Oahu car rental with late night arrival
 

Need advice from experienced travelers. We arrive in Honolulu airport at 10 pm and after picking up baggage, etc., I'm thinking it may be easier to take a cab to our hotel than rent a car upon arrival that night & try to find our way there after an exhausting trip.

Then we can rent a car early the next morning. Here's my questions:

1. If we plan to go to Hanauma Bay that next morning, will the rental agencies be open early enough? What rental agencies are located within walking distance of our hotel -Hilton Prince Kuhio?

2. Is there an extra fee to rent car in Waikiki & drop off at HNL?

3. I'm concerned our family of 5 with 6 pieces of lugguage (3 lg, 3 med) won't fit in one cab. Are there mini-van size cabs ready & waiting at the airport taxi line or do I need to arrange for this in advance?

My plan is to rent a car for the 2 full days we are in Oahu (arrive late Tues, depart for KOA 5 pm on Friday), and cab-it back & forth to airport. Is this advisable? Any other tips you have would be appreciated.

If anyone's found good rental deals recently, pls let me know. I've emailed discountHawaii carrental.com & hawaiidrive-o.com two days ago and haven't heard from either yet.

Thanks!

I think your best bet would be to call the car rental companies and ask them.

I would get the car that first night. Save the frustration of trying to get a car in the morning. If you don't get to Hanauma Bay early enough, you will not be able to get in if the lot is filled. You cannot just pull over and wait outside till someone leaves, either.

It is really not very hard to get from the car rentals to your hotel, especially that late in the evening. take Nimitz Highway. It turns into Ala Moana Blvd, which will end on Kalakaua ave. Merge to the left and go down Kuhio Ave to your hotel.

Good point, lcuy. Since I have 2 full days, I'll plan on Hanauma Bay the 2nd day when I'll already have the car. I just read somewhere that car rental companies add an add'l 11% tax for pick-up at the airport (can anyone confirm this?). Considering we arrive late at night, my thinking is I'd save on one extra day's rental & hotel parking and just pick up the car in-town when we're walking around Waikiki.

My biggest concern is that the cabs at the airport may not have room for all our lugguage. Also, I've seen the range of cab fare from HNL to Waikiki at $25-40. Can someone provide a closer estimate?

All cabs charge the same mileage/time fee...it depends on traffic and where you are going in Waikiki (it is quite long).

You might get charged extra per bag, but the airport dispatchers will put you in a mini-van or limo. Again, all have the same fare structure.

I like your idea of moving Hanauma to the next day. hotel parking can be pricey.

lcuy, stop giving advice and get cracking on the trip report! I'm addicted and waiting!!
ha ha
;)

Appreciate the advice, lcuy. I did find startaxihawaii.com that charges $30, no extra fee for baggage & uses minivan to transport. I feel better now that I know all our stuff will fit in one cab. Looking forward to your trip report too!

hahahaaha lucy....ditto what Mels said but with lots of loving and aloha!!!!!! ((k))

Aloha!

jeez- I get busted no matter where I try to do my procrastinating....

Okay, already...back to wordperfect...
;-)

to answer your initial question, all the car rental agencies will let you pick up downtown.

i have one thught based on how prominently your luggage is figuring in your posted questions: if you are 5 people (assuming 2 adults, 3 kids?), and you are staying in a condo and switching islands, why not work on reducing the amount of stuff you are taking?

for example, you can launder your waikiki clothes in your big island condo, you and the kids will be in bathing suits/ cover ups all day. you really do not need fancy clothes for hawaii, and flip flips are lightweight.

what is in the bags that you can dump? i think your goal should be getting your luggage down to size. in hawaii you do not dress up at all, and you can certainly repeat your outfits on one island and the other.

give it some thought. shoes? one day pair one night pair each. that's it!

kerikeri :)

Hi Kerikeri,

Yeah, if Hawaii were our only destination, packing would be easy and light, as you described. But we have a one-week stopover in San Francisco for a wedding & family reunion, so not only do I have to bring dressy clothes for that, but I'm dressing for 62-degree temps (think early spring) for that week! I hate that I have to pack a suit for DH & dressy shoes & clothes for everyone that'll only get worn one day...
Plus we are bringing our snorkeling gear to HI, including lifevests which take up a lot of room.

Very intuitive of you to catch that it was the lugguage that was figuring prominently in my decision-making, however. It does dictate the size of vehicle we end up having to rent or taxicab trunk size!

oh! i see now!

can you...
store at sf airport?
in airport hotel?
with relatives?
at the last hotel you stay in in sf and pop out during your layover?

ship the stuff back home from sf via luggage forward or ups?

good luck!

kerikeri :)

Yeah, will likely do that- will have relatives ship back the stuff we we don't need... arghh! Packing now, leaving in 2 days!

my wife & I used startaxi. We had no worries, just make sure you set up the appointment with them. It was very convenient to have them waiting for me, and going directly to my room, rather than waiting for a shuttle, and eventually get there 40 minutes later.