Hawaii (Big Island) Car Rental ?
Replies: 3 - Last Post: Nov 15, 2012 12:37 PM Last Post By: Bohemiana
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Hawaii (Big Island) Car Rental ?
It has been some time since I was last in Hawaii and will be there again in Dec/Jan and have a couple of questions regarding car rentals:1) In October I tried to rent a car through the local operators, but they were already all sold out so I reserved through Discount Hawaii Car Rentals (& made a reservation with Alamo). They send you a booking receipt but what I am wondering if anyone has showed up at Alamo and they have no car or no reservation? I know the Christmas season is busy and rentals are usually sold out.
2) The last time I was in Hawaii was many years ago and people would leave windows and door open in rental cars to discourage smash & grabs.................is this still an issue?
3) Is the saddle road on the island still off-limits to rental cars? What roads on the big island are consider off-limits for the major rental agencies?
4) Any other words-of-wisdom for renting a car on the big island?
Thx
1
Check with your car rental company, but when I rented through National in 2011 they told me Saddle Road was permitted. Off limits for most car rental places is the road that goes from the Observatory visitor center up to the top of Mauna Kea.My understanding is car rental thefts are still common. I left my doors locked, but left absolutely nothing of value in the car.
2
I rented a Jeep Wrangler from Alamo in 2009 Jan 2-4 for $55 day via the internet. There were no restrictions as to whether I could go on the Saddle Road, which we did, it was actually just fine.I would not show up at the rental agency in peak season without a reservation, and many dont require a prepay on their websites, like Alamo.
3
We just got back from the Big Island. We got a fantastic deal of $16 per day with Hertz through Hotwire.We had no issues with anyone breaking in and nobody warned us of any problems. (We went 8 years ago and had no problems either.)
We heard Saddle Road is o.k. but we decided not to take it because the weather was bad the day we were planning to take it.
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