The Ottermanempire.com

I’ve already dealt with the “joy” of commercial air travel So let’s start from the ground up. We took Supershuttle to and from the airport which lead to the classic “cabbie” personality that the UK sends up as the atypical man on the street, the mobile philosopher prone to considered opinions like “it’s your darkies innit?” or “hangin’ too good for ‘em” Maybe driving a public hire vehicle provides an insight into the world’s cultures that the general population are ill afforded by paying attention in school? Service was on time for pickup , annoyingly delayed for return trip.

On arrival we found that the hotel didn’t have a shuttle ( or many of the other things that the site claimed) ,that rental co’s can’t pick you up from the airport and that hailing a cab would be the best choice. Cab = limo which is not that bad a way to start off your trip:) price = same as a cab. First duty to was to secure the rental car from Enterprise which was meant to be either a Maxima or a Charger yet turned into a Subaru Outback.

When I last considered a car purchase, a moment of economic weakness and insanity that should be avoided , the Outback was high on the list of purchase options. The reason I didn’t get one is twofold. I’m not happy with the fuel efficiency and price took it too close to a diesel jeep when you take the “incentives” masses on the Jeep side / none on the Subaru at the time I made the best choice and bought neither:D Anyway I didn’t really drive on vacation so most of my observations are from the passenger seat. Apart from a tire destructively blowing out, the difference between pssssssssssssssss flump and bang,whoosh scrape the car was great. Sadly the tire can’t have blown out since it was new ( claims enterprise) the jack can’t have collapsed under the weight of the car ( not just collapse but snap in half) so how we ended up stuck in a remote area for 2 hours in the blazing heat till we could secure a working jack ( 5 trucks had none) is beyond me.
positives: Solid, good pick up in city traffic, tight turning circle (really usefull for the Oahu car parks) rugged interior with many practical storage opportunities that actually are usable rather than cute.. VW beetle owners will recognise the latter problem.

Negatives: supplied jack is dangerous and unsuited to the task, spare wheel is not full size,

All in all this vehicle rocks, I know of two people that had nasty accidents within these , one from the side and one head-on in both cases heavier vehicles smashed the shit out of the Subarus and they walked away. (your accident may vary:D )

After the tire destructed we limped it back on the donut where we were given an “upgrade” to a Sebring convertible. The only feature of this car is that it’s a convertible. Underpowered, massive turning circle, blind spots a plenty with the roof up, utterly shitty traction trying to get up out the parking garage, crappy suspension on anything other than a smooth surface. It’s cheap, obviously so, and without the top coming down would be returned as a piece of shit. It’s an upgrade from walking.. not much else. There are far nice convertibles out there for a reasonable price now that it’s maybe time to put this one to sleep.

Parking near Waikiki? Sucks. Hotels charge 10-15 a night for non guaranteed parking, i.e you may have to use the lot next door, or the one next to that. Most of the parking lots are not well suited to anything other than a medium sized car but that doesn’t deter the people with suv’s:) truth be told you may not need a car for most of the “attractions” i.e if you want to be shown the island rather than discover it most of the  companies pick you up, supply the gear/ food, and drop you back off.   Though I would suggest walking after many of the exceedingly keen meals, if possible.

Like all tourist holes Waikiki is  full of people that can’t ride scooters that hire them regardless,  watch out  you may miss one of these annoying gits;)   On the whole roads are good,  they get a little more interesting in the North but  the worst hazard really appears to be the  low low roofs on the underground parking and the “fuck the suv”  width of these.. ( wow I hope this picks up soon.. It’s sending me to sleep:)