How necessary is a car for a couple of day trips?

sajilunni

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 5, 2007
Hello DISsers!
I sought out your help a lot while planning our first visit to WDW/vow renewal a few years ago. Now I'm back asking for help while planning our first visit to Hawaii! I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around where exactly Aulani is in relation to the other attractions in Oahu. I'm planning some expensive side excursions (and it seems like everything is more expensive in Hawaii) so I'd like to save money where I can. First off, do I need to rent a car to get to Aulani from the airport? Or is there an equivalent of the Magical Express to take us there? We have 5 in our family and usually use an Uber XL on vacations in cities. Is Uber cheaper than paying for 5 shuttle tickets?

We were planning on mostly hanging out at the resort for most of our 8 days there. But I would like to take one day to island hop to see Volcanos National Park. And another day to visit the Japanese food court in Honolulu and attend the luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center (is it better than the Ka wa'a luau at Aulani?). Generally is it cheaper to book a weeklong round trip car rental from the airport, or rent 2 days from Aulani plus an airport transfer shuttle? Coming from the Midwest I'm a bit worried about driving on mountain roads in Hawaii, and wondering if it's worth spending the money to Uber XL to Honolulu and the North Shore for that excursion.

I'd appreciate any help you could give me!
Thanks,
Jil
 
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Aloha. I have no idea what the magical express is, but to get to Aulani you either need to rent a car, take a cab, or arrange for a set price car rides.

Uber and Lyft cannot pick you up directly in front of HNL. I hear you can take one of the shuttle bus is that goes to the offsite car rental place, and they can pick you up from there. But, I would look at one of the set price car rides. I know someone here got a private car service for 50 or 60 bucks, and that’s a good price for a ride from Honolulu all the way out to Kapolei.

Out of curiosity, what kind of excursions are you booking? Other than a full day island tour, or one of those tours that take you to another island for a day, you shouldn’t be paying a whole lot of money outside of your car rental fee and gas.

Keep in mind that a day trip to the volcanoes park will be very long. You still have to go through regular airport security and wait to board your flight the same way you would is if you’re going to the mainland. Of course, if you really want to see it, go for it. Also, if you want to see flowing lava, check with the park website and see where it is.

Taxis are extremely expensive on this island. The last time I took one, it was just a 20 minute ride and I had to pay almost $50. So trying to take a cab from Kapolei to and from the North Shore and back will be astronomical. A lot of Uber drivers do not hang around the Koolina resort areas or the North Shore. I would just book a car for your North Shore trip and your trip to Honolulu. When you’re in town, I’d make the best of the car by seeing a few other things instead of just a Japanese food court which doesn’t take very long. Think about the Bishop Museum, Iolani palace, Chinatown, etc.

Good luck!



Hello DISsers!
I sought out your help a lot while planning our first visit to WDW/vow renewal a few years ago. Now I'm back asking for help while planning our first visit to Hawaii! I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around where exactly Aulani is in relation to the other attractions in Oahu. I'm planning some expensive side excursions (and it seems like everything is more expensive in Hawaii) so I'd like to save money where I can. First off, do I need to rent a car to get to Aulani from the airport? Or is there an equivalent of the Magical Express to take us there? We have 5 in our family and usually use an Uber XL on vacations in cities. Is Uber cheaper than paying for 5 shuttle tickets?

We were planning on mostly hanging out at the resort for most of our 8 days there. But I would like to take one day to island hop to see Volcanos National Park. And another day to visit the Japanese food court in Honolulu and attend the luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center (is it better than the Ka wa'a luau at Aulani?). Generally is it cheaper to book a weeklong round trip car rental from the airport, or rent 2 days from Aulani plus an airport transfer shuttle? Coming from the Midwest I'm a bit worried about driving on mountain roads in Hawaii, and wondering if it's worth spending the money to Uber XL to Honolulu and the North Shore for that excursion.

I'd appreciate any help you could give me!
Thanks,
Jil
 
I wouldn't worry too much about the roads. It doesn't sound like you're planning anything that's tough to access. The only road we thought was anything out of the ordinary at all was (parts of) the road to Hana on Maui.
 
