Going to Arizona from Aulani

[CruznLexi]

We are just in the planning stages of going to Aulani. My husband is not the best with driving away from home even with a GPS. Are there tours at Aulani to the Arizona and what about a rental car? Do you find you use it every day?

 

[mouseaider]

We are in the final planning stages for our trip in April and we have found a need for having a rental car for our length of stay at Aulani for several reasons.

The dining choices are very expensive at the resort and we are not going to use them much if at all.

With the rental car we expect to buy some groceries for the room and also eat at a lot of the local restaurants in the area. We will eat breakfast and light lunches from our refrigerator.

Most of our time will be laying around the pool and at the beach but we also want to visit the North Shore, climb Diamond Head, visit Pearl Harbor and have a lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville in Honolulu.

We have used carrentalhawaii.com to find a reasonable rental car. They broker deals between you and the rental company. We are actually getting our car from Alamo and saving $$.

Good luck with your planning. We are having fun doing it.

 

[Pakey]

We have done 5 Hawaii vacations, including one to Oahu. We have used a rental car every day on every Hawaiian vacation.

The Aulani tour website does list an excursion to the Arizona but it's like $20 pp (getting into Arizona is free) and you have to be up before the sun (I think bus leaves at some horrible time like 7:00 am). It's not that far of a drive so I'd much rather drive myself there/back so that I have flexibility to see what I wanted to see at the Arizona.

 

[rpcvpanama]

We were on Oahu last year at the Marriott resort in Ko'Olina and rented a car. The problem (maybe not a problem) with Ko'Olina is that it is pretty isolated. If you want groceries or other eating options apart from the resorts you really need a car. Driving around Oahu is pretty easy even into Waikiki.

We did the Pearl Harbor thing last year. It takes all day, if you want to see everything, and even then we couldn't finish everything. The best bet is to get there early. They tours to the Arizona are on a first come first serve basis. We arrived about 1 hour after they started handing out the tickets and our "time" was 2.5 hours later. It ended up working out as we toured the museum and the WWII submarine that is also there. After we got back from the Arizona we went and toured the other battleship (Mighty Mo, I think) that is there. However, we missed the aviation musuem as we were just too tired from standing/walking all day.

It is a wonderful experience but does take a long time. I would have hated to be hemmed in by a tour bus time or a tour group. It was easy and great to be able to explore on our own. I could actually go back again as there is just so much to see.

Getting there was pretty easy but ask for directions. We followed a guide book and initially went towards the base entrance and not the Pearl Harbor visitor area. Once we figured it out all was well.

I wouldn't worry about driving around Oahu, after all it is an island you can't get lost for long!!!

 

[Psychodisney]

Someone also posted you can order your tickets ahead of time and pay a $1.50 convenience fee. I think yo ubuy them form the National Parks website.

 

[tigger3311967]

We just returned from Aulani in February. It is amazing! We had a car the whole time and so glad we did. We went to Pearl Harbor and toured the Arizona (we did not do the Bowfin or the Missouri). We arrived about 10:30 or so and got our tickets and they were for 12:30. While it would be convenient to take an excursion, I didn't want to pay for something that is free. It's easy to get to Pearl Harbor from Aulani.