Hawaii Car Rental Question

[lazydaisy]

I heard on a Rick Steves podcast that you can actually save money by renting a car for a week in Hawaii, and the rental company will have cars waiting for you at each port.

 

Has anyone tried it this way?

 

Thanks!

[jimmy123]

I used

discount hawaii car rental

I didn't rent for the whole week, but we did rent at 4 different ports. The way it works is you click on the car type you want and it redirects you to a rental company website and enters a corporate code. It was about 1/2 the price of going directly to the rental agency. We paid $32ish for a midsize, always through Thrifty. We joined their Blue Chip program for free on their website and never had to wait in line.

 

I did find this on a car rental page

" It’s not possible to divide a rental between two or more islands since multi-island rentals are not allowed."

 

Good luck

[beachchick]

There are NO cars waiting for you at any of the ports. It's not possible in terms of available space, personnel to get the cars there, paperwork etc., and security. You will need to rent at the closest location (usually the airport).

 

I can't imagine why Rick Steves would say that they can/will have cars waiting for you at the port. That is completely incorrect, even if you rent through the cruise line--You still have to take the shuttle to the rental location.

 

If you're going to rent on multiple islands, Avis has (or at least, used to have) a thing where you could get a multi-island discount, but (as jimmy123 mentions), you can't do a one-week rental and split it between islands. Each island requires a separate reservation. (Now, if you're going to be on one island for 4 days or more, then the weekly rate is usually the best way to go.)

 

beachchick

[San Diego Ellie]

Mahalo Jimmy 122 for that discount car rental site info. I just happened to check this thread, and got a much lower rate at Thrifty for Kauii for August 22 using that site.

[jaxterry]

We also used that website on all islands and it was great. Never had any problems.