My teenage daughters and I are going to California and Oregon next week for a 10 day vacation. This trip was scheduled for last summer but we all know what happened to vacations last year. We booked our car rental and accommodations awhile back since it’s such a busy time of year to travel. It wasn’t cheap, but we got a car reservation with no problems.
Coming to Hawaii you should make car rental reservations at least 6 months in advance, if not earlier. This rental car shortage in Maui doesn’t look like it’s going to let up until next spring, maybe. Kihei Rent A Car has hundreds of email and phone inquiries a day lately because of the high prices that other rental companies are charging.
$300 a day is not unheard of!
Getting a Safe Travels account was pretty simple. I created the account and uploaded our vaccine cards on my laptop. I am definitely going to make sure I have the website and password all set to go on my iPhone so there is no issue getting signed in.
Hawaii rental car companies are required to verify all renters are exempt from quarantine before renting them a car. If they do not have a wrist band showing they have been prescreened by their airline we need to see their exempt status in their Safe Travels account. Once in awhile we get customers who have done the whole screening process at the Maui airport with just a screenshot of their QR Code. Since we can’t scan QR codes our customers need to sign into their Safe Travels account and show us their exemption. What happens is, they can’t sign in on their cell phone at the rental car counter. Most issues that come up have to do with passwords. Customers can’t remember it or their phone doesn’t recognize it when it’s copy and pasted. In any case, it’s time consuming and stressful. So I’m saving my password on my phone for sure.
To get the vaccine cards uploaded I just took pictures with my phone and emailed them to myself. That way I easily downloaded them on my laptop and then uploaded them to my Safe Travels account. Setting up a Safe Travels account was challenging on my phone. The dropdown menus did not always show up. So that’s why I used my laptop for set up.
Simple. Right? Right?
You’ll be fine.
Just make sure you have enough time and a good internet connection.
Lastly, remember to fill in the Health Questionnaire within 24 hours of coming to Maui.
So far the process seems simple.
I guess we’ll find out when we land in Maui at the end of the month.
Good luck to everyone and safe travels!
