That said, depending on what you want to do, you can probably get away with not renting if you really can’t find anything for less than $300/day.

Getting to/from the Airport:

If you’re not going to rent a car, try to reserve a taxi/Uber/Lyft in advance. There can be a bit of a wait. That’s usually going to be the cheapest option if you party has multiple people. It’ll be about $100 to get to the West Side/Lahaina. You can also get a transport van, but they’re usually ~$60/person.

You definitely want to reserve something in advance to GET to the airport. Don’t let Uber leave you hanging when you’ve got a flight to catch.

Option 1: Just Chill

Who goes on a Maui vacation to relax?!? We’ve got to do stuff! All the stuff! Nah… you actually don’t.

Maui is pretty beautiful no matter where you’re at. So take some time to relax, explore the area nearby to where you’re staying, and not try to do all the things. There’s usually decent snorkeling and beaches within walking distance no matter where you’re at (well, unless you’re in Kula or Haiku or something). Both of my condos are on the ocean, and just puttering around the lanai, pool, or lawn area is pretty awesome. The lanai is specifically set up for hanging out on. Same goes for most condos. There’s something mystical about just sitting down and staring out to the sea.

Also, you can rent bikes or e-scooters. Not sure what the rates are these days by traditionally they aren’t too expensive and should make life a bit easier.

Option 2: Do Stuff! Take a taxi.

Taxi, Uber, Lyft, etc… This probably works better for short distances, i.e. less than 20 minutes and stay in populated areas. So better for going to Lahaina for dinner or Black Rock for snorkeling than long sightseeing trips.

But if you want to expand beyond stuff within walking distance, a taxi isn’t going to be too expensive for short distances. Especially if it’s only a ‘once a day’ type of thing. But for long trips (say, 30+ miles one way), a round trip will be more expensive than renting a car.

There is definitely some great stuff within a 15 minute drive of Kahana (where my condos are at). So this is an option for going to Lahaina, Ka’anapali, and Kapalua. Possibly even somewhere like Honolua, but that’s off the beaten path for a taxi, so might be at risk of not being able to get one to come back. If you do, talk to the driver before going out there and see if they’ll come pick you up at a specific time.

Option 3: Do Stuff! Water Tours.

An awesome way to see Maui is from a boat! Go on a sunset sail, do a snorkeling trip to Lana’i, or try out parasailing! These all leave from Ka’anapali or Lahaina and are an easy taxi ride.

Spending time on the water is fun and definitely something you couldn’t do with a car anyways. For me, it handily beats being cooped up in a bus. But…

Option 3: Do Stuff! Land Tours.

Personally, I’m more into renting a car and doing my own thing. However, given the current state of things, staying close to home most of the time and using tours for sightseeing is pretty appealing.

There are plenty of companies that will take you to Hana or Haleakala. So if you really want to go to those places and don’t mind spending 4-8 hours in a bus, this is an option. Frankly, I REALLY don’t recommend doing Hana this way. I don’t even recommend doing the drive there and back yourself in one day (you’ll be in the car for at least six hours). Either spend a night out there or drive about half way. There are plenty of good hikes and scenery half way. Otherwise, you’ll spend more time in the car than checking stuff out.

There’s a lot to do on Maui’s West Side

You really don’t NEED to have a car. Yes, it simplifies things a bit and let’s you explore a bit further. In normal times, I’d definitely recommend you get a car. But these aren’t normal times. There are a lot of great things to do within a 10-15 minute radius of Kahana, so don’t feel obligated to ‘do all the things’, if those things require spending a ton of money.

Instead of spending hours in the car going hither and thither… take an intro to scuba lesson. Go on the submarine out of Lahaina. Meditate at the Lahaina Jodo Mission, which has the largest Buddha sculpture of it’s kind outside of Japan (and is right next to Baby Beach, a super calm, beautiful beach). Walk the Labyrinth by the Dragon Teeth lava formation in Kapalua. Or just kick it pool side and relax.

