My wife and I will be staying in Waikiki for 5 days at the end of March. I am thinking of renting a car each day rather than for the entire 5 days in order to avoid the $25-30 parking fee at most hotels. We could pick it up each morning and drop it off in the evening at whichever rental car company is closest/cheapest. A preliminary check of rates shows the average daily rate is the same for both. The only drawback I see is a little inconvenience having to rent each morning and empty the car every night.

Any thoughts on this plan? Any experience renting this way?

Thanks, Rich

I think your plan is a good one because there will probably be some days when you won't even need a car thus saving the rental fee AND the parking fee both on those days.

I normally want a car at my disposal, BUT, if I were staying in Waikiki for 5 nights, I'd probably only need the car for 2 of those days - once to go east (Diamond Head, Kailua area, Hanauma Bay, Pali lookout) and once to go west (Pearl Harbor) and north (Haleiwa and the north shore beaches). So yes, it's probably a good plan.

I agree with sf7307. It's nice to spend a couple of days hanging out at the beach so no need for a car on those days. There is a trolley car that can take you to the a lamoana shopping centre if that's on your list of things to do.

There is a car rental agency in the Hyatt Hotel right on Waikiki, so getting to it is no problem. I agree that you probably won't want one every day. We usually drive around the island one day and if we have people who haven't been before, go to Pearl Harbor, Punchbowl Cemetery, and take the Tantalus drive on another.

Rent a car for the entire time.

You can park at Aston Waikiki Banyan for $10/day. You do not have to stay at that hotel to get that rate.

There may be days when you want an early start and there may be evenings when you won't want to rush back.