The only options are Go! and Hawaiian airlines. We had a really bad experience with Go! You HAVE to check in your bags, as any decent luggage which can take even a piece of bikini would not meet their carry on requirement. You pay $10 for them to lose your luggage. And they really try hard to lose the luggage as the airline has exactly one flight at any given point and there are not more than 10 passengers. How can you lose a luggage? That I still do not understand. We were going from Maui to Kauai via Oahu. At Oahum they realized they lost our luggage. It took all the employees of Go! airlines to find the luggage. Out connection plane came and left. After 30 minutes, the agent who was supposedly helping us asked us which plane we were on - and the plane was long gone. At this point, Karu asked her if she is joking. Apparently this question sounded like a terrorist attack that she called the security!!!! Can you believe this? The security was helpless as he patiently listened to our story. Finally one sensible guy who by mistake works for this airline helped us. We found our luggage and made it to Kauai only 6 hours late and missed sunset. Our co-passenger said this is her 5th time to Hawaii and she has never once made it without losing luggage.
Renting Vehicles in Hawaii
Priceline and travelocity is the way to go. If you pay full price for rental cars in Hawaii, you might as well throw your money into the ocean. Check both the website as they have different deals. Priceline is good if you are making reservations ahead of time, at least a week before. Travelocity is good if you are making last minute reservations, like when you are outside the rental car company ;-) Priceline does not allow Jeep reservations. There are many travel website that offers discount for Jeep rental.
An interesting thing to see on the road is all the vehicles have Hawaii number plates :) Expect one car we saw that had New York number plates - dude, did you really ship that car into Hawaii!
Jeep
We rented a Jeep from thrifty to drive to Hana. Travel guides recommend 4 wheel drive/jeep to drive to Hana. They are all wrong.Yes, you are slightly elevated but it doesn't do much. You definitely do not need a 4 wheel drive. There is not much value that you get from a jeep. The hardest thing about the jeep is to figure out how to get the soft top off. 4 stops and 20 minutes later, we took the soft top off. "Taking the top off" section of the Jeep Manual had very detailed instructions about the hard top. When it came to soft top, it just had one line - "Take the soft top off"! True to the American lifestyle, we cannot do anything with a step by step guide on how to do things as we fry our brains and eat them or leave it in the refrigerator at home. Once we figured how to remove the soft top, it is not very hard. But still removing and putting the top back is tedious. I just want a button to do stuff for me. On our way to Hana, we saw many people struggling to the remove the top. We also saw many people with the top on and I guess, they gave up. We could have earned some money to remove the soft top for them (Idea!) Check out my post on removing Jeep's soft top if you want to learn to remove the soft top.
Convertible
When it comes to "wind on your face" and a push button for removing the soft top, a convertible a clear winner over a jeep. Depending on the deal you get, a convertible may be cheaper than a jeep. We got a Jeep for $65 a day. Convertible could run as high as $85 a day (incl taxes). But if you can talk, you could get them for $22 a day - I rented a compact car for $20 a day online. At the rental agency, I asked if they can give me a free upgrade to a convertible as we are on our honeymoon. And she did! Not free but for $2 a day - for $22 a day, we got a convertible. And I personally liked convertible better than a jeep. But again, I would never want to own a convertible (and ya, I live in Wisconsin). I felt like I was targeted by cops and thieves alike for displaying wealth like that. I don't know how rich people live. Maybe, if you are rich enough, you do not care about your convertible being broken into.
The only problem with convertible and jeep is lack of storage space. You cannot leave anything in the car. So you will have to leave your stuff in the hotel and travel light everyday. Theft is a common problem in most Islands. So we even had to lug our GPS everytime we stopped to explore something.
And finally Economy
For the most part, an economy car would do.
Scooter
We wanted to rent a scooter in Oahu but never figured out where exactly it is safe to ride them. So skipped it.
When it comes to "wind on your face" and a push button for removing the soft top, a convertible a clear winner over a jeep. Depending on the deal you get, a convertible may be cheaper than a jeep. We got a Jeep for $65 a day. Convertible could run as high as $85 a day (incl taxes). But if you can talk, you could get them for $22 a day - I rented a compact car for $20 a day online. At the rental agency, I asked if they can give me a free upgrade to a convertible as we are on our honeymoon. And she did! Not free but for $2 a day - for $22 a day, we got a convertible. And I personally liked convertible better than a jeep. But again, I would never want to own a convertible (and ya, I live in Wisconsin). I felt like I was targeted by cops and thieves alike for displaying wealth like that. I don't know how rich people live. Maybe, if you are rich enough, you do not care about your convertible being broken into.
The only problem with convertible and jeep is lack of storage space. You cannot leave anything in the car. So you will have to leave your stuff in the hotel and travel light everyday. Theft is a common problem in most Islands. So we even had to lug our GPS everytime we stopped to explore something.
And finally Economy
For the most part, an economy car would do.
Scooter
We wanted to rent a scooter in Oahu but never figured out where exactly it is safe to ride them. So skipped it.
No comments:
Post a Comment