Do You Need a Car in Okinawa? Our First Hand Experience and Honest Advice (2026)

One of the biggest questions we had before visiting Okinawa was simple: Do you actually need a car in Okinawa? Is car hire a must-have, or can you get around without one? We’ve spent time in Okinawa both with and without a car.

And after spending time there as a family, my honest answer is……In most cases, yes! You’ll want a car in Okinawa. But it does depend on how you plan your trip.

If you’re happy to relax in your resort without exploring, or if you don’t mind shelling out for taxis to get around, you can enjoy Okinawa without a car. But I don’t think that would work for most families, and it definitely didn’t work for ours!

Here’s what we found, what worked for us, and when you might be able to skip it.

Heads up! This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click and make a purchase, I might earn a very small commission – at no extra cost to you. This helps to keep the blog going. Thanks for the support!

QUICK BOOKING BOX BOX:
Spoiler Alert: Having a car in Okinawa was the best decision we could have made, and we wouldn’t have had such an amazing time without one.
👉You can check prices and book car hire in Okinawa here
🎁 Use code THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK for an extra reader-exclusive discount

Why Okinawa is Different from Mainland Japan

If you’ve already spent some time in mainland Japan then you’re probably doing a second-take at the idea of needing a car! We’ve certainly never needed one anywhere else. Japan is notoriously easy to explore car-free, especially in the biggest cities of Tokyo or Osaka. Both cities (and other big cities in Japan) offer the benefits of:

• Excellent train networks
• Easy to use and affordable public transport
• Everything being fairly close together

Okinawa is the opposite.

• Attractions are spread out and to get to the best beaches you’ll need to drive a couple of hours out of the capital of Naha
• Public transport is limited (there is only a small monorail network in Naha, and then bus services)
• Many of the best places aren’t easily accessible without a car. This is particularly true if you want to explore the coastline.

For these reasons, and so many more, Okinawa feels much more like a road trip destination than a typical Japanese city. In fact, in this tropical paradise it’s very easy to forget that you’re even in Japan!

💡 So do you need a car?
Staying in Naha only? → You can manage without a car
Exploring beaches or the island? → You’ll definitely want one
Travelling with kids? → A car makes everything much easier

Our Experience of Driving in Okinawa

After extensive research, we decided to hire a car during our time in Okinawa. And it’s a decision we don’t regret because it made a huge difference to our trip. In fact, we ended up hiring our car again (and for more days that we’d originally planned) because once we’d tried exploring by car, we just couldn’t go back!

What surprised us

• Driving felt much more relaxed than mainland Japan and we actually all enjoyed being in the car and taking a road trip together. Especially because of the beautiful views!
• Roads were easy to navigate. And because they drive on the left hand side in Japan (the same as in the UK) the whole process felt really easy.
• Parking was generally straightforward, and in most of the places we went it was free, which was a very pleasant surprise! (There is some paid parking, expecially in Naha, but at the aquarium, most beaches, the American Village and malls we parked for free).

Why it worked so well with kids

• No waiting around for buses or overspending on taxis (a taxi to and from the beach in Naha would cost more than a day’s car hire!)
• Easy to carry everything you need for the day – we kept our beach supplies in the boot, so we always had them when we need them.
• Flexibility to change plans, important if the weather changes.

It gave us the freedom to explore at our own pace, which made the whole trip feel far less stressful.

Our First Hand Car Hire Experience

We found hiring a car in Okinawa as easy as driving in Okinawa. That is to say, very easy! It helps that we are from the UK, so we also drive on the left hand side of the road. That means getting the international driving license needed to drive in Japan was also very easy (you can read Driving in Japan: Rules and What You Need to Know as a Foreign Tourist for more information about the driving license you’ll need, as well as the road rules you have to follow).

We booked our car hire via Klook, paying around £50 per day for a compact car suitable for a family of four.As we are a family of four, that worked out at £12.50 per person, per day, and we couldn’t have navigated the island with a public transport/taxi combo for so little.

Hiring a car in Okinawa was a great experience, and I really recommend it. The car hire staff spoke English, making the transaction really easy, and couldn’t have been more helpful with added extras (like charger cables) and even offering really useful advice about the best beaches to explore.

If you’re travelling with kids, they also had car seats available.

