Pride of America Hilo Rental Car?

[JMQRSQ]

 

We are cruising Pride of America in February and I am wondering about getting a rental car when we are in Hilo.  We are there from 8am to 6pm and the ship offers an 8 1/2 hour excursion that offers most of what we want to see, but not all.  I am wondering if anyone has experience renting a car.  Is it easy to do?  Would we have enough time to rent car and explore and get back to ship?  It makes me nervous to rent a car and not stay with an excursion...

[Host Kat]

1 hour ago, JMQRSQ said:

We are cruising Pride of America in February and I am wondering about getting a rental car when we are in Hilo.  We are there from 8am to 6pm and the ship offers an 8 1/2 hour excursion that offers most of what we want to see, but not all.  I am wondering if anyone has experience renting a car.  Is it easy to do?  Would we have enough time to rent car and explore and get back to ship?  It makes me nervous to rent a car and not stay with an excursion...

 

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[Ellis1138]

We rented from Enterprise at Hilo Airport. We got off the ship at 8 am, grabbed the first taxi from the line of waiting taxis (I think I gave him $17) and got to the Enterprise office in about 10 minutes. We got the car, drove to Volcanoes, with a stop at a 7-11 for some lunch musubis to eat at the park. (I brought a soft cooler along).

 

You do not have enough time to see the entire island, but we were at Volcanoes National Park by 9:15 am. We had the annual National Parks Pass, so entering was fast. I had us do the park in sort of reverse: Lava Tube first, the Kīlauea Iki Overlook, then Devastation Trail, then back to the main visitor center and the steam vents and Cauldera overlook trails. We didn't do the Chain of Craters road because I wasn't sure I can go that long without access to a restroom.

 

We drove back to the airport, dropped off the car, walked across the roadway to the Ride Share pick up and called a Lyft. Back to the ship by 4 pm.

[DCwom]

On 8/12/2024 at 8:58 PM, JMQRSQ said:

 

We are cruising Pride of America in February and I am wondering about getting a rental car when we are in Hilo.  We are there from 8am to 6pm and the ship offers an 8 1/2 hour excursion that offers most of what we want to see, but not all.  I am wondering if anyone has experience renting a car.  Is it easy to do?  Would we have enough time to rent car and explore and get back to ship?  It makes me nervous to rent a car and not stay with an excursion...

We did this in May, as @Ellis1138 mentioned get off the ship 1st thing and get to the airport to rent a car, we used Uber to Alamo at the airport, very easy. You can spend all day in the park, forget about the rest of the island, if you drive it yourself get a guide app, like Guide-along. We had our 3 park park pass from our Maui stop and used it for Volcano park as well. We drove all the way down the chain of craters road to the sea arch and back, you have time. We did a few short hikes as well, and a number of "stops" suggested by the Guide-along app, but you've got to mind the time. The short trail from the Kīlauea Iki Overlook to the Thurston Lava tube was fairly easy and gave great views of the Kīlauea Iki crater, ironically the overlook itself has crappy views, so walk up the trail a bit, and given the parking squeeze at the Lava tube, you might be better off doing the hike all the way to the lava tube, I think it was about a mile round-trip. BTW the Lava tube is a wet dark cave, we didn't find it all that special.

 

As a side note, I too was concerned about renting a car with a 1 day stop in Hilo, in fact, our plan was to take a volcano ship excursion, but as we continued planning, we got more confident in the rental process (thanks CC boards) and ended up renting a car at each port (except Kona), you will not be the only cruise passengers renting a car. Keep in mind that missing a ship is usually a pretty big deal, but for the Hilo stop, you just need to get to Kona on the other side of the island to rejoin the ship, no plane flights, no customs, etc.

 

Also check the park status before you go, there were plans for construction at the visitor center, we didn't pay attention because it was after our visit.

Edited August 15 by DCwom

[Ellis1138]

Addendum to missing the ship at Hilo: If the PoA doesn't make Kona (too windy to tender or something), you will then need to fly to Kauai. But yeah, of all the cruises to miss all aboard, this is the easiest one to catch up to.

[philv]

Happy to see this thread because we are on POA soon and planned to rent a car in Hilo to see Volcano National Park. Last time in Hilo in 2022 we did a ship excursion and it was very disappointing as well as expensive. We have  the GuideAlong app and look forward to that. One word of advice, get the collision damage waiver. I had an accident in a rental car this summer without it and it was a big hassle with my auto insurance company and credit card company. Well worth the extra money.

[cccole]

Have you looked at Turo Car Rental?  Turo brings the car to you so you do not have to take a taxi or shuttle to a rental office.  I know they rent in Hilo so maybe take a look.  Cherie  

[philv]

Rented car in Hilo today from Hertz at airport. Off ship around 8:10, taxis waiting at terminal. $25 ride to car pick up, nice lady driver, gave us her phone number for end of day pick up. Drove to Volcano NP arrived around 10:00. Not much traffic, easy drive. Stopped at visitor center and talked to intern about our itinerary, very helpful. Parked at Kilauea Ike overlook, spaces available when we got there, pretty competitive later in day. Did the Kilauea Ike trail through crater. Very unique, fantastic hike. Also went through Nahuku lava tube. Also very unique and short detour off trail. Total hike around 4 miles. Stopped along way for many pictures so took close to 3 hours. Went to Volcano House on way out and hit gift shop and took in fantastic view of Kilauea caldera. Wonderful day. Left around 2:45 and was back at car rental by 3:45, had to stop for gas. Called taxi driver and she picked up around 4:00, had us back to port by 4:30. Altogether a wonderful day. Weather was great. Life is good.

[strobellayjam]

On 8/27/2024 at 11:06 PM, philv said:

Rented car in Hilo today from Hertz at airport. Off ship around 8:10, taxis waiting at terminal. $25 ride to car pick up, nice lady driver, gave us her phone number for end of day pick up. Drove to Volcano NP arrived around 10:00. Not much traffic, easy drive. Stopped at visitor center and talked to intern about our itinerary, very helpful. Parked at Kilauea Ike overlook, spaces available when we got there, pretty competitive later in day. Did the Kilauea Ike trail through crater. Very unique, fantastic hike. Also went through Nahuku lava tube. Also very unique and short detour off trail. Total hike around 4 miles. Stopped along way for many pictures so took close to 3 hours. Went to Volcano House on way out and hit gift shop and took in fantastic view of Kilauea caldera. Wonderful day. Left around 2:45 and was back at car rental by 3:45, had to stop for gas. Called taxi driver and she picked up around 4:00, had us back to port by 4:30. Altogether a wonderful day. Weather was great. Life is good.

Sounds like a great day!  Did you notice if any of the rental car companies had shuttles to take you back and forth from the pier?  Or are taxi's our only option now?

[trivia addict]

Just did the Hilo rental from Hertz this past week. Had almost the same experience as philv  above. It was very easy to do and would recommend that you do it without having to worry.

[strobellayjam]

2 hours ago, trivia addict said:

Just did the Hilo rental from Hertz this past week. Had almost the same experience as philv  above. It was very easy to do and would recommend that you do it without having to worry.

Did you take a taxi / uber from the port to the rental pick up?  Or did you take the Hertz shuttle (if it was offered)?

[trivia addict]

Hertz doesn’t offer a shuttle. Some of the others do but I’m not sure which ones.

Taxis were waiting outside on the pier and we had no problem getting one for either direction. Cost was about $20 plus tip for each direction. We were two couples and so split all of the costs.