Excursions leaving from Aulani or nearby?

[pangyal]

I hope that some Aulani vets can help out a newbie...

We will be going for the time in February but will not have a car, nor will we have the option of renting a car. We would like to do some excursions along with my mom and DS (7), so we are looking for ones that would pick up from the resort. The "Aulani Specialists" at Member Services for DVC weren't sure and recommended I call the resort directly, but I am having trouble connecting with them.

Does anyone know of some excursions that pick up at Aulani or within walking distance? This is our first time to Hawaii so that "walking distance" question may be silly already...please bear with me!

Ideally, we'd like to do some hiking, but everything of course would be dependent on age and proximity restrictions.

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[Julie645]

Hopefully someone with actual experience will answer, but I am headed there in a month and have been doing a lot of research. There are several tour groups that work with Aulani and provide events with transportation. There is an upcharge for them since Aluani is kind of remote.. many of the same agencies offer free or cheaper out of Wakiki. Also I have read complaints that sometimes events get cancelled last minute due to lack of participants which would be super frustrating.
Here is the listed excursion paige from the Aulani site
https://resorts.disney.go.com/aulani-hawaii-resort/activities/excursions/

 

[pangyal]

Hopefully someone with actual experience will answer, but I am headed there in a month and have been doing a lot of research. There are several tour groups that work with Aulani and provide events with transportation. There is an upcharge for them since Aluani is kind of remote.. many of the same agencies offer free or cheaper out of Wakiki. Also I have read complaints that sometimes events get cancelled last minute due to lack of participants which would be super frustrating.
Here is the listed excursion paige from the Aulani site
https://resorts.disney.go.com/aulani-hawaii-resort/activities/excursions/

Thanks so much!

I've looked at the link on the site as well, but it is really unclear with regards to whether the excursions leave from Aulani or not and the pricing is all over the place depending on which version of the site you visit (through the Aulani main site or just doing a search on the name of the tour operator).

 

[blessed2BaMama]

We bought the GoOahu card and some of the excursions/attractions have hotel pick ups (I think the hikes).

 

[nkereina]

nor will we have the option of renting a car

Just as an FYI, there is an Alamo onsite at Aulani where you can rent a car just for the day. The option is available and easily accessible, unless there's another reason that precludes you from renting a car.

I can't speak to which excursions are available with transportation, but I do know the concierge at Aulani can assist you once you're onsite. I know that doesn't help much now, but they are well versed and have options. I'm sure there are many people, especially with all the foreign visitors they get, that don't rent vehicles.

Will you be at Aulani the whole time? We stayed in Waikiki for a few days after we arrived before moving to Aulani. We did not have a car during the Waikiki portion of our stay, so we booked tours with transportation to both Diamond Head and Pearl Harbor. Kualoa Ranch offers pick ups from Waikiki as well. Staying in Waikiki for one or two nights at the beginning or end of your trip to do a couple tours may even be cheaper than trying to find transportation or taking taxis everywhere.

 

[SuJo]

I posted this on another page a while back but here it is again:

The best excursion we took was through a tour company called Oahu Private Tours. It is a small company with 3 tour guides who have grown up on the island and have great knowledge about places to go and see that tourists may not know about. It is a private tour, so you your family will be the only people on the tour, and it is customized to what you want to do. They can do hiking, swimming, shopping, sightseeing, etc... We did the 2-day tour package. They pick you up in the morning at Aulani, take you around and do amazing things, and then drop you back at the hotel around 4 (so about an 8 hour day). They have water, snacks, snorkel gear, and towels, pretty much everything you need for the day. Things that we did over 2 days included going to a beach and doing cliff jumping, snorkeling with turtles, hiking to a water fall where we did more cliff jumping, visiting an ancient temple, seeing the beach where part of Hunger Games was filmed, a cool cave that you can jump into and let the current take you out to the ocean and repeat, amazing local places for lunch, many beautiful overlooks through-out the island, and delicious shaved ice. The best part of it all was for a family of 4 it was way cheaper than any of the excursions offered by Disney at Aulani for an excursion this size ($350 for four on day one and $300 for day two). They were really nice and friendly, very outgoing and informative about the island, its history, and the customs. It was just an amazing 2 days and we all feel that it was the highlight of our trip to Hawaii.

 

[SuJo]

Here is the link:

http://www.oahuprivatetours.com/

 

[pangyal]

I posted this on another page a while back but here it is again:

The best excursion we took was through a tour company called Oahu Private Tours. It is a small company with 3 tour guides who have grown up on the island and have great knowledge about places to go and see that tourists may not know about. It is a private tour, so you your family will be the only people on the tour, and it is customized to what you want to do. They can do hiking, swimming, shopping, sightseeing, etc... We did the 2-day tour package. They pick you up in the morning at Aulani, take you around and do amazing things, and then drop you back at the hotel around 4 (so about an 8 hour day). They have water, snacks, snorkel gear, and towels, pretty much everything you need for the day. Things that we did over 2 days included going to a beach and doing cliff jumping, snorkeling with turtles, hiking to a water fall where we did more cliff jumping, visiting an ancient temple, seeing the beach where part of Hunger Games was filmed, a cool cave that you can jump into and let the current take you out to the ocean and repeat, amazing local places for lunch, many beautiful overlooks through-out the island, and delicious shaved ice. The best part of it all was for a family of 4 it was way cheaper than any of the excursions offered by Disney at Aulani for an excursion this size ($350 for four on day one and $300 for day two). They were really nice and friendly, very outgoing and informative about the island, its history, and the customs. It was just an amazing 2 days and we all feel that it was the highlight of our trip to Hawaii.

Oh wow!!! This might be the answer ! Thank you so much.

 

[pangyal]

Just as an FYI, there is an Alamo onsite at Aulani where you can rent a car just for the day. The option is available and easily accessible, unless there's another reason that precludes you from renting a car.

I can't speak to which excursions are available with transportation, but I do know the concierge at Aulani can assist you once you're onsite. I know that doesn't help much now, but they are well versed and have options. I'm sure there are many people, especially with all the foreign visitors they get, that don't rent vehicles.

Will you be at Aulani the whole time? We stayed in Waikiki for a few days after we arrived before moving to Aulani. We did not have a car during the Waikiki portion of our stay, so we booked tours with transportation to both Diamond Head and Pearl Harbor. Kualoa Ranch offers pick ups from Waikiki as well. Staying in Waikiki for one or two nights at the beginning or end of your trip to do a couple tours may even be cheaper than trying to find transportation or taking taxis everywhere.

Well, I don't drive on the highway, and both my hubby and my mum let their licenses expire (we tend to walk or transit everywhere being in midtown of a large city), so car is definitely out . We will only be at Aulani. I'll also need to figure out how to get groceries, I guess taxi.

Thanks for the suggestion to check once we are there- I'm sure we can't be the only car-free visitors!

 

[nkereina]

I'll also need to figure out how to get groceries, I guess taxi.

Depending on what you need, it may just be cheaper to get what you need from the ABC Store across the street that you can walk to. We found their pricing only slightly higher than Safeway or Target, but by the time you pay for a taxi, ABC Store will probably come out to be less expensive. We thought the ABC Store had just about everything you could need.