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Short answer: Any standard rental can drive to the Visitor Information Station at 9,200 feet. Above that point, rental agreements forbid driving to the summit.
This is probably the single most-restricted attraction for renters anywhere in Hawaii. Here’s exactly where the line is.
Your standard rental gets you to 9,200 feet, no problem
The Visitor Information Station (VIS) sits at 9,200 feet, reached by a fully paved road off Saddle Road (around mile marker 28). Any standard rental car handles this drive fine. It’s open daily, currently 9 AM to 9 PM, and this is where most visitors actually stop for sunset viewing and stargazing.
Above the VIS, the rules change completely
The summit road continues another 8 miles past the VIS, gaining another 4,600 feet, with sections unpaved and grades exceeding 15%. A 4WD vehicle with true low-range gearing is mandatory. All-wheel drive doesn’t count. More importantly for renters: most rental companies explicitly prohibit driving above the VIS at all, even in their own 4WD SUV models. Doing it anyway voids your coverage if anything goes wrong.
Want to go all the way to the summit? A permitted tour is the realistic way up for renters. This sunset and stargazing tour has run since 1983 and uses 4×4 vans to the summit, with a hot dinner at 9,200 feet and about 2 hours of stargazing with telescopes. It takes 7 to 8 hours, has about 700 reviews, and 94% of travelers recommend it.
See the Mauna Kea summit tour → (affiliate link)
How most people actually reach the summit
Since renting your way up isn’t realistic for most travelers, commercial summit tour companies using their own permitted 4WD vehicles are the standard route if you want to go all the way up rather than stop at the VIS.
- Check in at the VIS if you’re continuing on: it’s required for hikers and strongly expected for anyone heading to the summit by other means.
- It gets genuinely cold. Near-freezing temperatures at night are normal at this elevation. Dress like you’re leaving the tropics, because you are.
- Altitude affects people fast at this height: take it slow after the drive up, especially if you’re continuing higher.
Driving up via Saddle Road? See the Saddle Road rental car guide: a lot of what’s online about it being off-limits is years out of date.
Picking up your rental first? Start with the Kona Airport rental car guide.
Want to drive above the visitor station? See Big Island Jeep rental and the summit road.
Compare rental rates for your trip →
The summit observatories, reached only by permitted 4WD low-range vehicles above the Visitor Information Station covered in this guide, not by standard rentals. Photo: Generic1139, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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.