Pretty much rules out all of Hawaii as everywhere in Hawaii is expensive. Kona is actually one of the cheaper places to visit in the Hawaiian islands.

Six hours is how long it takes to fly from the closest mainland airport to Kona. By that criteria your only viable options would be places like San Diego, LA, San Fran, Portland, Seattle, or Vancouver. My pick would be to fly into Vancouver and drive two hours north to Whistler. Tons of family things to do and the area is stunningly beautiful. It's one of my favorite places on the planet.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Well +1 for not being like most my European friends who try to squeeze a trip to New York and the Grand Canyon into the same trip! :)

Personally, I think when people try to get more trips out of their trip they miss something and should just enjoy relaxing and being "bored" on the beach a little more.

If you're going to make a multi trip of it, I'd base it around the airlines and departure cities.

LA or Seattle are options. But I'd rather be in Hawaii than LA.... and Seattle can be a fun place to visit but not necessarily cheap and still not better than Hawaii in my mind.

If l suppose if you want something different there's suggestions of stopping in LA area and doing the Disneyland thing for the family if they haven't done that. Or better in Florida to Disney world but that's not within 5 hrs obviously.

Or you could try to get to Vegas and then up to Zion, Grand Canyon etc. Hah

You have young kids. Don't go to boring places for them. Take them to Disneyland, Universal Studio or Six Flags in Cali? They will have a blast. I took my nieces there when they were young and they love it so much. Buy express passes if you can or go there super early to enjoy rides. I'm sure some people will be against this idea, but trust me. Kids love it.

Another thought.... is this stopover vacation before or after Kona?

I assume you don't have flights booked yet as you normally can't book flights this far in advance. Someone brought up Disney. If we're being honest, Disney World in Florida is better than Disneyland in California. You're from the Netherlands so I'm assuming you're going to have a layover (or two) in the USA getting to/from Kona. Assuming one of those layovers is the east coast of the USA. Delta/KLM flies direct from Amsterdam to Atlanta. Quick flight from Atlanta to Orlando to visit Disney World. As someone mentioned above, kids love Disney and October is not peak season and it shouldn't be stupid hot either.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Best way to travel from Europe to Kona is through Japan , not via US mainland.

Pros:
You can carry 2x 23kg of free baggage (bike included).
Japan Airlines .
Disney Tokyo .
Fast train to travel to other destinations .
Direct flight Tokyo-Kona = hassle free border entrance in the US . Aloha ;)

Cons:
Can't find any. Japan isn't as expensive as some people think.

I´ve traveled twice from Spain to Kona , 1st through Washington D.C.-SF-Kona and the 2nd one Rome-Japan-Kona.
By far the 2nd option was better.

Interesting.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Thank you!

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STRAVA INSTAGRAM

Did not think of that, thanks.
Did the costs differ much?

my dream travel is:

the sooner in Hawaii the better: to be there to participate in every morning training swim including Ho'ala Swim (it is by far the best picture that I remember from my participation last year), take this time to visit the island easily. There are side events (welcome and champions banquet, heroes of hawaii..) that have some hawaian culture reference. I enjoyed them a lot (for my first time there, I may not repeat if there for a second, but definitely worthed the time),...

After the Ironman I visited Maui. If I would be there a second time, I would chosen Oahu.

In my trip, I stopped in L.A. I would not repeat..

J'ai trouvé ton idée intéressante, mais beaucoup plus longue au départ de l'Europe (Total + 5h) , 600€ plus cher même si le vélo est inclus, donc pas vraiment intéressante