Rental Car in Hilo

[jff50]

We are thinking about renting a car in Hilo. We will be on the Celebrity Summit in January. What experience have people had with rental car companies in Hilo?

[OregonDuck]

Excellent!! We used Thrifty as they had the lowest price. They were there to pick us up at the pier and took us to the airport. Paperwork was ready; car was ready. Off we went to Volcanoes Nat'l Park, the Nut Factory, Rainbow Falls and a tour of downtown Hilo, oh, and went to the black sand beach to see the huge leatherback turtles. We packed a sandwich and cookies from the ship so we didn't have to stop and eat; just kept going. Back tothe airport; back to ship. Was great and so much cheaper than 4 excursions. Rental was $39 per day. Also rented cars in Lahaina and Kauai; also went well.

[mcmd8700]

Used National's Emerald club, and the shuttle picked us up, and the car was ready to go when I got to the airport. Only had to sign a few lines, and I was on my way.

[NCmom]

Excellent--the airport is very close to the port. I hopped on a shuttle to get the car (too crowded to allow all members of my party to get on the shuttle); I am Emerald Club, they asked me to bypass the line--nothing to sign-and I was upgraded from a compact to a Trailblazer. Very easy to pick up my family, and head to Volcanos. Return was very easy also.

[lgarner]

I bid on priceline and got a compact car with Hertz for $20 plus taxes. They picked DH and me up at the port and took us to the airport. I did learn that Hertz doesn't have a shuttle at all ports and - more of interest to you, our dinner partners rented with Avis on Hilo and they did not have a shuttle - it cost our friends $15 for a cab to the airport but they were allowed to ride back on the Hertz shuttle with us.

 

The only island we had trouble renting a car was on Oahu - we used enterprise right near the dock (7 blocks away). They were terrible. Shuttle didn't come so we took a cab (the 7 blocks were long blocks and we didn't know what direction they were in.) They did pay for the cab but they had a huge line of people waiting - and they had given away all the cars (even though ours was reserved). They finally drove us to the airport location (in someones personal car) and we got the last vehicle there. We wasted about 2 hours of our day on the whole process!