Hi. I am looking for recommendations for a hotel in or near Honolulu. We have a 7:00 a.m. flight and would like to be as close to the airport as possible. It doesn't have to be fancy, just looking for clean, affordable accommodations where we can maybe take advantage of a pool, and get a few hours of sleep before our early flight. We are a family of 4. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

bluejeans

There are only 3 hotels close to the airport. None get very good reviews (i.e., not even "clean"). You can read the reviews on Trip Advisor.

Waikiki is only 20-30 mins. away and there are literally hundreds of great hotels to choose from there. It's easy enough to arrange for early morning transportation to the airport.

I can recommend Ohana Airport Hotel. It's nothing fancy, just an "airport hotel", but it is clean, and they have a free shuttle to and from the airport. Have stayed there before and will be there again in December.

I agree with Suze. Honolulu traffic during rush hour [which lasts hours] is bad, but, before the start of rush hour the airport is a short jaunt. Waikiki is so pretty (and whistle clean) it seems worth the investment in time and money to enjoy it. You may find a hotel off the main drag at a reasonable rate, and, Waikiki is so compact it's easy to stroll around to see the sights.

Staying in Waikiki also means you can have a nice evening there, have dinner, walk on the beach, etc. instead of being stuck in the airport area (where there's really not much in the way of restaurants or anything to do).

If you've been in Waikiki already, just keep your room an extra night. If you're only on Oahu for one day, there's loads of reasonably priced hotel rooms available.

Thank you for your input. I am checking out hotels in Waikiki. We are actually renting a beach house up near Hauula and didn't want to be that far from the airport on the morning of departure, so I was thinking we wanted to be close to the airport and make use of the airport shuttle. My sort-of idea was to drop off the rental car the evening before (since it seems that some rental car counters aren't going to be open at 5:00 a.m.), and also to try to avoid getting up even earlier to allow for the time it takes to drop off the car and clear up the bill. I don't know. Maybe that doesn't make sense. Can we catch a cab from Waikiki to the airport at that hour? I'm just trying to figure out the best and easiest way (affordable too!) to spend our last day/night on Oahu without a lot of hassles. We won't get into Chicago's O'Hare airport until 11:00 p.m. so that is gong to be a loooooong, tiring day. Was hoping the day before could be a little restful. I don't know, now I'm rambling. Your ideas are most welcome.

thanks again,

bluejeans

Yes, you can take a taxi at that hour. Can you maybe drop the car off in Waikiki instead of at the airport? That way, you could drop it off the night before, not have to pay to park it or to rent it for another day, and take a taxi to the airport for little more than that would have cost you. And enjoy Waikiki for the evening. At that hour of the day, it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to get from Waikiki to the airport.

You can easily take a taxi from Waikiki say at 4am or so, to allow plenty of time to get to the airport. The extra 1/2 hour for transporation would be well worth it to me, to have a nice last night in Hawaii (watch sunset, have dinner overlooking the ocean) instead of stuck at an airport hotel.

As agove, check to see if you can drop the rental car in Waikiki and just taxi to the airport in the morning.

OK that's a good idea. I'm checking into the Waikiki drop off idea. (Maybe we can even rent from a Waikiki agency rather than from the airport to begin with?) I know some off-site car rental places are cheaper than the airport rentals, so that might work. We don't necessarily have to pick up the care at the airport. Yes. Watching a sunset over dinner sounds nice. I'm looking into this idea. Thanks.

bluejeans

So I booked two rooms at the Aqua Palms and Spa, and we will be returning our car the afternoon before our departure. This way we can stroll around Waikiki, not have to worry about parking, and the fees involved, and dropping off the car on the morning of departure, etc., and then either taxi or hire a shuttle to get us to the airport early. This is starting to sound like a plan!! Thanks again.

bluejeans

Perfect plan. Have fun.

hurray!!! That's much better. you'll see. Have a mai tai for me

I've stayed at the Pacific Marina Inn at HNL and it was ok. Bit spartan but clean - we only used it for a couple hours sleep before the flight. We spent last evening in Waikiki and drove out to the hotel to sleep. Parking is free at the hotel. Next morning we dropped off rental car at 4am and took rental car shuttle to the airport.

Odin, Thanks for that post. I'll have to remember that as an alternate suggestion. That if you have a rental car you could still have dinner in Waikiki, wouldn't mean you had to just sit around an airport hotel like I made it sound. Thanks.

Odin - which car rental company did you use?

bluejeans