Hawaii with rentalcar

[Svenja66]

Hello,

 

we are a family from Germany and we are going to Hawaii by Cruise ship on Septemper. Because of the children we want to rent a car. (we did this last year also on a canada cruise and it worked well)

 

Is here somebody who did this before? I dont know, if we have enough time to rent and return. I have heard for example in Kona the traffic must be to high for car rental for one day.

 

Here are our places and times

 

01-Oct Nawiliwili (Kauai), Hawaii 7:30 AM 6:00 PM Docked

 

02-Oct Honolulu (Oahu), Hawaii 7:00 AM 11:00 PM Docked

 

03-Oct Kailua Kona, Hawaii 8:00 AM 5:00 PM Tendered

 

03-Oct Mount Kilauea, Evening Sail 11:59 PM Cruising

 

04-Oct Hilo, Hawaii 7:00 AM 5:00 PM Docked

 

05-Oct Lahaina (Maui), Hawaii 7:00 AM 11:59 PM Docked

 

And does someone know, where I can find out which car rental is the nearest to the cruise port? If possible in walking distance or with pickup not were we have to go by cab.

 

I am also happy about "must sees" of you all.

 

 

Svenja

 

[lazygal]

We rented a car in every port with no problems. Hawaii car rentals are very inexpensive. Make sure you rent from agencies that have shuttles to come pick you up at the pier. Do not rent at airport locations. That is very important for Lahaina, where the airport is an hour away. Rent from the Sheraton hotel area. In Oahu, rent from downtown Honolulu or Waikiki The shuttle will come get you. In Kona, rent from the King Kameahamai (sp) hotel. You can walk to it, avoiding the traffic problems at the airport.

 

Price several online agencies and I would stay with the ones that do not want pre-payment.

[watsup]

One place to check is the "Hawaii Drive-O" website. They discount cars through Thrifty rental and their prices are quite good in most cases. Use the "aiport rental" in Hilo and Kauai as the airports are quite convenient in those locations and shuttles will take you there from the ship. In Kona, rent from the King Kamehameha hotel site as the airport is too far away in heavy traffic.

[Svenja66]

Thank you for your soon answers. That sounds good. Its hard to find out which one has a pick up. Your informations helped me a lot. We are very happy to do this cruise. Its a child-dream and now I am happy we can do it with 3 generations. We are just afraid about the storms?

Bye Svenja

[beachchick]

We rented a car in every port with no problems. Hawaii car rentals are very inexpensive. Make sure you rent from agencies that have shuttles to come pick you up at the pier. Do not rent at airport locations. That is very important for Lahaina, where the airport is an hour away. Rent from the Sheraton hotel area. In Oahu, rent from downtown Honolulu or Waikiki The shuttle will come get you. In Kona, rent from the King Kameahamai (sp) hotel. You can walk to it, avoiding the traffic problems at the airport.

 

Price several online agencies and I would stay with the ones that do not want pre-payment.

 

Prices vary all the time and can be really great deals to "are you kidding?"

 

Also, there are only two places to not rent from the airport locations. The first is Kona because the airport is 25 minutes by shuttle and most companies don't shuttle to the tender pier. At the King Kamehameha Hotel, across the street from the tender pier, both Thrifty and Dollar have a small rental setup for cruise pax only. Book early because there are limited numbers of cars and they often run out well in advance. The other port to consider not renting at the airport is Honolulu. Most companies have downtown locations in addition to the airport. Most will only shuttle from the pier to the downtown (Honolulu/Waikiki) locations.

 

Lahaina is a special case. You must not--absolutely MUST NOT--rent from the Kahului airport locations because it is almost an hour's drive from Lahaina across the island and no company will shuttle to the Lahaina tender pier under any circumstances. You want either the West Maui Airport (a small commuter airport) with designator JHM or one of the ones at a hotel on Ka'anapali beach (do not be fooled by the Lahaina address listing; almost all are in Ka'anapali) or the Hertz in Lahaina on Papalaua (look for that street in the address) or one of the no-name places near the tender pier.

 

For Hilo, Kahului (Maui), and Nawiliwili (Lihue, Kauai), you need to rent from the airport locations. They are usually the closest (and also only) ones. Almost all companies send shuttles to the pier from those airport locations (about 5 to 10 quick minutes from the piers).

 

beachchick

[zaddict]

So we have our cars reserved at Hilo and Kauai. Rented through Thrifty blue chip. Can't find any link to shuttles or other transportation from pier to airport. Do they just send shuttles, or do I need to call and schedule one?

 

thanks, Steve

[GolfHawaii]

So we have our cars reserved at Hilo and Kauai. Rented through Thrifty blue chip. Can't find any link to shuttles or other transportation from pier to airport. Do they just send shuttles, or do I need to call and schedule one?

 

thanks, Steve

 

Shuttles for all the companies will be lined up waiting for you to get off the ship. If they are not there, they will be back in a few minutes.

[cruising forever]

I know you said the shuttles are there from "all" companies, but I'd feel better if someone could verify if there is a shuttle specifically for Thrifty at Kauai (Nawilliwilli stop) and the "other" Maui stop by the airport, Kahului.

 

Thanks so much :)

[Nancyquilts]

All the companies have shuttles at Hilo and Kauai. We have used Thrifty in both places, and other companies too, depending on the price. We haven't rented in Lahaina. Do reserve your cars at each port. There usually aren't enough cars for people who haven't reserved them. And if the weather is bad and the ship can't get you there, there is no problem canceling them. Nancy

[fendbass]

They may have loosened this up since I did it, but, when I was renting cars for the day a few years ago, we were told, in no uncertain terms that the last shuttle to the pier was at 4pm, no matter when the ship departed. That means you had to have your car turned in, and be waiting for the shuttle. Plan you time accordingly

[cruising forever]

All the companies have shuttles at Hilo and Kauai. We have used Thrifty in both places, and other companies too, depending on the price. We haven't rented in Lahaina. Do reserve your cars at each port. There usually aren't enough cars for people who haven't reserved them. And if the weather is bad and the ship can't get you there, there is no problem canceling them. Nancy

 

Thanks for the info! Our Maui rental won't be from Lahaina, but rather from the other port (where our ship will be docked), Kahului. Can anyone verify that Thrify has a shuttle there?

[cruising forever]

They may have loosened this up since I did it, but, when I was renting cars for the day a few years ago, we were told, in no uncertain terms that the last shuttle to the pier was at 4pm, no matter when the ship departed. That means you had to have your car turned in, and be waiting for the shuttle. Plan you time accordingly

 

Oh my! :eek: Now, THIS would be important information.....anyone know if this is still applicable?