We drove ALL over Oahu in May, and you won't need to worry one bit about rough roads. I heard other islands you may need to, but not on Oahu. We ended up renting a car from Aulani for 3 days. The parking fee per night is expensive! I did a bunch of research, and it wasn't going to save any money to just rent at the airport and keep it all week, and we didn't want to have to return it to the airport mid-trip. I ended up calling Disney to vet out all my options, and they gave me the very best pricing on a car out of all the research I had done, and that was renting from Aulani, so I would recommend calling them.

There was no magical express, but everyone there used shuttle vans that were not operated by Disney. We scheduled it before the trip.

We also did the luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was good, but mostly because we wanted to try poke, and we got that there. It was super expensive, and we had other excursions we liked a whole lot more. Out of 7 excursions, that one was second to the bottom in terms of enjoyment, although it was still good. In retrospect, if the Paradise Cove one next door to Aulani or Aulani's one was any cheaper at all, and if they offered poke, I would choose one of them in a heartbeat for convenience and to save a little money.

Having a rental car for exploring the north shore in complete freedom was particularly nice, and I wouldn't want to do that any other way. I would not have liked being bound to an Uber at all - if they would even accommodate that. We stopped at Matsumoto's for shaved ice. We stopped at small shops. We stopped at the area with the food trucks and at garlic shrimp. We stopped at various beaches and waited around for turtles. Those things aren't walking distance from each other so you really need a vehicle.
 


I would bite the bullet and rent a car. By the time you pay for transportation to and from the airport (twice) and transportation to your excursions, my guess is you will come out about the same including the price of parking at Aulani. But if you happen to be staying on DVC points (including rentals), parking is no charge.

We had never rented a car before but had one for almost our whole time in Hawaii and we enjoyed it. Driving was simple, and we live in Buffalo where traffic is relatively minimal. We found our way around Oahu quite easily with just the maps on our phones. Driving ourselves gave us the flexibility to spend as much or as little time in certain places, make side trips, and gave us more dining options as well since we could stop off for meals, drive to the next exit up from Aulani for more food choices, and also stop for groceries. It helped to save money on food too.
 
FYI, We just got back from Aulani on 10/21. Although we spent most of our time at the resort we did rent a vehicle. We rented a Ford Expedition from Alamo for 7 days and it cost a total of $293.56. We have a family of 4 and the Expedition had plenty of luggage space. We rented through Costco as we have a membership and it saved about $30-$40 vs booking direct thru Alamo. Also, because we have personal car insurance that covers all damages and "loss of use" on rentals I denied all the "additional coverage". It more than paid for itself if you consider the cost of transportation to and from the airport and we took a self tour of the Island one day and a few other short trips. Not to mention the freedom you have when you have your own transportation, We felt it was well worth the money spent.

We did the Luau next door at Paradise Cove in 2015 and the Luau at Aulani this trip. The food at Aulani Luau is average at best but the entertainment and the story they tell is really second to none. Paradise Cove had much better food we felt but the entertainment was mediocre s far a Luau's go in our opinion. That's my "opinion" on the Luau other have different experiences I am sure.......

ALOHA!!!!
 


I would rent the car. The roads are not bad. And there is so much to see. I would skip the food court. Go to waikiki (if that's your thing . . once was enough for us.) drive the north shore. its amazing. I could go on and on . . . But really, leave the resort. The resort is beautiful, but I think people are really missing out when they don't explore beyond it.
 
We rented a car for our 9 day stay. We booked early but kept checking prices and it dropped $100 for a mid-size, so we paid $200/9 days with Budget. We got in late so an easy drive to Aulani with no traffic.
We drove all over the island each morning and spent our afternoons at Aulani.
Having a car was nice for Target/Walmart runs for water/snacks/breakfast food/sunblock.
We stayed on DVC Points so no parking fee.
Definitely would get a car again.
The beaches all over Oahu are amazing.
 
