Research began and came quick, while it originally seemed promising to do something like China to Los Angeles, Japan to San Francisco, or somewhere in Australia/New Zealand back to the mainland USA or Hawaii, the results were not adequate for a double New Years. A simple Google search will bring up a bunch of articles that say there are a bunch of ways to do a double new year's, however I have no idea where the hell they got this information from, because the flights simply will not line up. Unless of course you have a private jet. But anyway for the rest of us... You see many flights leave Asia and travel back in time to USA, but very few do it where a celebration on the ground is possible. I mean if you are sitting in a plane in Tokyo that flies out at midnight, does it really count that you were able to celebrate? Or flights that landed in the USA at 11:50pm, does that count being on a customs line? Or even worse still on the runway? Then while using sky scanner I stumbled upon Guam.
I didn't know much about Guam other than it was a US Territory, and to be honest, I didn't completely know even what that would mean as far as traveling. But it looked like an incredible island to visit, and low and behold there was United Flight 200, departing from Guam at 9am New Year's Day, and landing in Honolulu, Hawaii 8pm on New Year's Eve. The wheels were officially set in motion. The trip had to be cancelled the first time in 2020 due to Covid, but 2021 it was time to make a 2nd attempt at the Double New Years!
Here's my go to advice for doing the double New Years as well as my travel advice for the little known beautiful US territory as well as the well traveled famous beautiful state.
The Double New Year's Travel Tips:
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| Waikiki Fireworks |
-At the time of writing the only possible flight you can take is the New Year's Day January 1st flight on United Airlines (UA flight 200) landing in Honolulu, Hawaii on New Year's Eve December 31st. Not only is this the only flight between Guam and Hawaii, but as mentioned it is the only flight where you can cross the date line and do a true double New Year's without the private jet. If things change of course let me know in the comment section and I will update this blog as necessary.
-I had this idea for many years and the year leading up to the trip I actually monitored the flight almost daily. It was only canceled two times ever in 365 days, once for mechanical and once for personnel. If it does get canceled the double new year's plan fails because the flight will not be delayed, it will be totally canceled and people will be rebooked on following days. So cross your fingers on it! It's all you can do.
-The main fireworks in Guam are usually at Tumon Bay, but in light of Covid we had to go to Hagatna for the show, we will touch on this later. Hagatna 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.... Happy New Year's!!! Then a taxi ride back to get some rest!
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| Fireworks in Guam |
-If all goes well you can be in bed in Guam by 12:30am, we had to go a wee bit further for fireworks and still were in bed before 1am. We got up at 5:30am with a light hangover, left the hotel at 6am, returned a rental car, and had time to chill at the Guam airport with some coffees on New Years Day. 2 Covid notes: we actually had to party in a different area from the main tourism fireworks since they were cancelled that year. And our lounge leaving for Hawaii was also closed so no decent breakfast.
-We were hoping to get upgraded to business class for the 7 hour flight with some methods I've talked about in this blog, but the flight was sold out, so instead we paid a little extra for exit row seats. Remember you are going to be partying back to back with little rest, so that exit row will be a big help to have energy for the double NYE.
-Mid-flight: once your mid way between Guam and Hawaii, order a drink, it's time to celebrate. It's now too far to turn back and land in Guam for any reason, the double new years is set! And in all likelyhood you have crossed the date line and it's December 31st again!
-I read horror stories about getting taxis at HNL airport and prebooked one with Charlie's taxis. The horror stories were not true as plenty of cabs were there but either way shout out to Charlie's because the cab was waiting for us and ended up being cheaper than a meter cab or Uber/Lyft.
-It was 8:15pm or so at this point, we already decided not to do a special dinner in Hawaii in the interest of time to check in to hotel/and find the party so we opted for classical American fast food.
-Waikiki was of course the choice for the Double NYE Honolulu spot. Of course it's touristy, and expensive, and tacky, and overcrowded!!! But it's New Years! We had plenty of time to get ready, grab a bottle of champagne, and enjoy the ocean view from the balcony.
-The original plan was to head down to the beach as our hotels roof deck was supposed to be closed, then management changed their mind, and it was honestly pretty heavy rain, so we opted to have some champagne in the room till about 11:50 or so then get a little wet for midnight.
-And of course... Deja Vu... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Happy Double New Year's!!!
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| Fireworks again over Waikiki Beach |
Guam Travel Tips
-Guam is a tiny island, but not easy to get around without a vehicle, so make sure you rent a car.
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| Lunch at Jeff's Pirate Cove while road tripping Guam |
-Tumon Bay is the main tourist area and we chose to stay there based on the fireworks, which were moved anyway that year, really any part of the island you stay will be beautiful, Tumon certainly has a more urban feel if that's a plus or minus for you.
-Guam can really be covered in 2-3 days, we had 2.5 which was nice since the first night we went to the Chamorro Market which I'd recommend (Wednesday nights are the best). Only exception to 2-3 days would be if you are doing a lot of dives, then of course stay longer because Guam is a prime diving site.
-The two wreck ship dive is the only place in the world where you can dive a ship wreck from WW1 and WW2 at the same time, you will need a Wreck Dive cert for this. Since we didn't have this, we opted for a beautiful dive in the Apra Harbor Reefs
-Road trip Guam is inevitable! The Latte of Freedom, Fish Eye Marine Park, Two Lovers Point, Inajaran pools, old fortresses, etc. We did about 5 hours driving, but you can easily do a whole day or shorter just to see things quick.
-I recommend dinner one night at Under The Sea Guam. Enjoy a wonderful meal while sharks and other giant and little fish swim above you! A bit touristy, but also a completely unique experience for me.
-Ride a Carabao! We got lucky and saw one new years eve at the Chamorro Market, but you can also ride on if you do a tour with the Valley of The Latte Adventures.
-Walk around downtown Tumon, you can do this totally for free or cheap, enjoy a coffee or burger at local Hambros and buy a nice cheap hat. Or you can bring the Amex black card and shop at countless designer and luxury shops.
Hawaii (Oahu) Travel Tips
-Hawaii was great for New Years but the rain cancelled a lot of plans after that unfortunately!
-Again a car is nice to have, not so much need to have for exploring Waikiki
-The drive hui app was super easy to rent a car, especially if you didn't need one all day
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| Quick drive to visit family on the north side of the island |
-They also have mopeds and two seater scooters which LOOKED like so much fun... but yeah rain...
-Pearl Habor luckily was not rained out and is a mandatory stop! It's super close to the airport so you can easily do this when you land or leave if the times line up with the memorial times. There's a locker on site for storage of large and small bags.
-Hawaii is a beautiful green, and it's green for a reason, it does rain a lot, so maybe pay a little extra for a nice ocean front room, we were glad to have a nice view of the rainy beach, and good proximity to the beach when the rains let up!
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| Rushing down to the beach between rain! |
-Hiking, diving, under water scooters, and submarine tours all go out of Oahu, well worth checking out. Some may be cancelled because, yeah... rain.
It was an epic trip, and an epic Double New Year's. New Year's has always been my favorite holiday to travel and what better way than to do it twice! I'm also glad it brought me to these two destinations. I would have never gone to Guam otherwise, and in all my travels I never had been to Hawaii either. And now any time in the future both will hold a special place for me as the places I began the year 2022, twice.
Enjoy my teaser and full video of this trip:
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