Our first time to Hawaii was last year and we had a very nice experience on the Virgin America flight from Ft Lauderdale to LAX.

Then we spent a night at the Radisson LAX hotel rather than go straight to HON. I rented a Prius from the car rental place located at the Radisson and we went to explore the Malibu area.

The next morning the flight to HON from LAX was an easy 6 hours.

We're thinking of going back sometime soon and I'm planning on doing the same thing except maybe in San Fran., San Diego, etc.

It was really nice spending the day exploring part of California and sleeping in a comfy bed before getting on another flight.