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Big Island The Island of Hawaii
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Old 09-17-2012, 09:35 PM
 
36 posts, read 57,196 times
Reputation: 98

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Yeah the Kohala Mountain road is my favorite drive. Its absolutely beautiful. I haven't looked at the car rental agreements recently, but like most other posters say, it was still in the contract for most car rental agencies as of two years ago. Of course I did see some Japanese tourist violate that agreement just this June when I went up to the summit. He was driving a Mustang. Not sure at what part he decided it was more prudent to turn around, but I was on my way down when I passed him going up. I am certain if something went wrong for him on that portion, he would have found himself in hot water. There is NO way any rental agreement other than the 4wd drive Jeeps would allow you to drive up to the summit. As for the road works, we eagerly anticipate the next section that goes from PTA to a smidge past the Waikola turnoff.
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Old 09-17-2012, 10:02 PM
 
67 posts, read 159,215 times
Reputation: 139
I cannot wait for the construction! It will be so nice to get to the beach faster! Of course, if I am not just trying to get from here to there and actually want to enjoy the drive, I will always choose the upper road! But I must admit, I like seeing the turkey on Saddle Road.
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Old 09-17-2012, 11:37 PM
 
Location: Hawai'i
1,392 posts, read 3,051,963 times
Reputation: 711
Quote:
Originally Posted by CyberCity View Post
"Posts about mythical rental car company contracts" would more accurately be "posts with outdated car rental contract info". As PacificFlights pointed out, the postings about restrictions were not based on "myth".
Tomato, tomahto......the purpose of this topic was to let people know that the current postings that they shouldn't drive Saddle Road are not up to date.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Island Cat View Post
Yeah the Kohala Mountain road is my favorite drive. Its absolutely beautiful. I haven't looked at the car rental agreements recently, but like most other posters say, it was still in the contract for most car rental agencies as of two years ago. Of course I did see some Japanese tourist violate that agreement just this June when I went up to the summit. He was driving a Mustang. Not sure at what part he decided it was more prudent to turn around, but I was on my way down when I passed him going up. I am certain if something went wrong for him on that portion, he would have found himself in hot water. There is NO way any rental agreement other than the 4wd drive Jeeps would allow you to drive up to the summit. As for the road works, we eagerly anticipate the next section that goes from PTA to a smidge past the Waikola turnoff.
The topic of this thread is Saddle Road, but we did drive Kohala Mountain Road the day before. This is the first I've read that KMR would be against rental contracts. In fact, we'd never heard of the road until Friday when a friend, learning we were headed to Hawi the next day, told us about it. Why would you need 4WD for Kohala Mountain Road? We did just fine in our 2WD small truck. Beautiful road, just not for the faint of heart with the twisties. We took it on the way from Waimea to Hawi. Did we miss a 4WD-only turnoff to something crazy?
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Old 09-17-2012, 11:59 PM
 
10 posts, read 15,088 times
Reputation: 22
I agree that Saddle Road is a beautiful drive and I can imagine it must have been quite scary/hazardous not long ago. It is interesting to see what people from different areas consider dangerous. Yes, people can drive like lunatics on that road and yes, it's isolated but there are lunatics everywhere and it's not any more isolated than many places in California. At any rate, it's one of my favorite drives.
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Old 09-18-2012, 01:17 AM
 
1,730 posts, read 3,810,264 times
Reputation: 1215
Quote:
Originally Posted by HiloDiver View Post
Tomato, tomahto......the purpose of this topic was to let people know that the current postings that they shouldn't drive Saddle Road are not up to date.
If anyone is uncertain of the current rules, they can ask their particular car rental company, and not rely on an anonymous internet forum.
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Old 09-18-2012, 02:55 AM
 
Location: Hawai'i
1,392 posts, read 3,051,963 times
Reputation: 711
Quote:
Originally Posted by CyberCity View Post
If anyone is uncertain of the current rules, they can ask their particular car rental company, and not rely on an anonymous internet forum.
Smart! But not what people usually do...
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Old 09-18-2012, 11:50 AM
 
Location: North Idaho
32,638 posts, read 48,015,234 times
Reputation: 78406
Quote:
Originally Posted by HiloDiver View Post
Smart! But not what people usually do...
That was my first thought, too. I don't quite understand why but for some reason the really obvious doesn't seem to be obvious to a lot of folks. Too many people sign without reading and don't bother to ask what is allowed and what isn't.

For a tourist, they wouldn't even know to ask, though, unless they had checked here first and learned that there is a saddle road and that car rental agencies don't permit it.

Just judging from the way they drive, I suspect that some tourists don't have any clue about where they are going or how to get there.
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Old 09-18-2012, 12:39 PM
 
Location: Hilo
97 posts, read 279,256 times
Reputation: 101
Quote:
Originally Posted by HiloDiver View Post
Tomato, tomahto......the purpose of this topic was to let people know that the current postings that they shouldn't drive Saddle Road are not up to date.

The topic of this thread is Saddle Road, but we did drive Kohala Mountain Road the day before. This is the first I've read that KMR would be against rental contracts. In fact, we'd never heard of the road until Friday when a friend, learning we were headed to Hawi the next day, told us about it. Why would you need 4WD for Kohala Mountain Road? We did just fine in our 2WD small truck. Beautiful road, just not for the faint of heart with the twisties. We took it on the way from Waimea to Hawi. Did we miss a 4WD-only turnoff to something crazy?
Aside from the part about Kohala Mountain Road being beautiful and somewhat of a non sequitur, the rest of the post was about Saddle Road. The 4WD was in reference to going to the summit of Mauna Kea off of Saddle Road.
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Old 09-18-2012, 01:56 PM
 
Location: Littleton, CO
2,394 posts, read 4,999,886 times
Reputation: 7569
I drove Kohala Mountain Road, Saddle Road, South Point road, nothing there made me worry at all and even felt slightly dangerous.

Now I certainly agree with the 4X4 for Waipio and the Green beach, both are pretty serious. Mauna Kea same thing, but actually next time I go to BI I will just drive to the visitors center myself to take star pics since thats where you end up anyway even on the tours

Had a Dodge Challenger as a rental (what an awful car BTW)

Driving on the H-1 in Oahu felt more terrifying than anything on BI

Last edited by Snikt; 09-18-2012 at 02:06 PM..
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Old 09-18-2012, 02:55 PM
 
Location: Volcano
12,969 posts, read 28,432,349 times
Reputation: 10759
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snikt View Post
I drove Kohala Mountain Road, Saddle Road, South Point road, nothing there made me worry at all and even felt slightly dangerous...
I just have to say, I appreciate you checking back in with the forum to share your experiences... most people never seem to get around to it... and it's nice to get the feedback about what worked for you and what didn't. Although some of the answers can seem fairly random, sometimes even deluded, on a public forum like this, there are also a number of folks here who genuinely want to be help and have the real info.

The real trick is figuring out who is which!
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