Car rentals at Aulani

[linco711]

Our first trip to Aulani. Can anyone tell me if it is less expensive to rent a car at the airport than Aulani?
We don’t know how much we will be useing a car so are thinking it might be less if we just rented when we needed it. Are cars readily available for rent or do you recommend reserving in advance?
Thank you for any transportation tips you can give us. We’re trying to be as economical as possible.

 

[amym2]

Our first trip to Aulani. Can anyone tell me if it is less expensive to rent a car at the airport than Aulani?
We don’t know how much we will be useing a car so are thinking it might be less if we just rented when we needed it. Are cars readily available for rent or do you recommend reserving in advance?
Thank you for any transportation tips you can give us. We’re trying to be as economical as possible.

Are you DVC members, or will you have to pay for parking at the resort? You’ll need to get from the airport to the resort, so factor that cost into your decision. We find that it’s only slightly more to rent a car for our whole stay than round trip airport transportation (we’re DVC so free parking).

 

[WebmasterPete]

Car rentals on Oahu, in general, are expensive - so its a matter of degrees here. Alamo is the rental company at Aulani. I'm planning on (possibly) heading out there in June and your question intrigued me so I just did a quick comparison and was surprised to find that it's actually cheaper to rent at Aulani during my stay. I looked at a midsize and a convertible, and both were about $100 cheaper for the week at Aulani vs renting at the airport. Of course, you'll have to spend money getting from the airport to Aulani in the first place, but I prefer to do a car service from the airport. After 10 hours in the air, I'm in no mood to drive (I NEVER arrive in Honolulu in a good mood lol). Irrespective, as amym2 mentioned, you have to factor in parking. Normally, when I'm out there I will just rent a car for the day only when I need it. That saves on the parking (but now I'm a DVC member, so no more parking fees for me!).

 

[linco711]

Car rentals on Oahu, in general, are expensive - so its a matter of degrees here. Alamo is the rental company at Aulani. I'm planning on (possibly) heading out there in June and your question intrigued me so I just did a quick comparison and was surprised to find that it's actually cheaper to rent at Aulani during my stay. I looked at a midsize and a convertible, and both were about $100 cheaper for the week at Aulani vs renting at the airport. Of course, you'll have to spend money getting from the airport to Aulani in the first place, but I prefer to do a car service from the airport. After 10 hours in the air, I'm in no mood to drive (I NEVER arrive in Honolulu in a good mood lol). Irrespective, as amym2 mentioned, you have to factor in parking. Normally, when I'm out there I will just rent a car for the day only when I need it. That saves on the parking (but now I'm a DVC member, so no more parking fees for me!).

Thank you! We are DVC so no parking fee! Yay!! You’re right about driving after that flight. We’re on the east coast, so after a 12 hour flight it’s not easy. We will probably just rent from Aulani. Being DVC we know how Disney can gouge, so if renting at Aulani is not a lot more, it will probably be more convenient to just rent there. Thank you

 

[lunaland]

At the airport on the way home from Aulani right now. We had planned on using a taxi but once we landed found a rental car for $17 a day at the airport (shuttle to car). When we looked at rates at Aulani it was $89 a day. However, Aulani has my preferred rental company (Alamo) and this was Economy.

 

[nkereina]

Just to clarify, even if you're a DVC owner, you must be staying on a points reservation to get free parking. If you're a DVC owner staying on cash for some reason, no free parking. I'm sure you're aware, but just clarifying for anyone else reading

I have read more than once that day-of rentals need to be secured early because they can and do run out. If you opt not to rent a car for the duration of your stay, I would at least book the daily rentals in advance. As mentioned, Alamo is on-site at Aulani and there is also an Enterprise at the Marriott up the street, walking distance.

We rented a car for the duration of our stay and were glad we had it. I didn't compare cost, but it gave us the flexibility to stop when we wanted. We stopped for groceries at Target on the way in, which I would recommend if you're trying to do your trip economically. It will save you a ton on snacks and drinks, at least. Having a car also let us do things like stop for malasadas after a day in Kailua, take a beach detour in the North Shore, return to Matsumoto's on a day when we had down time, etc etc. I think a car would also come in handy if you have inclement weather because you could go exploring off-site somewhere. I'll also add that it was very easy to pick up and return by the airport - we used Alamo.

