How essential is renting a car?

[Cinderella94]

I'm sorry if this has been discussed to death on this board, but I'm super new (as of this evening!) to Aulani planning so I'm just starting to figure things out. No date in mind yet, but it will be a honeymoon trip. I know we'll want to do some of the more popular things I've seen mentioned, like the Dole plantation, Waimea Falls, Pearl Harbor.... not sure what else yet. Does renting a car seem to be the norm? Would you be able to get around without doing so/is not having one a huge hassle? Thanks!

 

[sam_rogers]

I can't speak for staying at aulani but dh and I stayed in waikiki for our honeymoon last year and had a car for 3 out of our 14 days. We found the car useful for going to the north shore, kualoa ranch and pearl harbour but coped without for the rest of the trip. Oahu has a fairly good and cheap bus network but be aware that trips may require getting on a couple of different buses to get to your location and some trips may take several Hours eg waikiki to North shore would have taken 3 hours each way on the bus! I'm not sure what the bus network is like at aulani but a car may be useful for a couple of days

 

[alohamom]

It is do-able but not having a car will add to the expense of these excursions for sure

 

[newdeal]

I'm sorry if this has been discussed to death on this board, but I'm super new (as of this evening!) to Aulani planning so I'm just starting to figure things out. No date in mind yet, but it will be a honeymoon trip. I know we'll want to do some of the more popular things I've seen mentioned, like the Dole plantation, Waimea Falls, Pearl Harbor.... not sure what else yet. Does renting a car seem to be the norm? Would you be able to get around without doing so/is not having one a huge hassle? Thanks!

when we went for our honeymoon we didn't rent a car...for our 10th anniversary we are heading back and are renting a car for the whole trip this time because we regretted not getting one the first time and missed out on a bunch because of it. Its costing us like $265 for the whole week to rent a mustang convertible through costco so its really not a huge expense for the freedom that it gives you

 

[ihearthawaii]

I'm sorry if this has been discussed to death on this board, but I'm super new (as of this evening!) to Aulani planning so I'm just starting to figure things out. No date in mind yet, but it will be a honeymoon trip. I know we'll want to do some of the more popular things I've seen mentioned, like the Dole plantation, Waimea Falls, Pearl Harbor.... not sure what else yet. Does renting a car seem to be the norm? Would you be able to get around without doing so/is not having one a huge hassle? Thanks!

I think it's totally worth it. We got a week's rental through Costco for $184. If we had reserved a shuttle, it would've cost us $120 for round trip service. So for an extra $64, we get flexibility to do whatever we want whenever we want. We are also staying on points so parking is free. If you are staying in a cash room, it's $37/night so that is something else to factor in.

 

[happymommy]

We stay at the Marriott every other year, and always (ALWAYS) have a car the whole time. Pick it up at the airport, then return it there.

It isn't usually very expensive to have one, and we find ourselves running to Costco, Target, or Sushi Bay (yum) in Kapolei pretty regularly.

When you're in Waikiki, it's different, since you can walk lots of places. Ko Olina is pretty much away from a lot, so it's nice to have a car.

It's so much less expensive to pick up liquor and wine (or beer) at Costco to bring down to the pool (of course we don't bring glass down), so I make our own drinks or bring a can or two of beer down if we're relaxing there in the afternoon. I understand you may not wish to cook on a honeymoon, but we do grill a lot and get veggie trays at Costco, or sashimi trays there, fresh fish to grill, etc... Even having stuff for breakfast or snacks like cheese & crackers is convenient.

 

[M<3'sMickey]

We rented a car for the week but we literally drove all over the island. We went to Kualoa Ranch twice, the Polynesian Cultural Center, Pearl Harbor, Waikiki, etc. We paid $156 for the week for a compact car through Costco (we waited forever to pick up the car at the rental place and the woman ended up upgrading us to a Camaro convertible for free). It was so worth it to us because we went so many different places because we had the Go Oahu card. Like someone else mentioned, it costs $37 a day to park your car in the lot if you're not staying on DVC points. We stayed with points so it cost us nothing, an added bonus.

 

[squeezle]

We've been twice, and rented a car both times (we stay on DVC points, so we don't pay for parking). There is so much to see and do outside of Aulani, and we like to explore/hike all over the island - I just couldn't imagine going without a car.

 

[Cinderella94]

Thanks so much everyone! This is extremely helpful. We will be staying on points, so that's a great perk to not have to pay for parking.

 

[Soccerluvinmama]

We go to Aulani every year for 10 days and we've always had a car. Some trips we use it a lot, some trips only a couple of times. I like the freedom of knowing that if I want to go somewhere, I can. And I book mine out far enough in advance that I usually only pay around $400 for the rental. Worth it to me. I am also DVC, so I don't pay for parking, which saves me $35 a day. If I had to pay I might reconsider the car. I think it's worth it though.

 

[Pooh2]

We booked a car at 6 months out and kept watching the website and the price came down by over $100 the week before. We used the car everyday of our 9 night stay.

 

[cleophus12]

Since you are staying on points, I'd highly recommend a car. Rental is relatively inexpensive and being fairly far away from most conveniences, it is very helpful. If you are wanting to do any exploring, it is a necessity.