Car rental in Lahaina, Maui

[kzmama]

We are considering renting a car in Lahaina and would appreciate any input -- positive or negative. What company is best to go with and what is the general wait time for the shuttle and at the counter, etc.?

[Giantfan13]

We used Thrifty for all our car rentals in hawaii. We signed up for their 'Blue chip' service and never had a problem.

What I must add, is we never tried to be the first one's off the ship. We usually let the immediate rush of passengers go, and then we left, so we usually never had any wait at all. To be perfectly honest, it worked out much better for us, as we reserved a Dodge Stratus and they didn't have any more,. so they upgraded us to a PT Crusier convertible. Same thing happened in another port. I can't say what it was like with the first rush off the ship though. Sometimes it's better to just relax and and let all the people off who need to be first and then do your thing.

[Heads&Tails]

We used Thrifty for all our car rentals in hawaii. We signed up for their 'Blue chip' service and never had a problem.

What I must add, is we never tried to be the first one's off the ship. We usually let the immediate rush of passengers go, and then we left, so we usually never had any wait at all. To be perfectly honest, it worked out much better for us, as we reserved a Dodge Stratus and they didn't have any more,. so they upgraded us to a PT Crusier convertible. Same thing happened in another port. I can't say what it was like with the first rush off the ship though. Sometimes it's better to just relax and and let all the people off who need to be first and then do your thing.

 

Ditto for Thrifty's and blue chip. Worked well for us in 2008

[cykl]

Triple ditto for Thrifty, Blue Chip and waiting for the first rush off the ship. The only hangup we experienced was in Hilo. First there was only one rep at the counter, so there really was no Blue Chip line. The benefit was when we got to the counter all the paperwork was ready and we just had to sign and go. Another thing in Hilo was that apparently HI state employees get preference over everyone so we did see a guy cut the line and get served. Lastly, the shuttles did not run back to the ship until 3:00. We were done our sight-seeing by 1:30, so we took a cab instead. All of the other car rental places only had one rep, so I'm guessing what we experienced was just the nature of a small location. None of this was a big deal - after all, we were in Hawaii!

[beachchick]

Because this is for Lahaina and not Kahului, I checked Thrifty's rental locations on their website. Now certainly their website could be out of date, but they do not list Lahaina as one of their locations.

 

If you're tendered at Lahaina, you need to make sure you rent from a location on the west side. That's going to be West Maui Airport (designator: JHM), not Kahului Airport (designator: OGG) or Ka'anapali, Kapalua, or Lahaina. Note: Many locations with addresses listed as "Lahaina" are physically located along Ka'anapali beach at the resorts. Ka'anapali is less than 10 minutes north of Lahaina proper.

 

Do not under any circumstances try to rent from a Kahului location if you tender into Lahaina. It is almost an hour's drive one-way, no company will send shuttles (as it's not possible in terms of time, fuel, personnel, or logistics), and who wants to spend more than 2 hours of a cruise day just getting to and from the rental location?

 

beachchick

[kzmama]

Thank you Beachchick, I did notice more than 1 location in Maui and was concerned about this. Your input sure put me at ease as to which location to use.

[Heads&Tails]

Beachchick good point I totally missed the Lahaina part and yes we picked up in Kahului and drove to Lahaina.

While on the subject, what a great easy drive with a lot of kodak moments it was and same coming home after the Luau.