MoJo

We, family of four including two young boys, are planning a 4 weeks vacation in Oahu sometime in April and are looking to rent a moderately priced (unfortunately the $A doesn't go very far these days) apartment/cottage close to the beach either in the North or West of Hawaii.

Have heard that rental properties are a bit of a lottery. Should I pre book it using one of the internet services or do it when I arrive, both of which entails some risk. How busy is Oahu in April?

Any recommendation or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Celeste

First of all, do NOT stay on the west side of Oahu. There is a lot of crime and the locals do NOT like tourists! I lived on Oahu for three years and a month didn't go by without a newspaper article about tourists being robbed (and much worse) on the Waianae Coast.

I can give two suggestions for finding a rental: vrbo.com (vacation rental by owner) and Hawaii Magazine, which lists many rentals by owner in the back of each magazine. You would be most centrally located in the Haleiwa are of the North Shore, with Mokuleia and Waialua to the west of Haleiwa and other towns like Sunset Beach and Waimea Bay to the east.

Celeste

By the way, waves are still pretty high on the North Shore in April. That might concern you since you have two young children.

Linda

I found our perfect North Shore Oahu rental on vacationspot.com. It was not modern or luxurious, but very nice, large, clean, well-equipped, beachfront w/lanai 6 paces from beach. It was a duplex in a "colony" of duplexes, and only $100 a night. The grounds were georgous, and there's a swimming pool, tennis court and laundry room too. The beach out front was nice for playing, and it was a great location for day-tripping to other parts of the island.....

Duane

Linda,
It sounds like we rented the same place. Was Pat in California the owner?

Either way, great rentals can be had on VacationSpot.com I have rented several Conds/cottages through them. Always end up talking directly to the owner so I am not worried too much about the internet service. Of course there are other great sights out there too I'm sure.

Check it out, it is a great way to stay.
Duane

Melissa

I once rented a cottage from Ke Iki Hale, very reasonable. You can read about it at Travelocity.com. (59-579 Ke Iki Rd, Haleiwa , HI 96712 Phone: 800/377-4030 or 808/638-8229)

There is also this spot: http://www.goin2travel.com/list/oahu3.htm

Also....if you decide to rent on the Windward side (Kailua), my boss just sent me to this site. The luxury rentals are at the top of the page; the affordable ones are at the bottom. http://bnb-hawaii.com/

Linda

Duane - yeah, we rented the same place as you did - the owner was Pat. She seems like quite a character, doesn't she? (but very, very nice). Did you have as awesome a vacation as we did? That LANAI!!! It was our first ever trip to Hawaii, and every morning we'd have breakfast on the lanai, sit there enjoying the view, and have to absolutely MAKE ourselves leave it to go sightseeing. It was the most wonderfully relaxing vacation..... Planning next trip to Hawaii already - hubby would just as soon go back to the exact same island cottage, but I know we should see another island, so researching Kauai - and hoping to find a rental just like (and priced like) this one on Oahu.....

Gayle

Question for those of you who found these perfect duplexes on north shore: what were they near? Turtle Bay? Waimea? Was it in a safe area? The only thing of that description I could find in a book said the furniture was rundown, etc. Hopefully this is a different place. What were they called? Were they nice? If you stayed in winter, was it rainy?

Linda

Gayle - the duplexes are called Mokuleia Beach Colony, and are near the beach town of Haleiwa on the North Shore (which is about a 15 min. drive to Waimea Bay and it's further on to Turtle Bay). It's considered a very "safe" area - we had no concerns sleeping with our sliding glass doors open at night. And the colony is a "gated" community, if that helps. Do a search on this forum using "Mokuleia" - I answered questions about the cottage, and someone had a website for it, a couple of months ago.

Roy

Take a read of "Hawaii for less" under Joyful Journeys at...

www.senior-infosite.com

Aloha,

Roy

Gayle

Thanks guys for the speedy replys. I'll look up those sites.