Hilo Charter Bus Rental FAQs
About Hilocharterbuscompany.com
Hilocharterbuscompany.com is an advertising and quote comparison website that lets you compare bus rental options and pricing from a network of bus companies serving Hilo through a national booking company. Instead of calling five different operators on the Big Island and waiting on callbacks, you fill out one quick form and see vehicles and prices from a whole network of providers in seconds. Hilocharterbuscompany.com is an advertising and referral website and does not own or operate any vehicles — it simply puts your trip in front of more options than you would ever find on your own, faster than any other way to search.
No — Hilocharterbuscompany.com is a comparison and referral website. What that means for you in practical terms is that you use it to compare vehicles and pricing from a network of independently owned bus companies serving Hilo and the Big Island, then book through a national booking platform. The transportation itself is carried out by those independent companies. Hilocharterbuscompany.com is the tool that gets you to the right vehicle and the right price quickly, without you having to track down every local operator yourself.
When you search on your own, you call one company, get one price, and hope it is competitive. With Hilocharterbuscompany.com, you fill out one form or make one call to 808-657-3240 and immediately see vehicles and pricing from a whole network of providers serving Hilo — more options and different price points than any single operator can offer. That means companies are competing for your booking instead of you settling for whatever one yard happens to have available.
Your time stays yours, and your group gets a better deal.
An independently owned transportation company serving Hilo and the Big Island. Once you fill out the quote form, you are taken to a national booking platform where you choose the vehicle that suits your trip. What you are selecting there is a vehicle and a price — not a company from a list.
The transportation company assigned to your booking is confirmed to you after the booking is complete, and they handle everything from that point forward.
Booking a Charter Bus
Fill out the form on this site with your trip details — or call 808-657-3240 — and you are taken straight to a search results page on a national booking company's website. That booking company partners with independent operators serving Hilo and the surrounding Big Island, and their platform shows you what is available for your specific date and route. From there, you choose a vehicle and a price and complete the booking directly on their site.
The whole thing takes minutes, and what you are picking is the bus that fits your group, not a company off a list.
Your pickup city, where you are going, how many people are in the group, and how many hours you need the bus. That gets you a quote. The more detail you add — your stops, your start and end times, how much luggage the group is bringing, and any amenities that matter — the more accurately the quote comes back and the better the match you will find.
If you are planning a multi-stop loop around the Big Island, lay out every stop with the request from the start.
Right away — there is no waiting on a callback. The moment you submit the form, you go straight to the search results page on the booking company's website and see quotes immediately. No inbox to check, no phone tag.
If you would rather go through it with someone live, call 808-657-3240 and a person will walk you through the options and help you find the best package for your trip.
The earlier the better for a popular date — a larger group or a specific vehicle type benefits from booking further out. That said, because Hilocharterbuscompany.com puts your request in front of a whole network of providers serving the Big Island rather than one operator with one yard, short-notice trips are often still workable. That is the real advantage of comparing a network instead of calling a single company and being told no.
Submit the request or call 808-657-3240 even on short notice — the worst outcome is finding out availability is tight, and the best is that a vehicle is ready to go.
All of those can be requested. Hourly or as-directed keeps the vehicle with your group for a block of time — great for events where the schedule is flexible or the group wants to move around. A one-way transfer moves everyone from one point to another, say from Hilo International Airport (ITO) to a resort in Waimea.
A round trip brings the group back to where they started. A multi-stop itinerary runs a set route with several stops — a brewery loop from Hilo to Volcano Winery and back, for example. A multi-day booking covers a trip that runs across more than one day, like a cross-island trip that starts in Hilo and ends in Kailua-Kona.
Which format fits comes down to your actual trip, and a multi-stop or overnight itinerary should be laid out in full with the request so it comes back priced correctly.
Charter Bus Pricing
A charter bus costs $205–$385+ per hour on weekdays, $225–$410+ per hour on weekends, and $1,650–$2,950+ per day. Those are real ranges — and pricing is not one size fits all. The type of bus, the date, the distance across the Big Island, and how busy that particular weekend is in Hilo all move the number.
