My
auntie in Hong Kong was looking forward to travelling abroad with us including
my mom, my brother and me. Since my mom was already over 65 and my auntie was
over 75. I had to plan a trip that would fit their energy level ... hehe.
Finally we decided to let our auntie have a relaxing vacation in the beautiful tropical
island Okinawa (有東方夏威夷之稱的沖繩)
J
It was from November 22 to 27. Since we
travelled there by ourselves (自由行), lots of
preparation and research needed to ensure the trip would be running smoothly! First
was the flight which we decided to fly with Hong Kong airline (香港航空) instead of
Cathy Pacific (國泰航空). Guess how much we could save by choosing
Hong Kong airline? Both offered direct flights - Cathy was about $4000 HKD each
while Hong Kong airline was $1500 HKD per person. 4 of us would save $10,000
HKD!!! Probably around $1700 CAD ...
On November
22, we departed from Hong Kong around 11:45 am and arrived Naha airport around
3:10 pm. Once we were in Naha airport, we were looking for the station to
purchase our bus tickets as we would be taking shuttle bus to Rizzan
Sea-Park Hotel. I could not find the station at first cause it was located in
the domestic terminal but we were in the international terminal. Finally we
were able to buy the tickets and it took us 1 hour 15 minutes to bus to the
hotel. We paid 6400 yen (1600 yen per passenger), around $80 CAD.
Our hotel was in the resort in Onna 恩納村 (http://www.rizzan.co.jp/english/index.html). It was the largest
and the most economical hotel in Onna although it was not the fanciest one.
Staffs were very friendly and some of them especially the front desk people can
speak English J
The room we stayed was for 4 guests with ocean view and it was extremely huge (over 530 square feet)! Here is the picture of a 4 person room from its webpage.
Here are the pictures taken by me:
By the time we checked-in and settled
everything, it was 7 pm already so we had our first Okinawa dinner in Chinese
cuisine Mandarin Court (中國菜自助晚餐).
Service was very good since they automatically found a Mandarin speaking lady
to serve us.
Since Okinawa has tropical climate, we
enjoyed the desserts a lot - almond tofu pudding, mango pudding, jello cups.
Overall the buffet was quite nice and cost around $38 CAD per person. After we
paid, we received coupons to use in the hotel's convenient stores, like a 10%
discount.
After dinner, we passed by a show stage
so we watched the traditional Okinawan dance as entertainment!
Just like all standard hotels, Rizzan
provided hair brush, tooth brush with toothpaste, shower cap, etc. I always
appreciate how hotels provide all the necessities, on the other hand it creates
more pollution as the wraps and supplies will be thrown away when guests leave.
Alternatively we can bring our own sets for each trip instead of using the
toiletries offered by hotels.
