to rent or not to rent

J

jshow89

Earning My Ears

Joined

Mar 29, 2013

• Feb 13, 2017

• #1

Hey everyone, we are coming to aulani the end of April and me and my wife haven't decided yet on whether we should be renting a car.. we are DVC members so parking is free, i have a price of roughly $300 CAD for the rental from the moment we land until we go back to the airport 8 days, I think it makes sense for us to rent, if we have to cab and shuttle places i think it would cost more..

trips planned include shuttle to and from airport
dole plantation and north shore
fishing charter
Waikiki beach and illusionist show

i think if we cabbed to all above it would end up being more the the $300 rental.. just looking for some guidance before we book!

 

J

jshow89

Earning My Ears

Joined

Mar 29, 2013

• Feb 13, 2017

• #2

also not sure if any other Canadians could give me some insight on whether or not we could bring our own GPS and if it would work?

 

J

jshow89

Earning My Ears

Joined

Mar 29, 2013

• Feb 13, 2017

• #3

or does it make more sense to just rent daily from the rental on site?? i have no idea what that cost would be

 

planningjollyholiday

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jun 25, 2012

• Feb 14, 2017

• #4

Daily rentals from the resort are about $90 a day. Cheapest cab to aulani from airport is $55 each way. A cab from Aulani to waikiki area is about $80 each way. All these prices are in USD, so if you have a cab for $300 CAD than I would take it! We just used our smart phones and used Google maps to navigate around, and found it very accurate and easy. We made sure to buy data before we left canada. Our carrier is rogers and I think our mobile plan was around $6 a day. A car rental will be nice so you can do a grocery run and get a few things.

 

H

happymommy

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jan 8, 2006

• Feb 14, 2017

• #5

I wouldn't go without a car the whole time!

 

kdonnel

DVC-BCV

Joined

Feb 1, 2001

• Feb 14, 2017

• #6

I could not imagine not having a car at Aulani for a trip longer then 2-3 days.

 

Elima2015

Mouseketeer

Joined

Aug 5, 2016

• Feb 14, 2017

• #7

RENT!!! With the free parking it is no question to me to rent a car. Heck, we are on a cash reservation next week and we are paying the horrendous parking fee just to have the car. Not only it the car needed for any trips around Oahu, it is very convenient for running to the grocery store. We also ate quite a bit off-site in near-by Kapolei. Another example: one of our kids woke up with a raging case of pink eye. Our peditrician was able to call in a script to the closest drugstore and off we went to get the drops.

Will you have cell service? If so, we found Google Maps to meet all of our navigation needs the last time we were in Oahu.

 

nkereina

Last chance to lose your keys.

Joined

Feb 11, 2009

• Feb 14, 2017

• #8

Another vote for a car. I hate driving on vacation, especially because I like to have a few drinks, but there's no way we could have done a lot of what we did if we didn't have a car.

 

PattiPB

<font color=green>I'll be happy to learn the secre

Joined

Apr 29, 2000

• Feb 14, 2017

• #9

I don't want to be stranded...even in paradise!!

You've got a great deal. Rent the car!

 

OKW Lover

Retired and living 2 miles from The Castle.

DIS Lifetime Sponsor

Joined

Apr 29, 2004

• Feb 18, 2017

• #10

jshow89 said:

also not sure if any other Canadians could give me some insight on whether or not we could bring our own GPS and if it would work?

Click to expand...

Not Canadian, but the "G" in GPS stands for "Global". GPS works everywhere. What kind of unit do you have and does it have maps for Hawaii?

 

Nikodemos

Earning My Ears

Joined

Aug 12, 2013

• Feb 18, 2017

• #11

We've always done split stays (Turtle Bay/Aulani, Big Island/Aulani). In those cases, we do all our driving up front and then turn in our rental at Aulani (if you go with Alamo) or if coming from another island, just take a taxi from the airport. Aulani is so $$$ that we tend to stay put and use other cheaper condo rentals for a base of touring.

 

TagsMissy

It's not always easy being the wife of a soldier.

Joined

Jun 25, 2008

• Feb 19, 2017

• #12

100% rent a car! As for a GPS, if you don't have access to Data in the US with your mobile then yeah it'll be helpful. We used a GPS with downloaded Oahi maps our first trip, now we just use our T-Mo account and Google Maps. $300CAD is a good rate, well worth it in my opinion. I'm currently shopping around for September. Right now Budget is giving me the best deal.

 

Sepo

11-3-2016 12:47 a.m.

Joined

Apr 30, 2014

• Feb 19, 2017

• #13

Agree with everyone above. No question. Keep the rental!

We used ours everyday. You'll go to exit 1 a lot (Costco, Target, etc) to stock up at a good price; you'll use it for all that travel you mentioned on your own terms.