The ranges are a starting point, not your price. To see what your actual trip costs, fill out the form and get pricing for your specific date in seconds, or call 808-657-3240 — going through the details with someone live can turn up packages and combinations that the form alone might not surface.
It depends on the trip, and all three are used. A short run of a couple of hours — say, a shuttle between Hilo International Airport (ITO) and a hotel on Banyan Drive — is usually priced hourly. A trip that covers real distance, roughly past the 100- to 200-mile mark or running cross-island from Hilo to Kailua-Kona and back, may carry a per-mile charge instead.
A long day, generally around eight hours or more, often comes back as a day rate rather than stacked hours, simply because the vehicle is committed for most of the day. Submitting your actual trip is what determines which structure applies — the booking platform prices it against the real itinerary.
Six things move the price: the type and size of bus, how long it is booked for, the date and the day of the week, the distance and the route, the number of stops, and how busy that date is locally. On the Big Island, cross-island routes along Route 11 or the Saddle Road add distance that a city-loop trip does not have — that is a cost factors unique to Hilo trips. As for what you can actually do about it: Sunday through Thursday prices lower than Friday and Saturday, and daytime trips cost less than those same evenings.
Booking the bus size your group actually needs beats over-booking capacity, and grouping riders into one or two pickup points instead of five cuts the hours on the clock. The Merrie Monarch Festival week and graduation season in May are the tightest stretches of the year in Hilo — book those dates as far ahead as possible.
About Charter Buses
A charter bus is a full-size passenger coach that a group hires for its own trip, with its own route and its own schedule, rather than riding a fixed public route. It is built for moving a large group over a distance in one vehicle, and it seats roughly 40 to 56 people depending on the make and model. The group goes where it needs to go, on the timetable it sets, without sharing the coach with anyone else.
On the outside, a full-size coach has a tall, rounded body with high windows running the full length of both sides and large luggage bay doors along the lower skirt. The exterior is usually finished in white, silver, black, or a solid color, though some coaches are wrapped in an operator's own graphics — so the coach that shows up may not always look identical to what you picture. Inside, the seats are forward-facing and arranged in pairs on either side of a center aisle, running from the front of the coach to just before the rear.
Seat fabric is cloth or leather depending on the make and model — a Prevost H3-45 or an MCI J4500 will typically have a more finished interior than an older regional coach. Overhead parcel racks run the full length of the cabin, and a restroom sits toward the rear. The ceiling is high enough to stand upright in the aisle.
Some of the amenities available on charter buses include reclining cloth or leather seats, individual climate controls, an onboard restroom, overhead parcel racks and undercarriage luggage bays, WiFi, power outlets and USB charging ports, a PA system with microphone, and flat-panel TV monitors. Features may include any combination of those depending on the make, model, and the specific vehicle — not every coach carries every option, and what a given bus has is confirmed during booking. If certain amenities matter for your group, note them with your trip details so the platform can narrow to vehicles that are actually equipped for what you need.
Generally 40 to 56 passengers, depending on the make and model, with 56 the most common build on a full-size coach. The MCI J4500 seats 56 as standard and is built for up to 60; the Van Hool CX45 is the same — 56 standard and up to 60; the Prevost H3-45 seats 56. Shorter 35-foot coaches seat closer to 44.
What changes the count on the same coach is configuration — extra legroom takes seats out, and a wheelchair position does the same. Because Hilocharterbuscompany.com works with a network of providers across the Big Island, the exact coach on any given trip depends on what is available for your date. Submit the trip or call 808-657-3240 if the group needs a specific capacity confirmed.
A 56-passenger coach runs 14 rows, with two seats on each side of a center aisle — forward-facing, paired seating, one aisle down the middle. The row count drops on coaches built with extra legroom or a wheelchair position, since those configurations trade rows for space. Some coaches also tier the front rows slightly higher than the rest of the cabin for sightlines, which matters on a Big Island trip where the views out the windows are part of the experience.
