Aloha Airlines declared bankruptcy for the second time in three years this week. The beleaguered carrier blamed competition from low-cost airline go!, which came onto the Hawaii scene in 2006. But the airline’s first bankruptcy occurred before go! became a serious threat, so it’s hard to peg the competition as the problem. It does seem quite clear, though, that there’s just not enough room in Hawaii for three airlines.

Aloha Airlines Files for Second Bankruptcy in Three Years

Four Seasons properties in Hawaii are offering different versions of the same Free Night promotion for stays before the end of June 2008.

- Four Seasons Resort Lana’i at Manele Bay: The Resort is offering its
5th Night Free with Breakfast promotion now through June 30, 2008 with
nightly room rates from $495.

- Four Seasons Resort Lana’i, The Lodge at Koele: The Lodge is offering
its 4th Night Free promotion now through June 30, 2008 with nightly room
rates from $345.

- Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka’upulehu (pictured): The Resort is
offering its 5th Night Free promotion from March 27 through June 30, 2008
with nightly room rates from $725.

- Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea: The Resort is offering its 5th
Night Free promotion from April 6 through June 10, 2008 with nightly room
rates from $620.

Pink and soon-to-be-ex-husband Carey Hart may be smiling in this photo, but we suspect the couple is doing more grinning and bearing it these days than flashing their oh-so-pearly whites. The couple recently announced that they will be splitting after a whopping two years of marriage. That’s like, uh, several decades in Hollywood years.

But here’s why we care: just before they announced their pending divorce, songstress Pink and her biker man reportedly were booked for a stay at the Kahala Hotel Resort in Honolulu. And while Pink is said to have canceled the seven-night stay in one of the hotel’s $3,000/night suites (they would have been there as we speak) once she realized that her marriage was doomed, we’re pretty sure a trip like that could help most couples go a long way towards reconciliation. Here are three reasons why:

1. Spa treatments in luxe spa suites that feature infinity-edge soaking tubs and private landscaped courtyards.

2. Dolphin Quest. If that won’t make you happy, nothing will.

3. Views like theses:

If you’re going to be in New York this weekend and you love travel, consider checking out the New York Times Travel Show, a veritable smorgasbord of travel information from resorts, hotels, spas, cruise lines, tour operators, tourist agencies and adventure travel companies from around the world. Along with vendor booths and live entertainment performances representing a vast array of cultures, the show features a Taste of the World Pavilion filled with international cuisine and cooking demonstrations, a Spa Pavilion offering sample treatments and discounted packages at spa resorts, travel author appearances and special travel deals offered to folks brave enough to book their next vacation on the spot. And with travel experts Rick Steves, Arthur Frommer, Ian Wright and Stephanie Abrams - among many others - leading seminars, the show offers a rare chance for face-to-face learning from leading peeps in the industry. Cost: $15.

Yeah, last minute travel can be cool. But it can also leave you cash poor, especially when you’re talking high-season travel in major vacation destinations. But as with most things in life, a just little edumuhcation can go a long way. Case in point: Kayak.com’s Fare Alerts.

Create a Fare Alert (or 12) on Kayak.com or SideStep.com for the summer getaway(s) currently sequestered in your noggin by clicking on the “Get fare alerts for this trip” link on the top right-hand corner of the flight results page. You can track fares for specific dates, a flexible span of time (e.g. summer weekends or, say, the month of June) or an entire region (e.g. Europe). When your daily or weekly Fare Alert (you choose how often it arrives) touches down in your email inbox, you’ll be able to make informed travel decisions.

Depending on what you ask it to track (specific dates, flexible span of time or even top cities in a region), each Fare Alert can show you:

- How much the fare for specific dates has increased or decreased in dollars since the last alert

- The airfare history for your trip dates based on searches made by Kayakers over the past 90 days

- A snapshot of prices in Kayak.com’s matrix view, so you can quickly compare prices by carrier and number of stops

- The lowest fare available during a specific span of time (e.g. the next four weekends)

- The best fares available for popular destination cities in a region you want to visit (e.g. Africa)

Who knows, maybe you’ll still pay craptons to travel to the most expensive resort on the hottest island right in the middle of the high season. After all, it’s high season for a reason. But at least you’ll be pimping it out with full knowledge of your unbridled American excess. Just remember the wisdom of G.I. Joe.

