DO NOT wait until you get there; no matter how bad it is today, it will be worse as a walk up or you could find that you won't even get a car.

We used this company:

http://www.hawaiicarrentals.net/rates.html

Doesn't look too bad according to www.kayak.com

Better get working on it, though. Things have a way of changing very quickly.

Does anyone have an idea of what would be a reasonable price at this late date?

Youre straddling Christmas week, so about the only way you will get a reasonable price is PU upon arrival and draw straws for who will return it 12/23ish & take the bus back. The reverse to PU 1/2ish
Otherwise you are paying 50-100/day IF you can find a car

I have heard quite a few stories of people who cannot find a car to rent on the Big Island over Christmas week. I am guessing it will be somewhat similar on Maui. If you really want a car, I suggest trying to lock in something, anything, now. You can always then continue to look around and maybe play with the dates a bit.

Do you belong to Costco? You could try to rent through them. Sometimes it is a bit less expensive.

If you aren't too picky about rental car companies, you can try priceline or hotwire for better rates.

I tried Hotwire out of curiosity and it said there were no cars available. I wonder if that's because the trip is longer than a month?

Unlikely. It probably means that for a portion of your trip, they have no availability. Most likely the week between Christmas and New Years. Try two smaller reservations. One that takes you to Christmas and then one from NYE on. See what that does.

Good luck.

Thank you for helping! We ended up getting 2 different vehicles - one until Jan 1st and one from JAN 1st through to the 14th so no problem (just had to pay a lot but that's the way it goes when you wait until the last minute!) With taxes in, it works out to an average of about $36 OR 37 per day.

Well done baddeck! You earned that deal, time to book a dinner at Mamas Fish House


While that scenerio makes sense, sometimes it also pays to check the variations that dont. One trip I priced a car that a morning PU was $8/day more than mid afternoon. I booked the morning and just PU'd early...no questions asked

Good Job! What size vehicle and who did you book with? Website, call??? and what company or companies did you get the rental(s) from? I am looking also, but in mid January and the prices are just high.

hpeabody - check the link I posted above. We used them last Feb and they had decent rates.