A full-size charter bus is 45 feet long and 8.5 feet wide. To put that in real terms, it is roughly three cars parked end to end — which is why it matters when you are thinking about a pickup at a tight venue entrance or a narrow road in Volcano Village. Shorter coaches exist, most commonly around 35 feet, and those have more flexibility on tighter routes.
The 45-foot coach is the standard full-size vehicle and the one most commonly available through the network.
A full-size charter bus stands about 11 to 12 feet tall depending on the model, and traffic engineers design overhead clearance for 12 feet. To put that in perspective, it is a little taller than a single story of a house. If your group is heading somewhere with a covered entrance, a low-clearance parking structure, or a canopy — something worth thinking about at some of Hilo's older hotel properties — the bus needs an open approach rather than a covered one.
WiFi is one of the amenities available on charter buses, and many coaches on the road are equipped with it. Whether a given vehicle has it varies — onboard WiFi is an equipment option a coach is built with, not something every coach carries. One thing worth setting expectations on honestly: onboard WiFi runs off a cellular connection and is built for light use across a full coach — phones, messaging, and browsing.
On the Big Island, cellular coverage along Route 11 through Volcano and on the Saddle Road (Route 200) can be intermittent in stretches, so a group counting on a strong connection for the whole cross-island run should plan accordingly. If WiFi matters for your group, note it with your trip details so the platform narrows to equipped vehicles.
Yes — an onboard restroom is standard on full-size charter buses and sits toward the rear of the coach. It is there so a group does not have to stop, and on a longer Big Island run — say, from Hilo to Kailua-Kona via Route 11 through Volcano, which can run close to two hours — having it on board makes a real difference. On a long run the trip is still usually planned with real rest stops, but the onboard restroom means those stops happen on the group's schedule rather than out of necessity.
Note it with your trip details if it matters.
Yes — charter buses are built with 110-volt AC power outlets, and coaches are commonly fitted with them at every seat, some with a USB port built into the same outlet. This is an equipment option rather than something every coach carries, so it varies by vehicle. In practical terms, a group can keep phones and laptops charged across a long cross-island run — which matters when the trip from Hilo to Waimea or Kailua-Kona takes an hour and a half or more each way.
Note it with your trip details if the group needs it, and the platform will narrow to vehicles that are equipped.
Yes — in two places. Overhead parcel racks run the full length of the cabin inside, and undercarriage baggage bays run beneath the coach on both sides. A full-size coach carries roughly 460 cubic feet of underfloor baggage space and around 100 cubic feet in the overhead racks.
Across a full 56-passenger load, that works out to roughly 8 cubic feet per person underneath and under 2 cubic feet overhead — in practice, about one checked-size bag each below plus one small carry-on above. What changes it: a coach fitted with a wheelchair lift gives up some baggage bay space, and bulky gear like surfboards, dive equipment, or sporting gear for a UH Hilo Vulcans road trip takes the space of several bags. Those items are worth stating with the trip details so the right coach is matched to the group from the start.
If the group is heading to a trailhead at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park with packs and gear, or flying out of Hilo International Airport (ITO) with full luggage, lay it out in the request and the platform will find the vehicle built for it.
Charter Bus Service in Hilo, Hawaii
The network serving Hilo handles a wide range of trips. Airport transfers to and from Hilo International Airport (ITO) and Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport (KOA) are among the most common. Corporate travel and employee shuttles move teams between offices, hotels, and event venues across the Big Island.
Weddings and private events use guest shuttles between hotel blocks and venues. Concerts and sporting events at venues like the Edith Kanakaʻole Multi-Purpose Stadium and the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium bring groups in from across the island. School and church group trips — field trips, team travel, retreats — run regularly across East Hawaiʻi.
Government and military moves are handled through the same network. Brewery and winery tours looping from Hilo to Volcano Winery or across to Kona Brewing are a popular group outing. Prom and homecoming for East Hawaiʻi school districts runs every spring.
And long-distance trips across the Big Island — or to the airport for inter-island connections — are a routine part of what the network covers.