(**Editor’s note: Yeah, Kayak.com owns us. You wanna make something of it? I’ll have you know I was surreptitiously using Fare Alerts to aid in making my personal travel plans long before Kayak.com bought our parent company SideStep.com in December. Nepotism, bias, blah, blah, blah. Fare Alerts just make good travel sense.)

The Mountain Outpost (pictured), a brand new eco-adventure complex that’s part of the Kapalua Resort on Maui, opens its doors to the public this week. The opening is the latest of many recent changes around the resort. Earlier this month, the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua reopened after $160 million in renovations. New restaurants, a new fitness center, new hiking trails and a renovated and upgraded deli are among the numerous other improvements to this popular Maui vacation spot.

But because we love adventure, we were most excited about the new Mountain Outpost, which boasts Hawaii’s longest suspension bridge and offers heart-thumping activities like zipline tours, climbing and ropes challenge courses. To get the inside scoop on the new Mountain Outpost and other must-do activities in and around the sprawling Kapalua Resort, we checked in with Kapalua Resort’s Director of Resort Activities Adam Quinn. Read on for his local take on getting the most out of a visit to this 23,000-acre resort area.

It’s 6 a.m. We’re up, thanks to jetlag. Where should we head for early morning adventure?

Well, before starting any activity I usually like to eat a good breakfast. Luckily you can start your culinary adventure at Kapalua Resort’s newly renovated Honolua Store deli, which opens at 6 a.m. The deli serves a wide variety of ‘ono (tasty) breakfast items like Molok‘ai sweet bread french toast and a local favorite, Loco Moco, a generous mound of rice topped with a hamburger patty, eggs and gravy. They also offer new items like a crab cake Benedict and farm-fresh veggie omelette. The rustic Honolua Store, built in 1929, also sells sundries and all the snacks you need to pack for a day of exploring Maui.

On your ideal day off, where on Maui would we find you?

I like to head down to one of Maui’s best white sand beaches, D.T. Fleming Beach, for some fun watersports. This long beach is great for running, and the shore break is good for kayak surfing and boogie boarding. During the summer, it has great snorkeling around the lava rocks, too.

What activities at Kapalua Resort are most likely to satisfy our inner adrenaline junkie?

Anyone seeking an awesome eco-adventure should check out our new Kapalua Adventure Center where you can jump into a bio-diesel Mercedes-Benz Unimog for a journey to our Mountain Outpost located about 1,500 feet up the mountainside.

The Mountain Outpost’s eight dual-track zipline course is among North America’s largest—spanning nearly two miles with two ziplines more than 2,000 feet long. Adventurers can also put their endurance, balance and strength to the test with a comprehensive ropes challenge course and 35-foot climbing tower.

All activities are led by guides who have extensive knowledge of Hawaiian culture, history, geography, flora and fauna.

Can you suggest a great excursion for a family with one or more kids under 12?

The Maui Ocean Center is a great place to take the kids. This aquarium has the nation’s largest collection of living coral, and parents love taking pictures of their little ones in the see-through acrylic tunnel within the 750,000-gallon deep sea tank.

Where are the best spots for romance at Kapalua Resort?

At Kapalua Resort, The Plantation House Restaurant offers open-air island style ambiance and amazing panoramic views of the ocean.

Where would you send us to score postcard-worthy views?

Honolua Bay, a marine life conservation area, has fantastic snorkeling. Buy a waterproof camera to snap unbelievable photos of colorful coral and tropical fishes. To get there, hop in a catamaran sailing charter from Lahaina Harbor or Ka‘anapali Beach, and you’ll be taken to a picturesque bay with a scenic mountain backdrop about ten miles north of Ka‘anapali.

When friends and family visit you, what’s one place you always take them to see?

Watching the sunrise from the summit of Haleakala, the world’s largest dormant volcano, is a rare treat. I usually like to take my visiting friends and family to Haleakala National Park to enjoy the incredible above-the-clouds view, hiking and cultural activities.

What should every Maui visitor take home?

