they charge an outrageous amount for these “staples” that cost hardly anything to make, but they offer hardly any nutritional value and your kids are likely to eat only half of it before declaring they’re full. Instead, order a meal that you both will eat and share. This saves you money and might get them to eat a vegetable or two.

While there are other ways to save on dining, these have proven to be the most useful for my travels and are my first suggestions to anyone asking how to cut costs on their trip. They are easy to do and will enable you to try a bigger variety of foods, too. You’ll experience more of the city and its people, giving you a greater vacation experience.

How do you save money on dining out when you travel?