The network covers Hilo and the surrounding East Hawaiʻi region, including Keaʻau, Pahoa, Mountain View, Kurtistown, Volcano, and the Puna district to the south. To the north, service runs along Route 19 through Hakalau, Honokaa, and Waimea (Kamuela). Cross-island service reaches Kailua-Kona and the South Kohala resort corridor.
Those are examples, not the full coverage area. Enter your full route in the quote form or call 808-657-3240 to check a city or destination that is not listed here.
The single busiest stretch of the year in Hilo is Merrie Monarch Festival week — held the week after Easter each April at the Edith Kanakaʻole Multi-Purpose Stadium (350 Kalanikoa St, Hilo, HI 96720). The world's premier hula competition draws thousands to the Big Island, and every available vehicle in East Hawaiʻi gets taken early. Book that week as far ahead as possible.
King Kamehameha Day (June 11) and the surrounding parade weekend in downtown Hilo is another high-demand date. UH Hilo commencement in mid-May and East Hawaiʻi high school graduation season in May and June fill the market fast, as does prom season across Hilo High, Waiākea High, and Keaʻau High in April and May. New Year's Eve spikes demand island-wide.
The Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona each October pulls groups from the Hilo side who need cross-island transportation. Short-notice requests on other dates are still worth submitting — the network is larger than any single operator, and availability often exists where one company alone would tell you no.
Planning Your Hilo, Hawaii Charter Bus Trip
The network serves both airports that matter for Big Island travel. Hilo International Airport (ITO) (2450 Kekūanāoʻa St, Hilo, HI 96720; (808) 961-9300) is the closest, roughly 3 miles from downtown Hilo and about a 10-minute drive. Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport (KOA) (73-200 Kupipi St, Kailua-Kona, HI 96740; (808) 327-9520) handles more mainland direct flights and sits approximately 87 miles from Hilo — about 1 hour 30 minutes via the Daniel K. Inouye Highway (Saddle Road, Route 200) or 1 hour 45 minutes via Route 11 south.
Groups flying into KOA and heading to Hilo-side resorts or events regularly book a cross-island transfer. At both airports, the coach meets the group outside the terminal at the spot that airport designates for buses and larger commercial vehicles, following that airport's own ground transportation guidelines. Gather everyone and all luggage before calling for pickup so the bus can pull straight to the curb and load without circling.
The network covers the real venues where events happen in Hilo. Edith Kanakaʻole Multi-Purpose Stadium (350 Kalanikoa St, Hilo, HI 96720; (808) 961-8720) is the Big Island's largest event venue and the home of the Merrie Monarch Festival each April. Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium (323 Manono St, Hilo, HI 96720; (808) 961-8720) hosts UH Hilo Vulcans basketball and community events.
Dr. Francis F.C. Wong Stadium (260 Kalanikoa St, Hilo, HI 96720) is home to UH Hilo Vulcans baseball. For game days and major events, traffic on Kalanikoa Street and the surrounding corridors changes significantly — build extra time into your schedule on event days and note the event with your trip details so the timing is built in correctly from the start.
The network covers Hilo's real event and meeting venues. The Hilo Hawaiian Hotel (71 Banyan Dr, Hilo, HI 96720; (808) 935-9361) and the Grand Naniloa Hotel (DoubleTree by Hilton) (93 Banyan Dr, Hilo, HI 96720; (808) 969-3333) both host conferences and receptions on Hilo Bay's Banyan Drive corridor. The East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center (141 Kalakaua St, Hilo, HI 96720; (808) 961-5711) handles arts events and community gatherings.
Wailoa Center (200 Piopio St, Hilo, HI 96720; (808) 933-0416) hosts state-sponsored events in the Wailoa River State Recreation Area. Larger venues have designated loading areas separate from the main entrance — for a repeat shuttle between a hotel and a venue, lay out the full schedule and the number of runs with the request so it comes back timed and priced correctly.