 

[linco711]

Just to clarify, even if you're a DVC owner, you must be staying on a points reservation to get free parking. If you're a DVC owner staying on cash for some reason, no free parking. I'm sure you're aware, but just clarifying for anyone else reading

I have read more than once that day-of rentals need to be secured early because they can and do run out. If you opt not to rent a car for the duration of your stay, I would at least book the daily rentals in advance. As mentioned, Alamo is on-site at Aulani and there is also an Enterprise at the Marriott up the street, walking distance.

We rented a car for the duration of our stay and were glad we had it. I didn't compare cost, but it gave us the flexibility to stop when we wanted. We stopped for groceries at Target on the way in, which I would recommend if you're trying to do your trip economically. It will save you a ton on snacks and drinks, at least. Having a car also let us do things like stop for malasadas after a day in Kailua, take a beach detour in the North Shore, return to Matsumoto's on a day when we had down time, etc etc. I think a car would also come in handy if you have inclement weather because you could go exploring off-site somewhere. I'll also add that it was very easy to pick up and return by the airport - we used Alamo.

Thanks for all the info. I checked out rentals and they were are much more if done at Aulani. So we’ll probably be renting at the airport. We’all figure it out. DH would rather shuttle from the airport though so we’re looking at that too.

 

[disneymayz]

If you are a Costco member look into renting through them. That's what we did and it gives you a free extra driver. Also if you are a Costco member, get your gas there!!!!! It was about $0.40-$0.50 cheeper per gallon. We are not a stay at the resort for days type of family. We pretty much went somewhere at some point each day. Speaking of that, look into the "Go City". We were able to do a lot for less than paying out of pocket.

 

[dachsie]

I was looking at car rentals at Aulani in Jan. I was able to get the car for whole stay for base of $173 - tax is outrageous! Total is 277 with tax. The daily rental was more if I were to get it for two days than that.

if I rent DVC points, will I get the free parking? I thought that was what I was reading here.

 

[gregf71]

During our August 2018 trip, we planned to leave Aulani only once during our stay. We reserved a 1 day car rental through CostCo Travel at the Aulani Alamo location. It ended up being about $95 for the one day (24 hours). We picked it up early in the morning, bounded around the island, and then returned it to the Aulani valet that evening (well after the Alamo desk had closed).

It really depends on how many times you want to leave the resort for the day. As previously mentioned, you need to figure out if the cost of overnight parking at the resort factors into the equation and your schedule.

 

[lunaland]

if I rent DVC points, will I get the free parking? I thought that was what I was reading here.

Yep! We just did this. You also get a DVC discount at the spa snd on renting a cabana.

 

[ktlm]

I would recommend you rent an advance and keep an eye on the rental fees. What I did not think about before our trip was that as it is an island rental cars are limited. You can not assume that a car will be available if you do not book in advance. Also, I usually keep an eye on rental rates in general after I book a car because I rebook if I can find a significantly cheaper rates. As our trip got closer, the rental prices in Hawaii went up significantly and not every rental company I checked had cars available in all the categories. We had a summer trip, so that might have factored into it. I would look for a decent price and go ahead and book something with the thought that you can cancel if something better comes along or the prices get better.

I remember for us, because I booked early the cost of rental car was not much more than the cost to and from the airport. We had a long flight too-- but we found that when we arrived in Hawaii we were far to excited to be tired, and the drive from the airport to Aulani is a really easy drive.

 

[Stlhawkeye]

Here now, it was cheaper and easier to rent a full size from Hertz at the airport. We are booked on rented points, so free parking, which made all the difference. We are not DVC members. It was like $260 or something for the week through my job, not sure if that much cheaper or not.

 

[mfleeting]

When we went it was cheaper for us to get a taxi/Lyft to and from airport to both of our hotels (and 1 taxi was over $100 from hotel to hotel), get multiple lyfts throughout our stay, rent a vehicle 1 day in Waikiki, and then rent 1 at Aulani another day - then it was to just rent it the whole time and pay for parking (parking is expensive). We rented in advance to make sure we had a car. Also, at Aulani rent for a full day - when you get back you can just drop the car off in the parking garage and its considered returned at that time so no worries about making it back before they close and same price. If your going to use it everyday it may be worth it but I would do the math for getting one everyday and paying for parking and then renting one some days and using lyfts/taxi's for other days.

 

[Moníncha]

Here now, it was cheaper and easier to rent a full size from Hertz at the airport. We are booked on rented points, so free parking, which made all the difference. We are not DVC members. It was like $260 or something for the week through my job, not sure if that much cheaper or not.

Hi,
I was reading you replay I’m new so I wanted to learn, how do you got your rented points, we already tried DVC and they don’t have anything for this year.