Hawaii Diary: Travel Day

Saturday we were to leave the big island for Kauai. We'd been in the tropics for three days and hadn't hit the beach yet, and we had a little time before our flight, so we tried to find a beach somewhere north of the airport. There were several turn-offs from the highway that looked promising, if we had more time or a 4x4 instead of a sedan, but the one we tried to get to was going to take too long. Recommendation: if you want to go to obscure beaches or other remote spots anywhere in Hawaii, spend the extra $$$ on a Jeep or other similar vehicle. You can walk or crawl your sedan in many cases, but it'll be easier if you have the right car. We turned around and ended up driving all the way to Waikoloa, where we eventually got to the "beach" at the Waikoloa Hyatt Resort. The Hyatt seemed like a nice place, but not really our thing, a little too Disney World-y.

Thanks to the wonders of modern airline travel, we had to waste a huge chunk of our day traveling, even though it's only about 250 miles between Kailuha-Kona and Lihue airports. Between the rental car return, check-in, security charades, flights, layovers and rental car procurement at our arrival, it took almost five hours. We flew on Mokulele Airlines (who?), a small Hawaii inter-island carrier that had recently (2008) gotten into serious regional jet passenger service. Their corporate history was complicated, but I was eventually convinced that they were legit. They got positive reviews on the web, they offered flights at the time I wanted, and for the same price as everyone else ($99). The flights were completely uneventful, which is perhaps the highest praise you can give an airline these days. Bonus points for attempting to serve me a coffee on the second leg between Honolulu and Lihue, where we spent about 20 minutes in the air. Mokulele subsequently merged with go! Airlines right after we left, who has mixed reviews, so who knows what the service will be like in the future. Doesn't matter much to me anymore, though. By the way, I love the big green courtyards inside the Honolulu Airport.

I would like to take this opportunity to complain about Alamo Rent-a-Car. We were stuck with them for the week on Kauai because they are one of the random vendors you may receive on Hotwire. Most of the Hotwire alternatives would be considered upper-class car rental agencies, except for Alamo (who is universally hated on the web), and I took my chances when the lowest rate was I could find was through the hotwire.com website.

I didn't explicitly mention that our Budget Rent-a-Car experience on the big island was fair, fairly painless, and trouble-free, but it felt that way at the time. The line was short when we arrived (10PM on Wednesday) and they didn't give us the hard sell on the usual rental car add-ons. The Alamo experience was much less pleasant. It started with a 20 or 30 minute wait in line at the counter, although if I'd known better, I would have used the self-checkin kiosk that was hiding in the corner. The counter agent was vaguely sleazy and gave the hard sell on every potential add-on. Approximate conversation:

Agent: Would you like to add any additional drivers?
Me: Is it free to add my wife?
Agent: It's (some ridiculous amount) extra, Hawaii state regulations.
Me: Oh, on the big island it was free.
Agent: [pause] ... They must have added it on to the rate.
Me: Whatever. I'll drive alone.
Agent: Would you like the collision damage waiver?
Me: I decline everything.
Agent: How about the [blah blah] waiver?
Me: I decline everything.
Agent: How about the Loss Damage Waiver?
Me: I decline everything.
Agent: Are you sure? If you have an accident, it could cost you hundreds of dollars.
Me: I decline everything. My AMEX covers loss damage.
Agent: It's a good deal1 If you have an accident, we have to ship the car to the mainland for 6-8 weeks and it's a couple thousand bucks.
Me: I decline everything!!! My card covers this!!
Agent: Most credit cards don't cover this.
Me: #@%#@!! I DECLINE EVERYTHING!!!!!!!111oneone

Finally he acquiesces, and sends me to the lot to pick my car, since I supposedly have my choice from the available mid-size cars (since that is what I booked). The mid-size row is empty except for a blue Chevy Cobalt that has more dings, scratches, and missing interior plastic bits than either of the 7-year-old cars that we own at home. Seriously. Not to mention that a Cobalt is not what most people would call "mid-size". Arguing with the lot staff failed to accomplish anything, and not being willing to wait another 30 minutes (at least) in line inside, I took about 30 pictures of every ding, scratch and missing part, and X-ed out the entire "pre-existing condition" diagram on the rental agreement. The guy in the booth at the lot exit (DO NOT ENTER -- SEVERE TIRE DAMAGE) was not amused when I complained, but I didn't think he would be. He did sign the stupid form, though. The car ended up being fine (if slightly underpowered on the uphills), but this is was not a warm fuzzy experience. Avoid Alamo, or Hotwire if you're not feeling lucky.

After all of this, we eventually left Lihue Airport for our condo in Princeville, a destination on the north shore of the island that blurs the line between town and real estate development. It's about 45 minutes from the Lihue airport. My parents were generous enough to give us a week-long condo rental for our honeymoon, courtesy of RCI and our timeshare weeks in Hilton Head that we no longer use. I won't go into the RCI swapping shenanigans that resulted in our landing in Princeville, but we ended up with a unit at The Cliffs at Princeville for the week. We were assigned to a second-floor condo in building 3, on the mauka (mountain/non-seaward) side of the property, which was recently renovated. The interior was very nice inside, except for a severe lack of lighting at night. We wondered if a table lamp was missing or something. The rest of the grounds at The Cliffs were very nice -- decent pool, ocean view (if you walk across the property) and the usual set of amenities for a complex of this type. The staff was friendly, especially the overly enthusiastic Activities Manager, and we were very happy with the accommodations.

We hit the local supermarket to stock up on provisions for the week, and after looking at a couple of local dining options, ended up at a completely generic and unremarkable bar and grill at the Princeville shopping center. I can't even remember the name. I don't know if it was allergies or jet lag or something I picked up from the planes, but I was not feeling so great, and we weren't feeling very adventurous for dinner. We crashed right after that.