Yes — any wedding venue in the area. Hilo and the surrounding East Hawaiʻi region have a real range of ceremony and reception settings. The Hilo Hawaiian Hotel (71 Banyan Dr, Hilo, HI 96720) and the Grand Naniloa Hotel (93 Banyan Dr, Hilo, HI 96720) sit right on Hilo Bay with waterfront ceremony space.
Volcano House (1 Crater Rim Dr, Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, HI 96718; (808) 756-9625) hosts weddings about 30 miles south of Hilo via Route 11 — a stunning setting that requires a real drive for guests. Kalani Oceanside Retreat (12-6860 Kalapana-Kapoho Beach Rd, Pahoa, HI 96778) is roughly 25 miles from Hilo in the Puna district. The most common setup is shuttling guests between a hotel block on Banyan Drive and the ceremony or reception venue — give the exact venue address with your request and the right vehicle gets matched to the route from the start.
The network covers the real schools and campuses in Hilo and East Hawaiʻi. University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo (UH Hilo) (200 W Kāwili St, Hilo, HI 96720; (808) 932-7900) is the Big Island's four-year university, with athletics and campus events that regularly need group transportation. Hawaiʻi Community College (HawCC) (1175 Manono St, Hilo, HI 96720; (808) 974-7611) is nearby.
In the K-12 system, Hilo High School (556 Waiānuenue Ave, Hilo, HI 96720), Waiākea High School (155 W Kāwili St, Hilo, HI 96720), Kamehameha Schools Hawaiʻi Campus (1620 Kaumana Dr, Hilo, HI 96720; (808) 935-9161), and Keaʻau High School (16-725 Keaʻau-Pahoa Rd, Keaʻau, HI 96749) all run field trips, team travel, and event transportation through the year. Field trips and team travel typically pick up at the school or campus itself; campuses have designated bus loading zones, and student trips should include the exact headcount plus any chaperone or accessibility needs with the request.
The Big Island has a genuinely interesting circuit for a group brewery or winery tour. Hilo Brewing Company (275 E Kawili St, Hilo, HI 96720; (808) 934-8211) is the starting point for most Hilo-based tours, with a taproom on site. Volcano Winery (35 Pii Mauna Dr, Volcano, HI 96785; (808) 967-7772) is about 30 miles south via Route 11 — macadamia honey wine and fruit wines in a setting near Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, roughly 45 minutes from Hilo.
For groups willing to cross the island, Big Island Brewhaus in Waimea (64-1066 Mamalahoa Hwy, Kamuela, HI 96743) is about 55 miles via the Saddle Road, and the original Kona Brewing Company (74-5612 Pawai Pl, Kailua-Kona, HI 96740) is roughly 87 miles. For downtown Hilo nightlife, the corridor along Kamehameha Avenue and Keawe Street — including the Palace Theater Hilo (38 Haili St, Hilo, HI 96720) for live events — is where most of the action concentrates. Note that Hawaii has no casinos — gambling is prohibited statewide, so there are no casino stops to add to a Big Island itinerary.
For a multi-stop tour, list every stop and how long the group plans to stay at each one so the hours come back priced correctly.
Yes. The most common long-distance runs from Hilo are cross-island: Hilo to Kailua-Kona is approximately 87 miles and runs about 1 hour 30 minutes via the Daniel K. Inouye Highway (Saddle Road, Route 200) or 1 hour 45 minutes via Route 11 south through Volcano. Hilo to Waimea (Kamuela) is roughly 55 miles and about 1 hour 15 minutes via Route 19 north.
Hilo to Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is about 30 miles and 45 minutes via Route 11 south. Hilo to Pahoa is roughly 25 miles and 35 minutes via Route 130. Because Hawaiʻi is an island state with no land connection to other islands, truly inter-state or inter-island travel requires air — the bus gets the group to Hilo International Airport (ITO) or Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport (KOA) for the flight.
Long-distance and cross-island trips are usually booked as one-way transfers or multi-day trips rather than by the hour. Lay out the full itinerary with the request — every stop, the overnight plan if the trip runs more than one day, and the return route — so it comes back priced correctly from the start.