Hawaii | May 2026

As a Hilton Diamond member, I was offered a "highly discounted" travel package as long as I listen to their 90 minute presentation. I got the trip for $1,500. I looked it up and normally it would cost $2,200 (with flight and stay). I'll take that savings and put it into diving gear. 90 minutes of time will be worth it. This trip will mark every state west of The Mississippi River. All that is left, the upper NE states.

Anyways...on my list...Diving! I invited my niece to tag along. I'll cover her Discovery Dives and we'll go out with guides to find some great underwater photos.

The presentation was alright. I didn't buy into it, but it also doesn't seem like a bad program at all. It was for Hilton Grand Vacations.

Diving was amazing! We went out with Dive Oahu. Make sure to check out their Discovery Dive program. The staff were great and were patient with my niece.

Quick Tip:

Make sure to take a red filter for your underwater camera. The color red starts disappearing around 20ft underwater. It gets absorbed so you'll get really blue/teal photos. I spent a while color correcting the photos. I'll have the videos done eventually, but I'm learning to color grade videos and that takes longer for me.

Oahu was great, but other than the food and the diving, I didn't feel it was worth it. Waikiki Beach was packed. The marketplace was filled with people and the streets by the hotels were filled with people shoulder to shoulder. The western side and the north side weren't really packed but the weather on the north side wasn't all that great. I'll consider going again, but after I visit one of the other islands.

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