Explore the West Side like a local and see some of the cool stuff!

Keeping this post for archival purposes, but you can ignore it.

As you’re probably aware, all of Hawaii requires a pre-test, a negative COVID test, to be allowed on island without quarantining.

You need to get tested within 72 hours of your departure. You MUST  do it with one of Hawaii’s trusted partners and you MUST have the results in hand before you board the aircraft. My recommendation is to get tested as soon as you can within the 72 hour window. Here are the Trusted Partners:

They are being strict about this. If you don’t have a negative test with one of the above partners they will not let you on the plane (or if you get on the plane, they may send you back).   So please make sure you have test results.

It will speed things up for you on arrival if you register on Hawaii’s travel website and upload your results. This is highly recommended: https://travel.hawaii.gov/

This whole process has gotten a lot easier, as the COVID tests are coming back a lot faster these days. When I went over in November, it took about 65 hours for the test to come back. I didn’t get the test results until a few hours before I boarded the plane. That was pretty stressful. Last Month, May, I get my tests through Kaiser and they have it back to me in about 30 hours. So I had about a day and a half before my flight left. So it’s much easier to get a test quickly now. 

But you do need a negative pre-test before you board the plane. Most of the time the airlines are checking that at the departure airport. So you want to give yourself an extra half an hour more than you usually do. So you can go through the pre-test check at the airport that you’re leaving from and get all that confirmed. They will give you a Bracelet or some other notification that you have all the required documentation and that they have checked it. And the awesome thing about that is that you can skip all of that in Maui. So you can just pop off the plane and go straight to baggage..  

Now, as of this writing, they are requiring a post-test if you are not vaccinated. So if you are vaccinated, bring your vaccination card!

That will allow you to skip the post-test. If you don’t have a vaccination card or you’re not vaccinated, then they’re going to require you to take up test at the airport. It’s a rapid test. Usually the results take about 20 minutes to get back, but you will have to go do that and have to wait on that test. And if it is negative, you’re good to go. If it’s positive, they will refer you to another one of the more reliable tests that take a day or two to get the results back. And you will have to quarantine in the meantime. And if that test comes back positive, then you will have to quarantine for the entire duration of your stay. So 1) you should be getting vaccinated, and that’s really important anyways, but for travel to Maui it’s going to make getting on island much easier. 

 When you get off the plane, they will herd you off into another vaccine checking line, where you show them the vaccination card. And then you can head off the baggage claim.  

So it’s a pretty easy process these days, like I said, the COVID tests are coming back pretty quickly. So you don’t really have to stress too much about that as long as you’re negative. Obviously if you’re positive, then that’s going to put a damper on your vacation and you’re going to probably want to reschedule it. 

For myself, it was pretty seamless process. They got us out of the plane and out of the airport pretty fast. Again, they checked the pre-test at the airport (thanks United!) and the vaccine line was quick and easy.

Once on the island, you still need masks indoors, if you’re not eating. Outdoors, you no longer need a mask and, And so it’s great being on an island, you can walk around pretty much any outdoor area with no masks, but if you are shopping the supermarket, for example, you will need to don your mask. Indoors it’s still required and places will kick you out. 

So hopefully this was helpful. Any questions, post a comment down in the comments section and I’ll try and answer it. They are no longer giving out signed certification that you need to rent a car with or check into a hotel (this used to be required). As long as you make it through the vaccine line with your vaccination card, then you’re good to go and you don’t need any special permissions or anything else to get out of the airport or get a rental car. 

