Private Tours

My mother & I are booked on a Princess cruise to Hawaii in November of 2017. She uses a rollator and has great difficulty with tour bus stairs. All of the "wheelchair accessible" tours are sold out, have only 1 seat left or involve flying. Princess does not appear to have the "Car & Driver" option that we usually use on Holland cruises.

I have never been to Hawaii and am not at all familiar with the islands.

I am looking for private tours for: Hilo, Honolulu, Kauai and Maui. I have found some onTrip Advisor but have had such good luck with past recommendations from this board that I figured I'd give it a shot. Thank you in advance. Denise

I suggest also posting this question on your roll call. Some very good private tour operators have been recommended here so search through this forum. I think one in Hilo is Mary Lou's. I hope you and your mom will have a great time. Cherie

I read the thread over. Roberts did not have anything but a small bus for us. Mom isn't interested in a luau (done enough of them) or a helicopter. I will check out Mary Lou. Thank you for your help,

I read the thread over. Roberts did not have anything but a small bus for us. Mom isn't interested in a luau (done enough of them) or a helicopter. I will check out Mary Lou. Thank you for your help,

Have you googled "The Top Ten Maui Private Tours - Trip Advisor" for ideas?

Doing that now. I was hoping for recommendations from board members as they had been such good choices in the past. Thank you

My mother has mobility issues as well. We're doing the Pride of America cruise in August this year. We've previously been on the Queen Mary 2 together (had a LOT of fun trying to get the wheelchair over the humps on the bottom of the doors, and also when we returned to the ship post-tour and they had to get five or six guys to help get the wheelchair up the ramp to the ship! One of the funniest memories from that holiday, to be honest!).

In Maui we've booked Valley Isle Tours to do the Road to Hana tour, but unfortunately they won't take a wheelchair. My mother can walk (although not too far) so we are going to go without it for that one.

In Hilo we're doing the Mary Lou tour. We will be bringing the wheelchair with us on that tour as they have room for it. I liaised with them by email and they were fantastic. Could not have been more helpful.

In Kauai we're doing tours through the ship and bringing the wheelchair with us. We're doing a movie tour on a bus and a river cruise on the second day.

We have four days in Honolulu post-cruise. We're going to Kualoa Ranch on one of the days and doing a bus tour of the movie sets. We'll be bringing the wheelchair with us there.

We've also booked a private tour to take us around to the surfing beaches on Oahu. The tour company is Private Tours Hawaii (www.privatetourshawaii.com) and I liaised with them by email about what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go. Their reviews on Trip Advisor were overwhelmingly positive (I just checked again - 98% positive!). It'll just be my mother, myself and the driver in the car on the tour so we're not expecting to have any problems with taking the wheelchair with us.

I know how difficult it is to organise what you want to do when there are mobility issues to think of. I'm hopeful that everything we've organised will work out okay and there won't be any problems.

Thank you so much, exactly what I was looking for. The Mary Lou tour in Hilo was on the top of my list. Private Tours Hawaii looks like a great fit. I was shocked that the "handicapped" tours were already sold out for a November cruise. After thinking about it, seeing how helpful crew have been on past trips (mostly Holland) I should not have been surprised. For Mom, it has been a good way to travel. Thank you again for sharing and hope all goes well for your plans. Denise

You too! I'm glad I was able to help. :)