Thoughts on cars in Oahu...

[JSaunders]

Four of us will be arrived for a pre-cruise stay at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. We arrive on Thursday and the cruise departs on Sunday morning. Should we get a car? I assume that the taxis at the HNL airport hold 2 people plus luggage, so I guess it will cost $40 to get all of us to the hotel. Ditto to get us to the port on Sunday morning? We want to drive around Oahu, including snorkeling at Hanauma Bay and driving up to the North Shore. Will also want to tour the Dole Plantation.. We will probably want to spend a day in the Waikiki area... Is it possible to just walk over to Ala Moana and rent a car for a day? It looks like parking at the HHV is $20/day, if it was free we would probably just rent the car giving us more flexibility...What do you think? When you drop the car off at the airport, will the shuttle take you to the port, or would you have to take a taxi?

 

Advice appreciated!

[jlarga]

Aloha! We spent several pre-cruise days on Oahu and were very happy to have a rental car. You can drive all around the island, stop when you want to. A day in Waikiki is a day shopping or on the beach. Since we weren't in the market for the high end products sold in the Waikiki shops we just window shopped and people watched for a few hours. We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise over Diamond Head, but liked the other beaches that were less crowded.

 

Taxis from the airport---no problem finding taxi vans so you all could take one taxi. We used Alamo on Oahu and they did not have a shuttle to the port so we taxied from there...but we did stop at the port and checked our luggage onto the ship so wouldn't have it in the car all day and wouldn't have to schlep it into the cab. Have fun!

[Bucky3]

You may want to check out Hertz. Seems to me I remember them having a rental location at the Hilton Hawaiian Village - not sure about that.

[jerseyjk]

I have thrifty booked for most of the stops on my cruise. I'm only doing one day pre-cruise (priceline booking for Hawaiian Village) so didn't book a car for that but noticed thrifty has an in-town location on seaside ave in Waikiki (325 Seaside ave, about .8 miles from the HHV) as well as an airport location. You can return a car rented at the airport at the downtown location for a $20 dropoff fee. Not sure if they have a shuttle to the port though. I couldn't find it on their site so you may have to call.

 

The $20 per day parking is a bit much, but it is Waikiki after all.

 

BTW, I just realized in my subscribed thread that you responded to my old roll call for the 4/1/07 PoAloha cruise. I posted a new one because the old one disappeared. I'm on that cruise with DW and sons 10 & 14 and a 12 y.o. daughter.

[JohnL1935]

We're into our 2nd week at HHV and I have a rental car for the entire time. The parking fee is the hardest to swallow but the car gives you great flexibility and you won't be a prisioner to the village alone. The restaurant s are great at HHV but very expensive so getting out to other places to eat will recoup some of your expense. .There are parking meters in the Waikiki area but you only get 10 minutes for a quarter. There is a glut of meters up by the zoo and you get 30 minutes for a quarter. I was in the Aloha Tower area to check on going out on a whale watching boat and I couldn't find a curbside place to park. The NCL ship was in so it was very busy. The Bus systems is great but I'm too lazy to wait and inquire.

 

In case you are staying in the Rainbow Tower, beware that there is construction along the entire western side. If you are in one of the other towers you won't be affected.

 

Enjoy your stay in paradise...

 

John L.

[JSaunders]

Thanks all- I did check into Hertz, they do have a rental desk in the HHV, so it seems that daily rentals would save you the steep parking fee (plus I would like to spend one day adjusting from the east coast jet lag thing!).

 

jerseyjk- Yes, I see we picked up a few more folks for the April Fools cruise, it's a great departure date, also my 24th anniversary! I'll post on the roll call as well!