I would rent a car, and I would do it now instead of waiting. You can always rebook if you find it at a lower price, or cancel if you change your mind. There are not an unlimited amount of rental cars on the Hawaiian islands, so you can run into the situation where you wait too late and no cars are available. Pretty much the scariest thing on/about the Oahu roads is traffic- the drives there are what I would call normal. Depending on the time of day and where you are going, you can hit traffic, but that is about it. We never even had an issue with traffic, but I have heard that some people have- especially if there has been an accident or something because often there is pretty much one way to get places on the islands. We are also from the Midwest and would have absolutely no issues driving on Oahu. Oahu isn't like some of the driving on other islands. Aulani is about 20 miles from the airport, about 25 miles from Honolulu; 25 miles from the North Shore, and about 45 miles from the Polynesian Cultural Center. If you plan on branching out to see the island- and for an 8 day stay, I think you probably will want to, a car will come in handy. As other have said cabs and other transportation can be expensive in Hawaii--and Uber/Lift can be hard to come by (at one point the law prevented them from coming to the Airport, but I'm not sure that is still the case-- in any event I know they are pretty regulated in Hawaii).

As far as the Polynesian Cultural Center- it is not just a luau- it is an all day thing. There are shops, and villages that have demonstrations and shows about their particular culture, the canoe pageant (a don't miss), the luau (or two other dinner options if you do not want to do the luau- but we really enjoyed the luau), and the Ha Breath of Life evening show. We had heard it was really cheesy, but I had wanted to do it since I was a kid, so we went. We all wound up loving it. We booked the ambassador luau package. That included admission; a guide during the day; the luau; and preferred seating for HA and I would recommend that. We weren't sure about the guide and figured we would go off on our own if we did not like the guide- but it was fun being part of a group. With the guide we got to play games and do things that we would not have done on our own. The guide also got us to shows/demonstrations and the water parade at the right times and got us good seats. Our only regret is that we had stopped at the Dole Plantation and briefly at the North Shore on the way, so we did not get there until about 1:30. If I had it to do over again, we would have gotten there right when they opened at noon so that we had more time. Yes- some of it was cheesy, but it was really fun and DD absolutely loved it. They have a website and you can get a better idea of what all is there from the website if you browse around.
 
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another great spot to visit is Waimea valley. pretty easy walking trails. really beautiful. We got there right when it opened and that was amazing, beat some of the crowds.
 
The Uber website says they can pickup at HNL.
Cool. The last time I took a flight and needed an Uber, that wasn’t possible.

ETA: I just looked it up and it says the starting rate is about $60 to Wakiki. That seems extremely expensive for an Uber. Is this the high end Uber service they are offering, because my apartment is 2 or 3 miles behind Waikiki, but I only pay about $30 when I Uber to the airport. $60 is what you would pay for a taxi. The whole point of Uber and Lyft is to save money by using something cheaper than a taxi.

I’m thinking that maybe I saw that Uber was charging as much is the taxi and decided not to use one.
 
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To get to the airport from Aulani we used Charlie’s Taxi. If you book it in advance on their website you get their locked rate of like $60. I would also rent a car at Aulani for the north shore. While we were at Aulani we rented it for one day to go to the north shore and it was much cheaper than if we had used Uber/lyft/Taxi for that day. If you rent a car at Aulani just put your drop off time to be the next morning but when you get back to Aulani that night you can drop it off in the parking garage and it will be returned then (no parking fees). I found that to be the cheapest option for us for the week. When we were in Waikiki for a few days we used Lyft a lot and it was pretty cheap but Aulani is not near anything and the price quotes looked to be pretty high. You can look for price estimates for Uber or lyft online to see what would work better for your family.
 
When we visited in 2014, I was never able to get an Uber from the resort. Just never one available. Is that still the case?
 
