suze

{wasn't considering the The Bus for a whole island tour - but it seemed to have frequent service to both Pearl Harbour and for the area around Iolani Palace}

OK. Yes that works. I've used The Bus for the Palace and Botanical Gardens and works for Pearl Harbor. Many people do that instead of driving there. I've only had positive experiences with The Bus. Especially around Waikiki/Honolulu there are so many and they run so frequently. Easy peasy. I've even used it for return to the airport one trip when I was traveling very light and leaving mid-day.

You'll want to have cash for places like farmers markets and street booths. Although even there most are now able to swipe a card. I always use cash so did not pay close attention to this.

mrwunrfl

Wow, I could understand NZ$240, but I guess it depends on car class and how much insurance you get.

For your thought of a car for the last day, I wouldn't do the loop that day. However unlikely, stuff happens. If it did happen then I would rather be closer to the airport than, say, Hanauma Bay.

So, at first I thought about going to the airport to store the luggage and get a car from there to visit PH. Then I looked at transport from HNL to PH and saw that there are shuttles.

Then I saw a link to pearlharbor.org and got to the tours page: Official Pearl Harbor Tours |Pearl Harbor Memorial Tickets

Took a look at the $103 and $181 options.The expensive one shows a mini-bus and maybe it is the Admiral's Tour, or something and the other is maybe a big coach and the Ensign's tour. Same stops but difference price. Unfortunately, perhaps, the $181 tour is on Fridays only, Anyway, I look at tours to see what they offer and then figure out how to do it myself at lower cost (and less convenience).

lissie45

How do you manage tipping then? I'm a kiwi I have no clue with tipping - but I got screamed at the last time I was in LAX because we had a day hotel for a few hours in transit which included transfers - it didn't even occur to me that the driver would expect a tip! I had no currency at all and he was very unhappy.

lissie45

Hmm I didn't realise it would take that long... We could maybe drop the bags at the airport in the morning - I think there is storage there. I wouldn't be happy about having the luggage in the car with us, as we will have computers and cameras with us.

lissie45

Haha - I do the same with tours - they are good for itinerary ideas. The tours are very early morning, but we could do it ourselves with an uber I should think. I'm liking the idea of moving PH to t the last day - it does seem very close to the airport There is definitely luggage storage at the airport.

mlgb

Re tipping I just use Uber (or more often Lyft) and you can add the tip afterwards, they send you and email asking if you want to do that.

If you don't already have Lyft on your phone, you might want to add that ap. The one time I had to use Lyft was because the bus was so late getting me to the Bishop Museum that not only didn't I have time to visit it (I had a free pass ) I also didn't have time to take the bus on to the airport. So I took Lyft from Bishop to the airport, picked up the car, and drove back to Bishop for a visit (with a stop at Helena's to pick up some lunch).

With COVID, a lot of small vendors don't want to touch cash. They all have those portable scanners now.

suze

"Hmm I didn't realise it would take that long"

It has never taken me an hour between Waikiki and the airport. In half-a-dozen trips using various taxis, even shared shuttles or The Bus.

mlgb

But have you been there lately? It's like frickin Manhattan with all of the tourists that don't want to travel outside the US.

I would have thought with all the times that suze claims she's been to Hawaii, that it has been more than six trips? I wonder how many in even the last 5 years (we already know it's zero in the last two years, since the pandemic). Heck I made six trips to the airport myself this one visit, since that's where I had to get the rental car. Two trips using a shuttle to my hotel when I arrived and departed (the arrival shutltle driver was also an half hour late), the bus after I returned the car, which wasn't bad actually since there was no transfer needed and I got off at Fort DeRussy (and it was only about 15 minutes late) . You know they run only 2x an hour. Driving the car from the airport to Waikiki after I picked it up, and then returning it the last half day of the rental period from East Honolulu near the blowhole. Plus the ridiculous amount of time it took me to take the bus to the Bishop Museum because the transfer bus was half an hour late. Then I had abort the rest of the bus trip and call an the Uber. I deliberately rented mid day to mid day on a weekend to avoid the worst of the commute traffic (which suze probably has no experience with either). But there was a LOT of traffic coming into Waikiki in the evenings with people wanting to eat out, shop, etc. And virtually NO empty street parking spaces. I was just glad my hotel managed to squeeze me in to an overnight parking spot.

suze

"Just think of it as New York City on a beach and you'll be less shocked"

Population of New York City is ~8.4 million.

Population of Waikiki is ~15,500. Population of all the Hawaiian islands together is only 1.375 mllion

mlgb

Consider the density per square foot, dear. And add in the transient population (tourists).

How many hotel rooms are there on Waikiki? Google says 30,000. They were pretty much near capacity. So another 50-60K people or more staying there. Add in the employees who commute from outside the center.

suze

Waikiki is *nothing* like New York City.

mlgb

How many times?

mrwunrfl

Yeah, that guy got over it. Or not. I have stiffed on a tip on occasion. I probably would not have complained to the hotel.

What you do at LAX is go to the ATM and get $100. It will be in twenties, Then you can stop at a shop and ask them to break a twenty. They might, but they might require you to buy something. So you get a pen or a piece of candy or stop for a cup of coffee and pay with a 20 and then ask them break another one.

