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Short answer: The old ban is out of date. Saddle Road is now a modern paved highway, and most major rental companies allow it. The Mauna Kea summit road above the visitor station is still off-limits.
A lot of what’s online about Saddle Road is years out of date. Here’s what’s actually true now.
The old rule, and why it existed
For years, nearly every major rental company banned their vehicles from Saddle Road (Highway 200, officially the Daniel K. Inouye Highway) outright. The road connecting Kona and Hilo through the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa used to be narrow, poorly paved, and genuinely rough. The ban was a reasonable response to real road conditions, not just liability paranoia.
What’s actually true now
Saddle Road has been substantially rebuilt and repaved over the past couple of decades. It’s now a modern, smooth two-lane highway with real shoulders, and the old blanket ban has been dropped by the large majority of rental companies, standard sedans, not just SUVs, handle it without issue. The confusion persists mostly because old forum posts and blog answers from a decade-plus ago are still indexed and easy to find.
Still worth checking directly
Policies vary by company and can change, and this is exactly the kind of restriction that’s worth a quick confirmation call rather than trusting any single source, including this one. It genuinely takes 30 seconds to ask when you pick up the car.
- The road itself is not the same as the summit road above it. Saddle Road being open to rentals says nothing about the separate, still-restricted road above the Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station: that ban is real and current.
- It’s the shortest route between Kona and Hilo, at roughly 1.5 to 2 hours depending on conditions, genuinely faster than either coastal alternative.
- Fuel up before you go. There’s essentially nothing along the route itself once you’re past the edges of town.
Picking up your rental first? Start with the Kona Airport rental car guide.
See Hawaii News Now’s 2026 update on the Daniel K. Inouye Highway repaving for the current state of the road and ongoing safety work.
Wondering how Saddle Road fits into a full island loop? See how long it takes to drive around the Big Island for the full picture.
Driving on to the volcano? See Crater Rim Drive and Kilauea Overlook for what’s open and the entrance fee.
Want to drive to the summit? See the Kona Jeep companies that allow the Mauna Kea summit road.
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Photo: Daniel Torobekov on Pexels.
Researched and written by Neo Pecorro. Facts on this page were checked against the sources linked above. Hawaii rules change often, so confirm on the official page before you go.
Last updated: September 7, 2026.