car rental in Hawaii

[plumeria]

We will be in Hawaii 5 months from now, how soon should you book car rental?

I have read if you don't book early you will be disappointed

 

Thanks

 

Plumeria

 

PS still figuring out which islands to book car

[kkid]

Plumeria,

 

With your name, I thought you were from Hawaii.

 

Renting a car in Hawaii is like renting a car anywhere in the USA. There are a lot of rental vehicle in Hawaii. If you book your car a few weeks in advance you should be fine.

[ISABELLA]

We did Hawaii twice and booked a car 3 month in advance. People who did not rented in advance still got them but at much higher cost. We rented in Hilo and Honolulu. But I would recomment the location in Honolulu when they will bring you back to the ship. There is a shuttle service in Hilo. Was the best thing we did, having a car. We used Dollar- rates were fantastic.

[garardo]

Something else to think about is cost of the CDW insurance. If you get it through Travel Guard and with a rental company that they cover you will save about $10 a day. Many people do not get the collision insurance because they feel that their insurance will pay. That is not 100% true. Indeed their insurance company will pay for the cost of repairing the car but they will not pay for the time that the car is out of service. That might be a few weeks. Understand the car rental company will not charge you just the discount rate of lets say $30 a day. They can charge you the full rate of lets say $60 a day. 60X14...... well you get the idea.

[robbie500]

Great Cruise Selection!

You need to start searching the boards for rental car codes. (Little promotional discount codes you enter on the web sites when booking)When we cruised Hawaii a few years ago, we found a code on the boards for Alamo that saved us quite a few $$'s. It was like a $38 per day deal. We were amazed to see others from the ship paying $80 a day and more.

The deals are out there, so if you take your time and search the boards, you can save some good money.

Have Fun and be sure to drive the road to Hana!

Rob

 

P.S. We also purchased a CD called the Hana Audio Tour. This provided great commentary on where to stop and take photos that other travelers didn't know about.