(it occurs to me while fixing my typos that the shops would be airside at LAX, maybe upstairs landside at the TBIT, but I think NZ uses a different terminal, and stuff changes)

Or you don't stop and go out to the shuttle with your five twenties. When you get to the destination it will be tip time and you ask him for change. That is, you show him the twenty and tell him you will need $1x change. One time at the Las Vegas airport I handed over a 20 and the guy was handing back a 10 and a 5 and I just told him I'm going to need another $3 which of course he had. Or maybe that was a wise-guy Vegas taxi driver who was trying to fatten his tip. Or maybe both happened.

In the unlikely event that the driver doesn't have change (which he knows damn well he needs to have) then you can tell him to wait while you go to the front desk to get change (maybe a doorman could help). He will wait, of course, because you will be coming back with paper money that he can put in his pocket (no coins in that kind of tip unless it is like a couple bucks in quarters)

You can substitute her/she in the above as the case may be.

Your comment reminded me to break one of the 20s that have been in wallet for months because I am going to Vegas soon where every worker is looking/hoping for a tip. One time, I won big and went to the cage to cash in my chips. It took some time for the cashier to count out the fat stack of 100s. I pushed one back towards her and was opening my mouth when she said "thank you" as if a $100 tip was not unusual. I just told her that I wanted change for that bill. There might have been a slim possibility that I would have tossed her five bucks but that thought would have evaporated when I heard the thank you. I think she was trying to take advantage of people who don't know any better.

And just use whatever excess cash you have at the end of the trip when you check out (holding to any petty cash you might need, like for a shuttle driver tip).

lissie45

I think we arrived at Tom Bradley - I literally have no idea - we'd be travelling for a good 18-20 hours by then - mechanical issues in Tahiti meant we were hours late into LAX .

So in Hnl if we pre-book a pre-paid taxi like Charlies - do we still tip in cash as well? We will have 1 or 2 checked bags between us and the fare I think is around $30 - so 10% $3? I will have to get back into the habit of using cash as soon as we hit Hnl - I rarely carry it anymore at home. We did a 3 week road trip last year -before contact tracing was a thing with an app - and switched to using cards as much as we could - the answer was we could do it 100% - and I've just kept doing it.

mrwunrfl

I don't know about Charles but I would expect to see an option at booking to add a tip, either a percentage or dollar amount (maybe a choice between the two. You could have choice to add the tip there or just enter 0 and tip in cash when you arrive at the hotel. The former has the benefit of the driver (possibly/probably) knowing in advance that s/he will get a tip. The latter has the benefit of the driver getting the cash immediately without being taxed like the pre-paid tip would be.

Funny to think that a driver's (cash) tip expectation might depend on whether you arrive on Air NZ or on Hawaiian (assuming pickup is at the terminal and the driver know your airline).

The 10% is fine, so a $3 tip on a $30 fare is good for the trip (consider it to be an acceptable minimum - enough to keep the driver from flipping out, lol). You sh/could add two bucks because of the two bags that the driver will handle. Make it $5. A bit more won't hurt anybody.

If a pre-paid tip is required then you are done. You could give a couple bucks in cash on arrival if you want for some reason (like each bag weighing 30 kilos or he's just a nice or helpful guy).

Really, it would be easy to take a 3-week road trip here without using cash. I only need cash when I buy a lottery ticket.

Google tells me that:
Most Las Vegas taxi drivers will not accept credit cards
Almost all taxis in Honolulu accept credit cards, however, they do prefer cash payments.

mlgb

Charley's Taxi has an ap! I would take them and NOT Hawaii23 which seems to be the favorite on Tripadvisor.

https://charleystaxi.com/app

Clear instructions on how to get them to pick you up

https://charleystaxi.com/app-link-in...-8827cc27-f178

mrwunrfl

From the second link:
Flat Rates are one-way, per car, and do not include G.E. Tax, Airport Pick-up fee, or gratuity.

Waikiki: $29

So that example "$30 fare" mentioned earlier would really cost $29 + tax + fee.
(given the choice, you can tip based on the $29 fare only or you can tip on the total charge. My guess is that most people will do the latter. It would probably the same flat $5 from me that I mentioned above)

Songdoc

<How do you manage tipping then? I'm a kiwi I have no clue with tipping ->

I forgot about cash for tips. In most instances I am able to add the tip to the credit card. But for a shuttle driver who helps with luggage, I do give a couple of dollars cash. I usually only have carry-on bags so I don't need to tip at the hotel. The idea of cashing a $20. bill into smaller denominations is a good one.

suze

I suggest getting 50usd in $5 bills. Use those for tipping. I don't think you need singles. I'd never tip a driver only $2-3 on a percentages basis. Even when I take a free shuttle, I'd hand the driver a $5. They really appreciate it.
~~aloha~~

mlgb

Tip what you want, a few dollars per piece of luggage handled is just fine, and standard. Charley's takes credit cards and has an ap so you don't even need cash for them.

I do like to download the aps before I leave, then if they need validation via a text to cellphone, no worries if you don't have service in the US.

The airport in Honolulu does have free Wifi although it's always a good idea to be careful with that but you can use it to make a VOIP phone call if necessary.

If you need some small bills (like if you only get $20 bills from the ATM), buy something in the airport to get small bills.

I do like to leave $5 per night that I actually get hotel room service (some places are not coming in every day).