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Getting to your hotel
By Robert Bone
Special to The Advertiser
With a couple of exceptions, Honolulu Hotels are virtually all in Waikiki, the famous beachside suburb near the volcanic cone named Diamond Head, which has attracted visitors since the nineteenth century. It’s located on the other side of Downtown Honolulu, about nine miles east of Honolulu International Airport.
The airport is no outback facility. One of the busiest in the country, over the past few decades the terminal has seemingly grown like a wild dominoes game, with wings, gates and parking lots seemingly branching out in all directions.
It is reasonably well signed, however. If your plane parks considerably away from the center of things, you’ll have the choice of riding to Baggage Claim on a Wiki Wiki bus or walking. Many prefer to stretch their legs anyway after the long flight.
Arrival/departure gates are all on Level 2. Baggage Claim is on the mauka (mountain) side of the facility on Level 1.
If you’re with a tour group, you will be found by your designated representative and then transported to your hotel with a minimum of self-interaction needed. On the way, you can enjoy the fragrance of the plumeria lei with which you will be presented by the same representative, along with the memory of a welcoming kiss if your greeter is of the opposite sex.
As an independent arrival, however, you’ll have to make your way to your hotel by taxi, by bus, or by your own rental car, sans flowers or kisses.
Taxis are seldom a problem. A dispatcher outside Baggage Claim will help you and send you on your way. A one-way ride direct to your Waikiki hotel will cost around $25, about a dollar a minute, and perhaps a greater or lesser amount of dialogue if you driver is a typically loquacious chauffeur. Taxis vary widely in quality – a limo or Caddy one minute, a Nissan the next. Most are comfortable, however, and many prohibit smoking. All will expect a tip.
Individual arrivals can save money by taking a shuttle bus to Waikiki, which means sharing with several other passengers, but which will drop you and your baggage at your designated hotel. These companies have a way of going into and out of business at the drop of a valise, but currently your choice will probably be First Choice Shuttle (Tel. 988-9293) or Terminal Transportation (Tel. 836-0317).
Be aware that some shuttle services may charge more from the airport to Waikiki than from Waikiki to the airport, perhaps $8 one way and $4 the other.
Some passengers hope to take a city bus from the airport to Waikiki, the best bargain of all at a dollar a ride. Bus 19 or 20 takes a leisurely 45 minutes before reaching the hotel area of Waikiki. However, they prohibit suitcases and other large packages, usually including backpacks.
Catch the bus outdoors on the upper level. But unless you can carry all your worldly goods and chattels comfortably on your lap, you’d better forgo the bargain.
On the outer islands, some hotels maintain buses for picking up guests at the airport, as they do in many cities in the mainland U.S. Unfortunately this is generally not true on Oahu, although you will find buses from rental car companies which will take you to their lots. Look into rental rates carefully before you arrive in Hawaii. They vary widely, seemingly depending on phases of the moon or other factors you and we will never completely understand.
We have sometimes received more favorable rates by calling a toll-free 800 number from a phone attached to the outside of a rental car stand than we have been able to receive at the same company’s counter a few feet away. Go figure!
Two hotel location exceptions: The super-deluxe Kahala Mandarin Oriental (for many years known as the Kahala Hilton) is not in Waikiki, but in the residential suburb of Kahala, much farther along the coastline. And the downtown "business" hotel, Aston at the Executive Center, catering for no-nonsense business guests, is in Downtown Honolulu, closer to the airport but far, far from any beach.
Travel writer Robert W. Bone is a journalist, editor and photographer. He is the author of "The Maverick Guide to Hawaii."
