Lanai Cat Sanctuary

[TXTortoise]

If you've never taken the 45 minute ferry over to Lanai and toured the cat sanctuary and then had lunch in town, I'd strongly recommend it....assuming you like cats. ;-)

https://www.ralphmawyerphotography.com/Travel/Hawaii/Cats-of-Lānaʻi-Hawaii-2019/

 

[triangulum33]

My wife loves cats and we took a day trip over with the kids as a birthday present to her in 2018. Its pretty cool what they do for humane treatment of the cats and as well as controlling the population on Lanai (they have no predators and were over-running the island impacting native species).
There is an amazing amount of cats and is amusing. I was pretty much done after 30 minutes, but the tour was about 2hrs, however. So you need to like cats. A lot.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Love this idea! We will be on Maui this summer. Can you provide info on the ferry? Do you need to rent a car on Lanai?

 

[triangulum33]

I booked through Lost on Lanai:
https://lostonlanai.com/

They provide island ferry, and bus ride from harbor to cat sanctuary. Service was very good. If you have time, check out Lanai City. Very pretty and locals are friendly.

 

[TXTortoise]

If doing this again I’d check out Lost in Lana’i.

We (2) did a shuttle to the sanctuary for $10 each, then shuttle to town for $10 each, then shuttle to ferry for $10 each. If we have four people next time it’s almost better to just rent a car for the day. New car rental options are suppose to be back in service this summer.

The ferry is easy. We just buy tickets the day before, pick them up at ticket office at 8:30 for 9:15 departure. Go into town early and eat breakfast at Sunrise Cafe or Down the Hatch.

Park in lot behind Wharf Cinema and get $5 credit with ferry ticket stub. Normally $10-$15/day.

 

[1Kflyerguy]

We visited the Cat Sanctuary last September while on Maui. We booked via Lost on Lanai in advance of our trip and they took care of everything. Made it very easy. Think they also have some other options to visit a beach or other parts of Lanai. I would use them again if we decide to go back.

 

[Denise L]

We are thinking about visiting the cat sanctuary on our upcoming trip. Resurrecting this old thread to find out if anyone has been there recently, and am wondering if things are different now post-pandemic. I think that booking the ferry will be easy, and am just looking for the simplest transportation to and from the Lanai harbor to the sanctuary. Do you tip the shuttle drivers?

 

[slip]

We are thinking about visiting the cat sanctuary on our upcoming trip. Resurrecting this old thread to find out if anyone has been there recently, and am wondering if things are different now post-pandemic. I think that booking the ferry will be easy, and am just looking for the simplest transportation to and from the Lanai harbor to the sanctuary. Do you tip the shuttle drivers?

We are all set for a day trip to Lanai in April. We have our ferry tickets booked and we reserved a car. They will pick us up at the dock. We will drive around, have lunch and explore the island. We also plan a stop at the Cat Santuary also.

Lanai is the only main Hawaiian island we haven't been to. We tried to plan it in several times but it just never worked out. It finally moved to the top of the list with this Maui trip.

 

[Denise L]

We are all set for a day trip to Lanai in April. We have our ferry tickets booked and we reserved a car. They will pick us up at the dock. We will drive around, have lunch and explore the island. We also plan a stop at the Cat Santuary also.

Lanai is the only main Hawaiian island we haven't been to. We tried to plan it in several times but it just never worked out. It finally moved to the top of the list with this Maui trip.

That sounds great! Who did you book a car with, and how much is the rental charge?

 

[slip]

That sounds great! Who did you book a car with, and how much is the rental charge?

We originally planned on staying a night there but the hotel rates are crazy. They all went up after Larry Ellison bought them all. So then we planned on doing a tour but we couldn't find any that were running. So we started looking for vehicles.

My wife looked around and we settled on 808 Day trips. They have different prices depending on the vehicle you choose. I think the prices started at around $175. We took a small SUV and the total was $210.

We will be taking our son and daughter, both adults, so we thought the SUV would be more comfortable.

 

[Denise L]

We originally planned on staying a night there but the hotel rates are crazy. They all went up after Larry Ellison bought them all. So then we planned on doing a tour but we couldn't find any that were running. So we started looking for vehicles.

My wife looked around and we settled on 808 Day trips. They have different prices depending on the vehicle you choose. I think the prices started at around $175. We took a small SUV and the total was $210.

We will be taking our son and daughter, both adults, so we thought the SUV would be more comfortable.

That sounds great. I may contact 808 to see what they would charge for a regular car. There would just be three of us in a car. I read that I need to text them our dates to get a quote. Taking shuttles would cost us at least $60 plus tips just to go to the sanctuary.

 

[slip]

That sounds great. I may contact 808 to see what they would charge for a regular car. There would just be three of us in a car. I read that I need to text them our dates to get a quote. Taking shuttles would cost us at least $60 plus tips just to go to the sanctuary.

Yes, they were very responsive for us. We are on Hawaii time so just keep the time difference in mind when you message them and hopefully they will be responsive for you also.

When were you going?

 

[Denise L]

Yes, they were very responsive for us. We are on Hawaii time so just keep the time difference in mind when you message them and hopefully they will be responsive for you also.

When were you going?

