Nissan Serena: A Rental for Family Trips in Okinawa

The slightly green Nissan Serena I drove around Okinawa

Haisai! I’m CULT.
Today’s Okinawa rental car review is the Nissan Serena. Up until early 2025, the Serena was the car I’d driven most often in Okinawa. Now it’s the Toyota Alphard. One advantage of the Serena is that it costs about the same to rent as the Toyota Voxy, but often comes with slightly better features. Well.. when you’re only traveling for a few days.. the difference in features doesn’t mean much anyway. Fuel economy is similar to the Voxy, it has a rear camera, and it’s perfectly fine for traveling.
One thing to mention upfront: the Serena has a particular vibration to it. I’ve driven four different versions of the Serena so far, and they all had it.

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Toyota Noah: A Family Minivan Rental in Okinawa

Traveling with family and carry-on suitcases in a Toyota Noah in Okinawa

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Voxy rental rates: Okinawa with a family of seven

A white Voxy parked at Umikaji Terrace at sunset

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White One car rental pickup: Finding your way from airport to return

Finding the rental car pickup point at Naha Airport, past the Shuri Castle picture

Once you’ve booked, you can have the car delivered free of charge in Naha or Tomigusuku. The company that manages this car is White One, and they’ve never offered an airport pickup service. They specialize in delivery instead!
If this is your second trip to Okinawa or beyond.. it’s an incredibly convenient service 😀
Or if you’ve.. traveled in Japan before. Used public transport there. If you have that kind of experience, you’ll find it really convenient too.

After arriving at Naha Airport, the quickest way to collect the car is to take the monorail to Akamine Station and receive it there. Sounds like a lot of trouble? It’s 5 minutes from the airport to Akamine by monorail 😀
These days, the monorail accepts.. Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, and credit cards. Just like taking the subway in Korea.. you can ride one stop and collect the car. Or take a taxi or public transport to your accommodation in Naha, drop off your bags, and arrange the handover in your hotel parking lot, Airbnb parking lot, or a paid parking lot.

If you’re staying in Naha on your first night or relaxing at a resort near the airport, this is quite a convenient system.

Here are the front seats. There’s quite a lot of space between the driver and passenger seats, enough to fit a suitcase in there.. I put my camera bag here while driving. You can’t see them in the photo, but the seats have small armrests.

Here’s the view from the left and right.
The features aren’t anything special, but it’s fine for traveling. The trip will be over before you’ve figured out all the features anyway..

Something like this?
When a car is loaded with features, there are buttons and switches all around the steering wheel. This Serena keeps it simple.

Here’s the charger. It’s Type-A.. With navigation and music on, my iPhone 16 Pro seemed to gain about 10% in 1 hour.. It’s slow.
As I always say.. even if they want to install something better.. apparently a lot of people take these things.

The Serena is bigger than a regular passenger car. Unlike a kei car or small car, you can’t see all around you with one turn of your head, so a rear camera is essential.

It’s a shame there aren’t any cup holders within my line of sight.
When I drive, I like to have a cup holder just at the edge of my vision. I can’t take my eyes off the road. Driving around Okinawa.. you’ll often feel like having an energy drink or something else to drink. For some reason.. driving after lunch makes me sleepy.. so I always have an energy drink after lunch.

Here are the second-row seats. Fold the armrest away and you get another seat in the middle. Come to think of it, this is an 8-seater, not a 7-seater. With 7 people aboard, the middle seat can serve as an armrest, cup holder, or drawer. There are sunshades too. Handy for pulling down when a baby is asleep in their car seat. Well.. summer in Okinawa was already winding down, but the midsummer sunshine here makes kids cranky.
I know this better than you do. Photographing babies every day.. has anyone dealt with it more than I have?

Here are the third-row seats.
There’s a spare headrest in the trunk. Put it in and three people can sit here. Looks a bit cramped..

The rear doors are power sliding doors. You can control them with the car key.
If your travel companions pop into a supermarket, the driver might need to pull the car out and come around, right? It’s handy when picking them up. Press the button and the door opens automatically. I’ve been looking at used cars in Korea lately.. why are power sliding doors so rare in Korea.. I suppose it’s a cultural difference.

Let’s look at the trunk. Being a minivan, it has a fairly roomy trunk to begin with. Capacity is similar to the Noah and Voxy I reviewed before. It’s smaller than the Alphard’s, though.

