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We are young professionals (late 20's/early 30's) who recently adopted a puppy (4 months young) planning to move to Waikiki from DC in October for better weather, change of pace, and to live and experience!! The decision is already made to move, we just need to make the decision happen! We are definitely living there for at least a year, and if we love it- we stay, if we hate, we move back.
The reason for the October move date is due to the '5 day or less quarantine' program for our pup. He will get his first rabies vaccine this week and then get his 2nd shot 90 days after. After that, we have to wait another 90 days to enter Hawaii. Along with microchipping, blood testing, sending results, etc in between. Please let me know if I have any of my facts miscontrued along the way. Before we depart, we're going to travel cross-country and then take a flight from California to HNL. We're also planning to ship my car, 2004 Hyundai Elantra from California. And if we decide to move back to DC, we plan to just sell the car there. We don't plan to ship anything else due to our uncertainty of our time in HI. With that brief background, here are my questions...
1. Are there any restrictions with bringing in a car to Hawaii? Is it difficult to get it registered or are there huge hidden fees that makes it near impossible to afford to maintain a car there (besides gas). Or are there tests that need to be done to the car (ie. emissions) before it is allowed to stay in Hawaii?
2. Can you recommend vehicle shippers? I've seen quite a few threads on this and it seems that Pasha is the most recommended. They're quoting me about $1250 from LAX to HNL. Is this a pretty good deal or can you recommend something better?
3. Can you recommend an airline that will get our pup who will be about 50lbs by the time we move to Hawaii safely? It seems that cargo is the only option. We even looked at cruise lines and they don't allow dogs due to the strict guidelines that HI has on brining animals in.
4. Is there a large Korean-American community in Oahu? Although we want to meet people with all types of backgrounds and make friends with a diversity, we also want to be involved in a Korean-American community or one that promotes its culture, language, food, etc. Do you know of any helpful forums, blogs, links, etc?
5. On a similar note as above, is there a large young professional group that enjoys outdoor activities and an occasional drink or two? This may sound like a silly question b/c there are young professionals EVERYWHERE and most fit the criteria above, but I guess what I'm trying to ask is, is there a meet up group for young professionals that like to hang out and are open to meeting new ppl that have a forum/link/blog that we can check out? We are moving to a state where we don't know a single soul which is incredibly exciting and devastating at the same time. =) If it helps to know what our hobbies are, we love dogs, film(hollywood, foreign, independent,etc), ocean, soaking in the sun, fishing, hiking, everything outdoorsy, trying new food, trying anything new, dancing, card games, Wii, etc. Hope this narrows it down.
That's about all the questions I have today. I know I'll have more closer to the date, but if you have any helpful advice, it'll be greatly appreciated!!
Are you sure about your timing with the pup? You have to have the microchip in, and then have the blood arrive at the lab for the OIE-FAVN rabies test at least 120 days before you enter Hawaii. Just double check that one!
I am sending my cats (one is 16 lbs., no cabin travel for him!) on Continental. Their "pet safe" program is very nice, they have a 24 hour 'help desk' manned by very nice people, who will answer any questions and make a reservation for you. They send the animals in a climate-controlled area, separate from regular cargo. I don't know if they have a non-stop from DC to HNL, I am taking my cats down to Newark for a nonstop (11 hrs.) to HNL. Check out their website and see what you think.
I am surprised by your quote of $1250 for the car. I just got a few quotes (we're sending ours from Oakland to Kauai) on Saturday, online, and the most expensive was, I think, $1155. One company was $1050. I wanted to use Pasha but we are arriving in Oakland on 8/2 and their next sailing is about 10 days later. We'll be flying on 8/5, so I'm hoping I can find a company that will be able to put my car on a boat a little earlier. I'm leaning toward Horizon (shipyourvehicle.com), they also ship in a closed container, and they sail twice per week, I think. I don't know of any extreme hurdles to keeping a car in Hawaii, my sister moved in August and bought a used car there. I think there's only a safety inspection, no particular emissions rules (like CA or NY). Most of this info is on this forum, try searching for some keywords like "car inspection" and you'll probably find it. Good luck!
1. Are there any restrictions with bringing in a car to Hawaii? Is it difficult to get it registered or are there huge hidden fees that makes it near impossible to afford to maintain a car there (besides gas). Or are there tests that need to be done to the car (ie. emissions) before it is allowed to stay in Hawaii?
Your car will have to pass a safety inspection before you can register it in Hawaii, but it is a simple process: lights, horn, turn signals, tire tread ok and the like. No emisssions test. It's a once a year thing for about $20.
i found this shipping company and the reason why i think we are going to go with them is because they give you a free gift with the shipping. you get to choose from a few different things. we are going to go with the free plane ticket for when we actually go to kauai.
thank you all for the replies!!! i really appreciate the advice! it made me go back and research further on price quotes and such!
there's a bit of an update.. we bought a used RV for our cross country trip and we decided to take that with us as well. We haven't looked into shipping RVs to Oahu yet, but we're hoping that we can pack it all in with whatever we want to take with us which would be so much more convenient than lugging huge bags to the airport and UPSing whatever doesn't make it. We'll eventually sell it in Oahu once we find a place to live, hoping there is some demand for RVs. So this makes my Hyundai Elantra a wildcard because we're not sure if we want to bring 2 vehicles with us. Besides I've been seeing a lot of car ads on oahu's craigslist for around 2K (it drives, the ac works, the windows work, etc) which may just outweigh the benefit of shipping my car.
