Escape Monthly (Hawaii) Review, November 2014 + 20% Discount Codes for Life!

With all the cold and blustery weather in the news, NOW seems like a pretty good time to take a little armchair trip to an exotic tropical locale.  Escape Monthly makes that possible in their November box which whisks us off to Hawaii. Be forewarned...this is one subscription box that could actually end up costing you a LOT more money if you're inspired to follow up with a real vacation!

Escape Monthly arrives in a satisfyingly large blue box each month:

November's box includes a nice mix of the expected plus a few lesser known items from Hawaii.

First there is their usual colorful travel brochure which tells about the destination, each item in the box, its retail value and an announcement about next month's destination.  Did you know that the only royal palace in the United States is the Iolani Palace in Honolulu?  Several Hawaiian monarchs lived in this palace but after the monarchy was overthrown in 1893, the building became a capitol building for Hawaii until 1969 and was opened to the public as a museum in 1978.  But I digress....what's in this box????

It's not hard to guess that a main ingredient in any box full of Hawaiian goodies will be macadamia nuts.  There is a 4 oz. package of Kona Coffee Banana Macadamia Crunch from Royal Hawaiian Orchards.  These are clusters of roasted macadamias, almonds, Kona coffee beans and banana. Seems like a strange combination but these are very crunchy and tasty.  I love the bare hint of coffee flavor!

 

I was surprised that there was a second similar product in the box....a 4.5 oz. bag of Macadamias glazed with Kona coffee from Hawaiian Host.  Fine with me....I love these things!

Next is a package of Stress Relief Formula Bath Crystals from Hawaiian Rainforest Naturals.  This is a blend of natural Hawaiian salt crystals infused with Wild Lehua, Wild Kinehe and Wild Yellow Ginger....that's a lot of wildness for one bath.

The bonus item in this month's box is a seashell lei, hand collected from Hawaii's shorelines and made from nassa shells and cowries.  These are said to bring good luck.

There are a pair of luxury bath and body samples from Noni Papaya Pineapple, a shampoo and a body lotion.  The brochure mentions a body wash from this company but they must have run out of those because I received the shampoo instead.  These both have a nice tropical scent.

A small packaged gift bundle from Honey Girl Organics contains a face & eye cream and a night cream.  These are made with Hawaiian Pupukea honey and extra virgin olive oil and have protective and restorative qualities.  I'm interested in giving these a try.

As always, there is a nice travel guide included; this time a Moon handbook for Maui. These are full of maps and plenty of information on where to stay, where to eat and what to see while you're in Maui (as well as Moloka'i and Lana'i).  After flipping through this beautiful book, it's really hard not to head straight over to Orbitz!

So, that's Escape Monthly's box for November.  Their information brochure usually tells where we'll be headed next month but this time it just says we're going to get a "Luxury European Christmas". That's a bit different and less specific than usual so I'm curious to see what they send.

The full price of an Escape Monthly box is $49.95; however, there are almost always 20% discount codes around that effectively make the box $39.95 per month for the life of your subscription.  Use any of the codes MYESCAPE, YULETIDE or YOURESCAPE for $10 off the cost of each month. Also, keep an eye out for even better prices on deal sites like RueLaLa, Groupon and Living Social.  I recently found a three month subscription for $97 on RueLaLa, which brings the price down to $32.33 per month.  I don't think that particular deal is still available but it pays to do your due diligence.

Although the November box was not one of the better value boxes from Escape Monthly, I think they did a fairly good job of bringing the flavor and essence of Hawaii into our living rooms.  You have to wonder how many subscribers will actually be inspired to book a trip?

Aloha,

Cheryl

P.S.  If you want to try a less expensive version of Escape Monthly, they also have a Mini Escape box which contains 4 or 5 luxury locally-made products and a travel brochure (no book).  It is half the size of the regular box and costs $24.95 per month.

Disclosure:  Views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly my own.  Product discussed in this post was purchased with my own money. Post does not contain referral or affiliate links.