Renting A GPS

[seamare]

I just saw where someone had rented a GPS while in Hawaii - anyone have any additional information about doing this?

[jwmcq]

If you are renting a car, you can just add it to your rental - for a fee of course. I believe Thrifty is about $12 a day. I think this would be REALLY helpful in Oahu - we found the traffic there very difficult to navigate - and we're usually pretty good navigators. The entrance ramps are not in the same places as the exit ramps. So you can get off the highway, and then not be able to "swing under" and get back on. It was very confusing if you are not familiar with the roads.

[14ersco]

You may consider purchasing a GPS. At $12 per day for 10 days you are about half way to owning a lower level GPS. I purchased a Garmin nuvi 350 for under $400 from amazon. This is a mid level GPS that has voice commands. It arrived yesterday so I am now learning this GPS.

[14ersco]

Cruise Critic timed out, then double posted...

[BigGuy25]

One advantage to the rented GPS ... at least the one we rented with the car in Kauai ... was that it was preprogrammed with all the sights, beaches, retaurants, stores, etc. They give you a booklet with the list of "places" and cooresponding two or three digit numbers to enter into the GPS. You hit a couple of buttons and you're on your way. It was wonderful.

 

I already own a portable GPS, so I agree, if you really were going to rent one every day for 12 days, you might want to just purchase your own and try to find all the addresses, etc. But, these preprogrammed devices are pretty nifty if you're only using it a few days.

[LakeErieLady]

there was a post a while back that several people got one through the rental car companies, and ended up not using it because it was wrong or confusing too often check back and see if you can find the posts

[Eagle1]

We just returned from a 10 day cruise and used our own GPS and it really was helpfull especially returning the car on our last night in Oahu, I don't think we would have made the flight on time without it. I have a Garmin 330 and you can get it for about 225$ at circuit city.

[ASue]

If you have a cell phone you might want to check with your carrier. We were able to add GPS on ours while we were there for $10.00 a month. Had the voice command. Then when we got home we discontinued the service.

[jwhitlow]

I have spent the last couple months programming my own GPS with the sight we want to see in Hawaii. With a little patients, the address and locations can be found from different sources. The most important thing is to program the return location for the rental car. And since most rental shuttles will only transport the driver of the rental car to their office, I plan to program directions back to the pier for family pickup.....

[eringg]

Prior to our cruise I purchased the Tom Tom 1 for $298 at Circut City. It was one of the least expensive GPS units and it had pre-loaded Hawaii Maps,(some of them only have 48 states) We used it on every island and it was great. There is a Point of Interest category and all the places we wanted to go were there. When we got in the rental car we had it recognize where we were,programed the location and then it always navigated us back there. It was simple and easy to use. It avoided traffic and never steered us wrong. It may be a tax write off depending on what you do for a living.

[bhillsny]

I took my own GPS with me. I did not need it on most of the Islands - there are only 3 or 4 major roads.

I used it when we stayed in Honolulu, getting around the city. When we drove around the island of Oahu, I used the GPS to find my way back to the Hotel in Honolulu.

[dawndelion]

We bought our GPS from Dell for $130, so I would try to buy one instead of renting. The unit we have has tourist attractions already programmed in, so we didn't have to look up address or anything. There was a huge accident on H-1, so we exited and the GPS rerouted us around the highway, so that's another handy feature. It was very helpful on Oahu, but we didn't really need it for the other islands. It was sort of fun to see all the turns ahead of time on the road to Hana though!

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

there was a post a while back that several people got one through the rental car companies, and ended up not using it because it was wrong or confusing too often check back and see if you can find the posts

That would likely be me you are referring to. I hated it. If I owned one where I knew how to use it, it would have been easier. The one we rented from Thrifty (Maui and Oahu) was a total waste of money. We would plug in the code for our destination. It would say "turn right so many feet" so you turn right and it starts thinking and reconfiguring then it tells you to take a u-turn. Got us all mixed up. The only time it really helped me was after it got us lost in downtown Honolulu with all the one way streets, I was able to get back to Ala Moana mall and park there so I could walk to my destination (Red Lobster). :rolleyes:

[as19111]

Prior to our cruise I purchased the Tom Tom 1 for $298 at Circut City. It was one of the least expensive GPS units and it had pre-loaded Hawaii Maps,(some of them only have 48 states) We used it on every island and it was great. There is a Point of Interest category and all the places we wanted to go were there. When we got in the rental car we had it recognize where we were,programed the location and then it always navigated us back there. It was simple and easy to use. It avoided traffic and never steered us wrong. It may be a tax write off depending on what you do for a living.

 

We have a TomTomGo910 and we love it. I would recommend that you purchase one and take it with you. First, if you can get familiar with it before your trip,you will trust it in Hawaii. Second, you will use it at home far more than you think. The Point of Interest feature is great...gas stations, restaurants, museums etc.

 

I brought it with us to our present FL trip, and it goes everywhere with us.

[NRWPA]

You may consider purchasing a GPS. At $12 per day for 10 days you are about half way to owning a lower level GPS. I purchased a Garmin nuvi 350 for under $400 from amazon. This is a mid level GPS that has voice commands. It arrived yesterday so I am now learning this GPS.

 

I agree with you! I received a Garmin for Christmas last year and just love using it when I travel. It got us around Tampa with no problem last cruise. I plan to use it during my January Hawaii cruise. I even use it to get home from places I've been before and have found new, faster routes to take. Well worth the small investment...IMHO, would be a shame to pay to rent and have nothing to show for it in the end. You could always buy it at a store with a friendly return policy and take it back if you don't like it.

[14ersco]

As I mentioned earlier have just purchased a Garmin nuvi 350. Only a few days to the PoAl cruise and the GPS says I'm only 3328 miles E of the pier!

 

It was easy to add a list of favorite locations. For Oahu all of the sites we are interested in going to, expect the 9 month old hotel we are staying at, were already loaded into the GPS, but by collecting them in the Favorites those sites are right at my fingertips. Have been real world testing the GPS locally and no matter what I have tried (entering detours, ignoring turns, varying speeds, etc.) has stopped the GPS from adjusting and getting me to the destination at the time it says I should. This should really help know how soon to head back to the pier.

 

Also Garmin allows on-screen vehicle customization; for Hawaii have made it look like the Griswold's vehicle; green woody station wagon with luggage on the roof.:cool:

[seamare]

I did buy a Tom Tom this past summer and tried it out. For me it was very confusing as it would not give me an easier route that I knew. I would have to keep logging in stops. It would also have me turning before or after I needed to. In one case, if I would have follow its instructions I would have been in a river.

 

This is why I posted the question as I'm not sure if I can put my trust in a machine. I ended up taking my Tom Tom back.

[lktravel]

We just returned from Hawaii, spent 7 days on Big Island, then 3 days in Honolulu, finished with a cruise, had my own TomTom and used on both the Big Island and Honolulu, was invaluable at both places, especially Honolulu, I had bought it about 18 months ago and never did update the software so the data was at least 18 months old, still worked very well and had everything we wanted in it. golf courses , arizona, resturants, etc.. great for getting back to hotel, reploting course if you missed a turn, etc. we followed the route to hotel given by car rental agent even though the tomtom had a different route, and later found the tomtom route would have been better as it kept us on H1 interstate much longer.

 

I would definitely rent one or buy a cheaper one for any lenght of stay in Honolulu, streets are confusing and traffic is bad. We learned to just follow the lady in the tomtom.