Booking our car hire with Klook was both easy and affordable. We saved so much money having a car instead of using taxis and public transport to get around
👉You can check prices and book car hire in Okinawa here
🎁 Use code THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK for an extra reader-exclusive discount

Toll Roads and Petrol

I always try to be transparent and cover all the bases, so I wanted to mention that there can some hidden costs to consider. If you’re planning to drive in Okinawa, it’s worth knowing how toll roads and fuel work before you go, so that you’re not caught out.

Okinawa has a main expressway that runs from Naha up towards northern parts of the island, and it’s by far the quickest way to cover longer distances, especially if you’re heading to places like the aquarium.

You don’t have to use it, but we found it saved a lot of time, the roads were quiet and easy to drive, and it made longer journeys much more manageable with kids to be on one quick road straight to where we wanted to go!

Tolls are relatively reasonable. You take a ticket as you enter the express way then pay when you exit. For most journeys, you’re usually looking at:

• roughly ¥300–¥1,000 (£2–£6) depending on distance. To pay for this in cash, head to the gate with the green kanji above it, not the one with ETC above it (that one is for pre-paid cards, which our hire car didn’t have)

Petrol is easy to find, with plenty of fuel stations across the island, including near major roads and tourist areas. Most petrol stations pump the petrol for you in Japan, so you won’t even have to get out of your car!

A few things to know:

• You’ll need to return your hire car with a full tank (this is standard and checked when you drop it off)
• Fuel stations are usually well signposted, especially near the airport
• Prices are generally reasonable compared to the UK. We were driving all over the place, and for our 3 day hire, we ended up putting around £30 worth of petrol in the car.

Is Driving in Okinawa Easy for Families?

In our experience, yes! Driving in Okinawa feels really easy. Were big fans of road trips and have driven all over the world, but we found that the drivers in Okinawa were safe, considerate of other road users. The speed limits were very low (Mike says frustratingly so!) with the max speeds anywhere being 80km per hour, which only enhanced that feeling of safety.

Compared to driving in cities:

• The traffic felt lighter (unless you’re trying to get through Naha at rush hour, which is the only traffic we faced)
• Roads were less stressful, and generally more scenic and beautiful
• Journeys were straightforward. We used google maps to navigate and never took a wrong turn!

If you’re comfortable driving in the UK, you’ll likely find Okinawa very manageable.

Is Hiring a Car in Okinawa Worth the Cost?

For us, it was worth every penny. When you look at how much taxis cost on the island (spoiler alert: they’re expensive!) you’ll save so much money by hiring a car rather than using the combo of taxis and public transport that is the alternative.

When you also factor in the time you’ll save, the convenience, and the freedom and flexiblity car hire offers you, it more than made up fo the cost.

Without a car, we would have:

• Seen much less of the island
• Spent more time travelling on sweaty public transport with cranky kids
• Had a much more restricted itinerary

The best decision we could have made in Okinawa was booking our car hire with Klook.
👉You can check prices and book car hire in Okinawa here
🎁 Use code THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK for an extra reader-exclusive discount

Tips for Hiring a Car in Okinawa

If you decide to rent one, here are a few things we found helpful:

• Book in advance for better prices and to guarentee a car will be available. This is less important in the shoulder season, but in the summer the island is packed! Here’s that booking link again, if you need it.
• Choose a smaller car if you’re not confident driving abroad. These are easier to manouvre and easier to park.
• Check what insurance is included: often you’ll have to pay a little more for fully comprehensive cover, which we chose to do because it was worth it for the peace of mind in case something went wrong.
• Make sure you have the correct driving permit (if required). For UK drivers this means getting an international driving license, but this is easy and can be done in around 20 minutes! Read about this here.

Planning Your Okinawa Trip

If you’re still deciding how to plan your trip, you might also find these helpful:
🏖 Okinawa with Kids: The Ultimate Family Guide (2026)
🚗 Driving in Japan: Rules and What You Need to Know as a Foreign Tourist

Final Thoughts

Okinawa is one of those places where how you get around really shapes your experience. More so than anywhere else in Japan, in my opinion. We couldn’t have done half the amazing things we did without the freedom and flexibility that our hire car gave us. We saw dozens of beaches, and explored naything that looked interesting, often without a fixed plan!

If you want freedom, flexibility, and an easier time travelling with kids, hiring a car is one of the best decisions you can make. It turns Okinawa from a tricky destination to navigate into a relaxed, enjoyable family adventure.

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Heads up! This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click and make a purchase, I might earn a very small commission – at no extra cost to you. This helps to keep the blog going. Thanks for the support!