We were at Aulani for a week in May and rented a car (DVC so no parking fee). For us it was totally worth it, especially as I am someone who doesn't like to rely on others for a ride. I know you said you planned on spending a lot of time at the resort, but you'll be there for 8 days and it will be nice to be able to just hop in your car like we did and head to to the north shore to visit Haleiwa village (which we had to skip though we wanted to try and get back there), maybe see the big surf at the Banzai Pipeline, check out the turtles sunning themselves at Laniakea Beach and of course you want to see the PCC as well. We also made a trip and visited the Dole Planatation which was fun and later we headed north from Aulani on Rt 93 to the end of the road where we just sat and watched the ocean. Another day we headed across the island to the beautiful beaches of Kailua and Lanikai and stopped at the Pali lookout and visited the Byodo-In Temple. And there was never a doubt about visiting Pearl Harbor where we spent much longer than we thought we would. For us it was a very moving experience. We also took some time to walk along Waikiki. and of course there are so many more things to see and do such as climbing Diamond Head or visiting the Punch Bowl. Oh yeah - One day we hopped the 5:00 Hawaiian Air flight to the Big Island and rented a car. We did a lava boat tour, took a Blue Hawaiian helicopter tour of the volacano and of course ate at Ken's Pancake House!! Got back around 9:00 that night. As I mentioned earlier, and maybe it's just me, but to know we had a car to get to the airport for the 5:00 AM flight and that it would be there waiting for us when we returned was comforting. So my suggestion is obvious - Rent a car and enjoy your vacation!
 
We were on the fence about the rental car as well, ended up booking it for our entire trip and were so happy we did. It was so convenient to be able to run out when ever we needed or even to just get in the car and explore.

Also, book the rental as far out as possible. We paid $600 something for 12 days in a bumblebee yellow convertible Camaro. We reserved the car over a year ahead of time- the price 6 months out? Double.
 
is it better than the Ka wa'a luau at Aulani?

We didn't go to the Polynesian Cultural Centre so I can't say anything about comparisons but we did the VIP seating at the luau at Aulani and it was totally worth it IMO. We loved it.

Keep in mind that a day trip to the volcanoes park will be very long. You still have to go through regular airport security and wait to board your flight the same way you would is if you’re going to the mainland. Of course, if you really want to see it, go for it. Also, if you want to see flowing lava, check with the park website and see where it is.

We did this. We did have a rental car but if you can find transportation to take you to the airport, you woulndn't necessarily need a car. However, we took the 6 am flight from HNL to Hilo so we had to leave the resort at 4:15 am. I'm not sure if you'll be able to find transportation that easily. Ko'Olina is a very small self-contained area about 35-40 minutes from the airport and Honolulu and is separated from other towns so it's not like there's taxis roaming about much and definitely not at that time of the morning. It didn't take long to go through security at either end. The Honolulu airport has an inter-island terminal that you go through. Best to do online checkin and get your boarding pass electronically. That definitely speeds things up. We also had TSA Pre-check which makes it go faster and we only had a small backpack or camera each.

If you want to see flowing lava, be prepared to walk a lot. I mean, a lot. We had done some things in the morning like walking through the lava tube, through the sulphur vent areas, a little hike to get to the lava tube and walking on the 1974 flows. It's 5.5-6 miles from the parking lot to where the active flows are (or may be - it depends from day to day what's happening). We finally bailed after a little over 3 miles. We had to make sure to give time to eat and get back to the airport for our 8 pm flight back to Honolulu and we knew we wouldn't make it in time to get there and back. We also didn't think we'd have the strength to make it back 5+ miles back to the car even if we made it there. It's very hot, very windy, and while the gravel road is wide and not difficult to walk on, there's no cover or shade and it goes up and down hills. On the way back to the car, the last 1/2 mile was brutal. I could see the parking lot and just kept focusing on that. We clocked about 15 miles walking that day in total, some of it over some pretty rocky areas. I'm still glad we did part of that last walk though. Just to be able to touch the old flows and to see the miles and miles of it was amazing. Just not a perspective you can get by looking at pictures or watching movies. You really have to be there.

Unless you are on a bus tour through Volcanoes National Park, you will need a rental car there not just to get there from the airport, but the things to see are quite far from each other. It took about 20-30 minutes to get from the entrance of the park down to the parking lot area where you can head out to see the lava flows. And the outlook over the caldera is in the opposite direction and requires driving. It wasn't too expensive though and only cost us $11 in gas to refuel before drop-off. And it's really easy to get there from the airport - pretty much get on the main road and turn at the sign.
 
When we were there in May the Aulani luau was indoors and they had to exclude a couple of things from the show, so we went next door to the Paradise Cove luau and loved it. Nice easy walk.
 

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