$1000 or Less: Honolulu

The world's most isolated city is known for its mai tais, ahi, outriggers, surfers, white sand beaches, luaus, and a price tag that'll leave you with post-aloha depression. But here's a secret: You don't actually have to stay at the Four Seasons and eat at Roy's every night. Honest. No one will chastise you for crashing wherever the sheets are clean and chowing on plate lunches and Spam. Here's how to get there (and back, if you must) for a grand.

FLY: From LA to HNL for $300.

STAY: For 4 nights at Honolulu's Hawaiiana Hotel, the bastion of old-fashioned aloha. That means fresh pineapple on arrival, Kona coffee every morning, and free umbrellas if it rains. The rooms are extremely basic, but why are you in your room?! The shops along Beachwalk are right outside your door; Waikiki beach (in front of the uber-ritzy Halekulani Hotel) is a long-ish block away. Suck it up, because rooms start at $125.

EAT: Plate lunches ($6), North Shore shrimp trucks ($11), malasadas ($2), Zippy's, and the food court at International Marketplace.

DO: Snorkel at Hanauma Bay Preserve ($5), hike Diamond Head ($5-ish), visit Pearl Harbor (free!), take a group surf lesson ($40), get a mai tai at the Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian ($9), or do absolutely nothing at all.