My husband & I are "directionally impaired" and usually get lost in new cities. I have this fear of getting lost in a rough/bad neighborhood, ala Bonfires of the Vanities"
Can we make do with cabs or is it a must that we have a car. We won't be there too long, maybe 2-3 days and would of course like to see Pearl Harbor.

Thanks for your help.

It is not necessary to have a car in Oahu and in some ways a burden. Parking can be a problem and hotels charge quite a bit to park. There are many tours available from the hotels. They will offer tours to Pearl Harbor, the Polynesian Culture Center, Luaus, and island tours. It would be more relaxing for you to take one of these. If you're in the Waikiki area, you can walk to the International Bazaar and shops.

Definately, I bid online for a full-size car in Oahu in April and got one for $23.00 per day. We never had a problem with parking and you can cover the Island in a day if you don't stop, but do, there are sooo many beaches to try out as well as some attraction such as Pearl Harbour, the Punch Bowl, Hananama Bay etc. We stayed in a house on the beach in KAILUA Beach and it was only a 30 minute drive to Waikiki...

You may want to rent a car for a day or two. You can take the bus on the other days. The drivers are quite helpful. Also, most hotels have a bus sheet they can give you which tells you what buses to take to which destinations. The bus goes all around the island. It just takes more time than driving. It is also very inexpensive.

Of course you need a car. How else can you drive over from California?

Do not hire a car or taxi! Oahu is massively organized for mass transit with day passes on special tourist trolleys or island wide bus systems. Web pages abound http://www.thebus.org/ http://www.waikikitrolley.com/ and a zillion private vans servicing airport and tourist sites. Driving yourself can be difficult with a lot of non-obvious pitfalls like intentionally misleading signage (to get funding for an "interstate" highway they have to appear to be going from one federal facility to another).

Oahu does have a good mass transit system but it takes four times longer to get somewhere by bus than by your own car. I would rent one for at least a couple of days to see more of the island than just Waikiki!

The answer obviously depends on what you would like to do and where you're staying? If all you plan to do is lounge around (poolside or beach) most of time with occassional shopping and a trip to Pearl Harbor (I'm sure there are easily-arranged shuttle trips), then it might be best for you to pass on renting a car. If you want to avoid the crowds and really experience Oahu, not just Honolulu/Waikiki, then you definitely need a car to get out to such wonderful places as the North Shore, Hanauma Bay, Lanikai Beach and many more.

So it all depends on what you want to do in that short span of time. We had a similar problem 2 years ago--3 days before venturing off to Tahiti. We primarily wanted to relax and take in a few sites, but found it much more fun AND relaxing having had a convertible Mustang (albeit touristy) and getting awaying from Waikiki.

It is very easy to get lost in the Honolulu/Waikiki area, ESPECIALLY since most streets have Hawaiian names and they seem to look the same, sound the same on your first trip there. We got to the hotel from the airport pretty smoothly when it was dark, but it was a HOOT hearing my wife trying to pronounce the names off the rental map and me staring dumbfoundedly at the street signs as I was passing them. I asked my wife to spell the street names out but there sure are some long names. Boy was that an adventure...strange and frightful at the time, but it's one of the things we now smile/laugh fondly back upon.

A few tips if you rent a car: (1) try your best to avoid traffic hours around Honolulu and (2) have fun even if you get lost. Although there are a few "rough/bad" neighborhoods in Honolulu, it's nothing compared to LA or NY, and I highly doubt you'll end up in them. And even if you do...I seriously doubt anything will happen to you. Go to Oahu (or just about anyplace) cautiously and informedly, but not to the point of paranoia or you'll never enjoy the trip. HAVE FUN!!