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The way I did it was basically just constantly checking Priceline, Costco Travel and Avis, which I have a preferred membership at. Usually Costco is the best option. They’re kind of my go-to place for rental cars anywhere. They have great rates, but they also don’t get the same amount of inventory because of those rates. So I was finding Priceline to be better for Maui right now. They consistently had the lowest rates up until a couple days before my flight. I even checked renting a car from Kahului and dropping it off at Kapalua… see towards the end for more info on that. (btw… I’m not getting paid or affiliated with the above companies, they just have good rates)

And I did find a decent rate at last minute. So if you can hold out until the day before or the day of your arrival, you can often get good rates, or at least they’ll be cheaper than what you might see a week or two weeks out. Also, the day of the week matters. It was easier to get a cheaper car on Monday or Tuesday than Friday. (this goes for any travel expenses, including flights) But I arrived Thursday before Memorial Day weekend and still got a rate of about $100/day (booked it on the plane there).

(You can experiment with all this yourself, just check rental sites for rates for today or tomorrow or a week from now. Do that for about a week to see how things change.)

ALSO, check out Kihei Rent-A-Car. They are awesome. You should definitely try and get a car through them. But when I checked, they were totally booked for quite a while. So, um, I don’t think that’s so much an option, but, uh, it’s definitely worth giving them a call or reaching out to see if they have anything available for the dates that you are on Maui.

If you MUST have a car… it’s never a bad idea to rent something through like Costco or Expedia or something where you can cancel for free. And then constantly check back to see what the current rates are, especially the week before you leave. And check multiple times a day. Check Priceline, Costco, check anywhere that you might have preferred status or be able to get a good deal. I also have AAA, which has a, an agreement with Hertz and that can sometimes have some good rates, but Costco is better usually. Hertz is normally way too expensive.

So I ended up renting through Avis. It was about $50 cheaper than if I had gone through Costco. Costco had Alamo at $1280, and I was able to do a last minute thing on Avis for like $1235 for 10 days. But again, that was totally last minute. I would’ve gone with Costco and Alamo otherwise.

Minivans and SUVs seem impossible to get, so if you need one, expect to pay a lot.

Why is this happening?!?

The car companies got slammed during the pandemic. So they sold off a bunch of cars and now they’re having trouble ramping back up. Travel to Hawaii has exploded, so demand bounced back faster than most people expected. And cars are in short supply, both because of the chip shortage that’s affecting car manufacturers. And the fact that, you know, Maui is an island and it takes a bit of doing to get cars over here.  

I’m not expecting this to go on forever. Certainly not $300-$400/day. As they get more cars over the next few months, we’ll see car rental rates dropping to their normal prices, or at least, you know, something more reasonable, like 80-100/day. If you’re coming in August, I would wait until the last minute. I think the rates are going to be much better by then. At least I hope so. Just be checking on a regular basis. Judging from the amount of cars available at the last minute, it feels like there are a lot of cars on island.

Kahului to Kapalua?

Let’s talk about the Kahului to Kapalua thing… sometimes that was the cheapest rate. When renting it and returning it to Kahului was 300 or $400 a day, I was seeing deals for like $60 a day if I dropped off in Kapalua. So I’m guessing some of the rental car companies want to get cars to Kapalua. And so you were getting a better rate for helping them out. That was only one particular weekend, I wasn’t seeing it consistently. Also, in that case, I would have rented the car for four or five days, returned it to Kapalua, and then just taken an Uber back to Kahului when my flight was ready for departure. And that way I’d have a car for a few days, I could do all the stuff I needed to do with the car and then the last few days I would just kind of hang out. Either taxi it around or just stay close to where I was saying. So that’s always an option.  

Turo, Car Sharing

There are also sites like Turo and a lot of locals have been trying to rent their cars out on that. I don’t know if I would do that. The quality of the cars on Maui are often not great. People don’t always take care of them and people are definitely taking advantage of this situation. Trying to charge exorbitant rates for cars that are not in good condition. There are also a lot of good cars on Turo, but you want to make sure that the person you’re renting it from has lots of good reviews, and you’re not going to end up renting some sort of rolling wreck. So definitely use some discretion.

So there you have it. That’s the crazy car situation we have here in Maui right now. It’s probably going to get better soon, but for now it’s a little bit nuts.