Hubby is thinking sometime between February 26 and March 10. I have a couple of Trilogy sails scheduled, so am thinking February 28, but am not sure what happens if the weather is miserable that day.

 

[slip]

Hubby is thinking sometime between February 26 and March 10. I have a couple of Trilogy sails scheduled, so am thinking February 28, but am not sure what happens if the weather is miserable that day.

We scheduled ours early during our trip so if the weather is bad we could reschedule.

If you do go Please post how it went for you. We scheduled ours over a month ago already.

 

[Denise L]

We scheduled ours early during our trip so if the weather is bad we could reschedule.

If tou do go Please post how it went for you. We scheduled ours over a month ago already.

I will definitely let you know how it goes if we make it there. I wanted to plan for the first week of our trip in case we need to reschedule, just like you are doing.

 

[slip]

I will definitely let you know how it goes if we make it there. I wanted to plan for the first week of our trip in case we need to reschedule, just like you are doing.

You'll have better luck with that too since we are only there for a week. Hopefully neither of is will need to reschedule.

 

[Denise L]

I heard back from 808 Day Trips with a Nissan car rental price of $188.29. I also heard back from Lanai Taxi and Alberta can transport us to and from the sanctuary for $80-100 cash. No payment upfront and easy to cancel or reschedule. My hubby is leaning toward the Lanai Taxi since we aren't planning to explore the rest of the island, and Lanai Taxi can take us to Lanai City for lunch if we want to do that before heading back to the harbor. I will sleep on it and decide what to do tomorrow.

 

[slip]

I heard back from 808 Day Trips with a Nissan car rental price of $188.29. I also heard back from Lanai Taxi and Alberta can transport us to and from the sanctuary for $80-100 cash. No payment upfront and easy to cancel or reschedule. My hubby is leaning toward the Lanai Taxi since we aren't planning to explore the rest of the island, and Lanai Taxi can take us to Lanai City for lunch if we want to do that before heading back to the harbor. I will sleep on it and decide what to do tomorrow.

Yes, we are going to see the ship wreck and then do a little drive before heading in for lunch. That's why we went with the rental. Either way, let us know how the trip goes.

 

[Denise L]

We booked Lanai Taxi (I have to remember to bring cash), and we booked the Lanai Ferry roundtrip over the phone, and they didn't require us to pay in advance. That was nice. The cancellation policy is 24 hours prior, not bad. I asked the concierge at the Westin about booking for us, and they required payment up front and have a 48-hour cancellation policy. Easier to book over the phone directly, and we have more flexibility. Hoping for decent weather next week, and will report back on our cat sanctuary visit!

 

[slip]

We booked Lanai Taxi (I have to remember to bring cash), and we booked the Lanai Ferry roundtrip over the phone, and they didn't require us to pay in advance. That was nice. The cancellation policy is 24 hours prior, not bad. I asked the concierge at the Westin about booking for us, and they required payment up front and have a 48-hour cancellation policy. Easier to book over the phone directly, and we have more flexibility. Hoping for decent weather next week, and will report back on our cat sanctuary visit!

Thanks for the update. Sounds like the weather may cooperate. Can't wait to hear your report.

 

[Denise L]

Update: At 9:00 AM today, we parked our car near the Lahaina Harbor for $30/10 hours and made our way to the ferry check-in. Agent said that the captain recommended that anyone who didn't need to go out today on the ferry should cancel since the winds would be picking up and travel through the channel would be very rough and they could not guarantee that ferries would be running to take us back to Lahaina later. This is not something we planned for at the last minute! We cancelled the ferry, called the taxi service to cancel, and called the parking lot place to ask for a credit/refund. Back at the resort now. We will schedule everything again for another day.

 

[slip]

Update: At 9:00 AM today, we parked our car near the Lahaina Harbor for $30/10 hours and made our way to the ferry check-in. Agent said that the captain recommended that anyone who didn't need to go out today on the ferry should cancel since the winds would be picking up and travel through the channel would be very rough and they could not guarantee that ferries would be running to take us back to Lahaina later. This is not something we planned for at the last minute! We cancelled the ferry, called the taxi service to cancel, and called the parking lot place to ask for a credit/refund. Back at the resort now. We will schedule everything again for another day.

Yes, it has been windy. We scheduled ours for early in the week just in case. Weather should be a little calmer at the end of April also.

Let us know if you get to reschedule. I'm waving at at you from our lanai on Molokai.

 

[Denise L]

Harbor Parking would only refund $20 of our $30 parking fee. If anyone knows of better/less expensive Lahaina Harbor parking, please let me know.

 

[Denise L]

I have checked with the Lanai Ferry the past two days since we cancelled our trip to Lanai on Tuesday 2/28. Both days (Wednesday and Thursday, today), the agent said that the captain was recommending that we don't take the ferry unless we have to. I also rescheduled my whale watch for today, although now it looks pretty calm out, so it probably would have been fine.

 

[slip]

I have checked with the Lanai Ferry the past two days since we cancelled our trip to Lanai on Tuesday 2/28. Both days (Wednesday and Thursday, today), the agent said that the captain was recommending that we don't take the ferry unless we have to. I also rescheduled my whale watch for today, although now it looks pretty calm out, so it probably would have been fine.

The joys of having to comply with the ocean. Better safe that sorry.