If you have any advice on shipping RVs, the demand for them in Oahu, or keeping one in Oahu (quality of campsites), please let me know. Also my bf really wants to live in a boat. I'm ok with it as long as it's comfortable and I look forward to going home as opposed to cringing to the thought of going back to 'that boat called home', if you know what i mean. If you have any advice on boat living, please let me know.
Many Mahalos!!!
sweetbeet - you are absolutely right about the microchipping and the blood test at least 120 days before we arrive. we still have to wait a total of 180 days because of his rabies shots.. he's a puppy so he just got his first one. so although the blood test will take 120 days, it's the rabies shots that will take longer. thank you for your advice on the transport of your cat and car!
thank you all for the replies!!! i really appreciate the advice! it made me go back and research further on price quotes and such!
there's a bit of an update.. we bought a used RV for our cross country trip and we decided to take that with us as well.
I would do LOTS of research before I proceeded past the west coast with that idea. I live half the year in California, where you see lots of RVs, and half on Oahu, where I have not seen one in years.
I tried calling the State Campgrounds office (587 0300), and couldn't get through. I finally found a web site, here:
which lists four state parks on Oahu, but that doesn't mean you can park an RV at any of them. I spoke to a nice lady at FRIENDS OF MALAEKAHANA, who told me their park is too small for RVs, and that she thinks there is only one place on Oahu that takes them. She said RVs were illegal here until last year.
I spoke to another lady at the City Recreation Department (768 3440) who said that there are four city parks that take RVs, but only for five days max, and only five permits at each park for each weekend. No one said anything about a size limit, but it would not surprise me if there were one.
I also was told that unless you own your own property where you can park an RV that you will be ticketed for parking it on the street, so storage will be a problem.
I looked on Craigslist (Oahu) for RVs for sale and found none.
If the lady was right that RVs have just become legal it could be that there will be a sudden demand for them, but I sort of doubt it. There is a history of "squatters" in campgrounds here, and that makes for a very negative feeling in many minds.
My recommendation: Have a great time on the cross country trip (I've done it - it's great!), but proceed with great caution after that.
I would do LOTS of research before I proceeded past the west coast with that idea. I live half the year in California, where you see lots of RVs, and half on Oahu, where I have not seen one in years.
I tried calling the State Campgrounds office (587 0300), and couldn't get through. I finally found a web site, here:
which lists four state parks on Oahu, but that doesn't mean you can park an RV at any of them. I spoke to a nice lady at FRIENDS OF MALAEKAHANA, who told me their park is too small for RVs, and that she thinks there is only one place on Oahu that takes them. She said RVs were illegal here until last year.
I spoke to another lady at the City Recreation Department (768 3440) who said that there are four city parks that take RVs, but only for five days max, and only five permits at each park for each weekend. No one said anything about a size limit, but it would not surprise me if there were one.
I also was told that unless you own your own property where you can park an RV that you will be ticketed for parking it on the street, so storage will be a problem.
I looked on Craigslist (Oahu) for RVs for sale and found none.
If the lady was right that RVs have just become legal it could be that there will be a sudden demand for them, but I sort of doubt it. There is a history of "squatters" in campgrounds here, and that makes for a very negative feeling in many minds.
My recommendation: Have a great time on the cross country trip (I've done it - it's great!), but proceed with great caution after that.
Hank
OMG! Thank you so much for the heads up, Hank!! That was really great information and saved us a huge unexpected hurdle later down the road!! I'm looking into it further and so far I am too finding that RVs are rare to come by in Hawaii, especially in Oahu, therefore not many places to 'maintain' it. The Big Island is a bit more conducive, however we need to be able to park it in Oahu! Still researching....but hard to find solid info.... I'm guessing it's due to the lack of RVs there.
aloha-- i just made the move this month. my dogs and husband come this saturday. for pets, continental has a pet safe program, with climate controlled cargo area for pets. research, and you can find reports of injuries and deaths with pets on airlines. there are very few. i spoke to a guy last week that flew his dog continental, and he said it was great. just make sure you have your ducks in a row with the dog. it is scary, i hope mine arrive safely saturday with my husband.
we are shipping pasha hawaii. it is supposed to arrive a week from today. i found that same price, it is somewhat higher than other companies, but they were easy to work with and i have heard nothing but good things about them.
i have only found one car shipping co. that will allow you to ship your car with stuff in it, and it is over a thousand more to do that. my husband and i sold all our stuff except pictures and such. we shipped them priority mail, USPS and everything arrived unbroken (but i took such care to pack the stuff).
i would say DONT ship too much. you get out here and find you dont need it anyway. furniture, you can find on craigslist and from furniture stores that sell used hotel or condo furniture.
thanks for the advice, ashten! yes, i'm finding more and more that the car shipping companies do not allow car shipments with personal items in them. oh how easy this would have made the move! LOL well, we'll have to restrategize and perhaps sell/donate everything and keep the must haves in a storage unit and just take the absolutely necessary items with us. and whatever doesn't fit in a bag with us on the plane, we'll ship from CA.
i've been hearing continental a lot as far as the safest choice for pets. did your pets arrive safely?
Can't figure why the legislature votes to legalize RV's and then make no providions for them. Do they like them or hate them? I don't imagine it'd be hard to find a local and pay him a couple of $$'s a month to park it on their residential lot with electric and water. Dumping the waste might be a problem, then again from the looks of some of the more remote properties it might not. Seems you could dump right in the front yard and nobody would notice.
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