Maui Pineapple Company offers the nation’s only tour of a working pineapple plantation. Guests learn about planting, cultivation, and harvesting pineapple. A highlight is tasting pineapple in the field and then picking your own Maui Gold pineapple to take home. Kids especially love these tours. If you don’t want to carry fruit on the plane, order Maui Gold online at mauipineapple.com to be delivered right to your door.

A trip to Maui wouldn’t be complete without _______.

A trip to Maui wouldn’t be complete without attending The Feast at Lele, an intimate, oceanfront Polynesian lu‘au experience that includes traditional, upscale cuisine from Hawai‘i, New Zealand, Tonga and Tahiti, small beachside tables in a lush garden patio, beautiful sunsets and authentic hula and fire dance performances.

Note: All activities can be arranged through the Kapalua Adventure Center’s adventure concierges. For more information call 808-665-4FUN (4386) or toll-free at 877-665-4386.

Freelance writer Lorraine Sanders has been editing the TravelPost.com Insider blog since 2005. You can reach her at news (at) lorrainesanders (dot) com.

Now if you like to drink (and by that we mean draaaannnnk), have we got the travel experience for you: The World’s Biggest Pub Crawl. The 25-day around the world tour led by Thirsty Swagman departs in March 2008 from London and hits 60 watering holes in 12 countries on four continents. Here’s the route:

- London, UK

- Düsseldorf, Germany

- Prague, Czech Republic

- Maria Alm, Austria

- Munich, Germany

- Reykjavik, Iceland

- Phuket, Thailand

- Auckland, New Zealand

- Queenstown, New Zealand

- Honolulu, USA

- Cancun, Mexico

Here’s a detailed itinerary. The tour starts at $9,990 per person and includes crazy Australian guides who’ll ferry you too and from some of the world’s best bars and drinking establishments, as well as all airfare and transfers, land transportation, three-star hotel accommodations and drink discounts. Funny, it seems like a bottle of pain killers and box of condoms should be included in the price.

You can check out the World’s Biggest Pub Crawl YouTube video below:

I recently had the pleasure of staying at the Fairmont Kea Lani Mauiin the island’s Wailea area. As you’d expect from a Fairmont property, the facilities were all quite well done, the grounds beautiful, the staff intent upon accommodating guests. But one area where this hotel surpasses many of similar caliber I’ve visited is with its environmental initiatives. All the rooms have both trash and recycling receptacles - ideal for all the water bottles I was going through each day. Another cool feature I noticed: the air-conditioning in our suite would not run when the sliding glass doors to the balcony were ajar. The closet lights also shut off automatically when you close the door. And like many hotels, the bathrooms are outfitted with little signs suggesting that guests use their towels more than once.

Finding good food on the cheap is a difficult task anywhere, but head to a popular tourist destination like the Hawaiian island of Oahu, and the challenge increases dramatically. After all, tourist hotspots depend on charging travelers as much as they can possibly get away with. The next time you’re in Oahu looking to fill your belly without emptying your wallet, check out Cheap Places to Eat in Oahu Hawaii. It’s an always-informative, sometimes hilarious and often irreverent look at the island’s eateries. Run by a local foodie and restaurant industry veteran, the blog serves up great images as well as honest, unpretentious commentary. Check check checkitout.

Great airline in many respects, but should you fly Aloha Airlines as I did today, you needn’t worry about getting trapped in a seat next to a chatterbox stranger. The airline’s announcement system is going to be that person whether you like it or not. For what must have approached a half hour at the beginning and the end of the five-and-change-flight, blaring (so loud it woke me up from a dead sleep while I was wearing Bose noise canceling headphones) messages ranging from advertisements to general missives on the islands and their many splendors poured from an overhead speaker, while images played on drop-down televisions.

This was no ordinary main cabin programming. It went on longer and at a louder volume than I have ever experienced. I probably sound like a cranky old man kept up past his bedtime, but seriously, this goes down as the single time in my life I have actively wished I were wearing a hearing aid. Because I would have turned it off. (I mean, lei off already)

At least they handed out warm chocolate chip cookies and milk during the second programming session. Screw pretzels and those nasty snack mix things. Travelers should start a chocolate chip cookie revolution.