Getting Around Honolulu Without Steep Hotel Parking: HOLO Card (TheBus), Biki Bikes & 1-Day Car Rentals

Here is the top money-saving logistics secret for visiting Honolulu: unlike Maui, Kaua'i or the Big Island, you do not need a rental car for every day of your trip on O'ahu, and keeping a car overnight in Waikiki wastes money. Every major hotel in Waikiki charges steep nightly parking fees, with almost no free street parking. Fortunately, Honolulu has the finest public transit and bikeshare network in the Pacific.

1. Get a HOLO Card for TheBus

Walk into any ABC Store, 7-Eleven or Foodland in Waikiki and load credit onto a HOLO Card (or pay cash per ride on board). From Kuhio Avenue in Waikiki, air-conditioned city buses run directly to major sights:

• Route 2 or 23: Diamond Head Crater & KCC Farmers' Market (12 mins).
• Route 20 or 42 / W Line: Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, 'Iolani Palace / Downtown & Ala Moana Center.
• Route 60 & 67: Kailua, Kualoa Ranch & North Shore (Waimea Bay / Hale'iwa).

2. Biki Bikeshare (130+ Docking Stations)

Tap your card at any blue Biki Station across Waikiki, Diamond Head, Ala Moana and Kaka'ako (for a single ride or a multi-day pass of banked minutes) to pedal along the Ala Wai Canal path, out to Diamond Head or over to Magic Island.

3. The Waikiki Trolley (Open-Air Sightseeing Lines)

Open-air double-decker and wooden trolleys link Waikiki with Diamond Head, East Honolulu and Downtown. Showing a JCB payment card grants complimentary rides on the Pink Line Shuttle between Waikiki and Ala Moana Center.

4. Smart Car Strategy: 1-Day In-Waikiki Car Rental

Instead of paying for five nights of hotel parking, rent a car for just 1 or 2 individual days from a desk inside Waikiki (Enterprise, Alamo, National, Hertz, Avis and Sixt have branches inside the International Market Place, Hyatt Regency, Hilton Hawaiian Village and Sheraton Waikiki). Pick the car up in the morning, drive the Windward and North Shore loop, and return the keys that same evening to avoid overnight parking charges.