Basically, two 28-inch suitcases and that’s it. Or you can fit one 28-inch suitcase and up to 5 carry-ons.
The thing is.. as long as no one in your group causes trouble, 8 carry-on suitcases fit easily. Assuming nobody brings a 24-inch or 28-inch suitcase.

You can fit a bit more by using the golf bag compartment for suitcases. But that makes the game of Tetris a bit tricky. Assuming all 8 people bring one carry-on each, you could put any awkward items in that extra golf bag space.
And as I mentioned earlier, there’s enough room for a suitcase between the driver and front passenger seats, so that’s worth considering too.

I’ve driven Serenas a lot, so I know them well, and this one is the same. That slight vibration. It seems to be a recurring problem with this model. Still, it costs the same to rent as the Noah and Voxy, and the Serena has a few more features. This one is also remarkably clean for its mileage.

When you first drive it, take some time to get used to the brakes. With Nissan cars, you need to press the brake pedal a little deeper. Personally, I like Honda’s brake feel best, followed by Toyota’s, but after about an hour of driving, they all feel the same anyway.
When you first start driving, it’s worth deliberately pressing the brake pedal firmly to get a feel for it. Every Nissan I’ve driven has been like this.

The slightly green color is a refreshing change. A car for driving through nature?
The fuel economy isn’t particularly eco-friendly, though. It’s roughly on par with the Voxy and Noah (in other words, not great). But what can you do? For a fuel-efficient minivan, you’d need to move up to an Alphard, and those cost far too much to rent. Basically, the Serena, Noah, and Voxy are much cheaper to rent than the Alphard or Toyota Vellfire, so you don’t need to worry too much about fuel economy.

I used this car for 5 nights and 6 days.
Driving it alone.. the fuel bill -_-;;
For 8 people, piling into one car works out much better than splitting into two cars. Only one person needs to drive, too,

And it isn’t particularly difficult to drive. After driving Serenas all the time, my first time in an Alphard felt like.. wow, why is this thing so big? When I lived in Prague, my car was a little Fiat 500. One day a friend was going to Paris and wanted to borrow my car, so they left me their Mercedes-Benz S600.. The S-Class.. that car is huge. Even fully loaded with a surround-view camera, it was so hard to park. In Europe, unless you’re in a parking lot, it’s always parallel parking..
Well.. whether it’s a kei car or a Porsche, I’m someone who’s happy as long as it gets me around..

Something about the way it looks is so.. eco-friendly. I think that every time I see it..

I drove this car during the busiest period of my life in Okinawa, so the photos are a bit jumbled. It’s a decent car for a family trip.. but for someone traveling alone like me, a couple, or a family of three? I wonder if it’s a bit of a waste.

The parking brake is operated with the pedal on the left. As I keep saying.. in Korea, foot-operated parking brakes have mostly disappeared apart from delivery vehicles or buses? Vehicles like that. Apparently, a lot of people don’t even know what it is. So they press the accelerator with the parking brake still on.. and ask why the car won’t move.
The fuel door release lever is at the upper right in the photo. Pull it to open the fuel door.

Filling up. This car takes gasoline. In Japan, it’s called regular; in English, gasoline.

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How to Use Self-Service Petrol Stations in Okinawa

Before returning your rental car in Okinawa, you'll need to refuel. Today, let's learn how to use a self-service petrol station. It's not too difficult, so anyone can easily follow along.

I drove 340 km, and the fuel cost 5,067 yen.
I filled up with 29.98 liters.
That works out to 11.34 km/L. I used the highway between Naha and Bisezaki, so about 100 km was highway driving. The other 240 km was mostly urban driving around Naha and American Village. I know all the roads by heart.. and have a rough idea of where I’ll get caught at a light, so I can ease off the accelerator early. That’s how I got this fuel economy; yours will be much lower. The average on the dashboard was 8.2 km/L, so I suspect that’s about what you’d get.

When I first received this car, the estimated range was 550 km, but after I’d driven it, it changed to 706 km. Well.. I was driving alone, so the lighter load might explain it. In Okinawa.. there’s no need to rush behind the wheel like in Korea.. let’s take it easy. Always drive safely 😀

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NISSAN SERENA Rental Booking | Aosora Rent-a-Car

Booking Link

You can book through the Aosora Rent-a-Car website above.
Let’s crunch some numbers.. When I rented it, the car cost 7,500 yen per day, plus 2,200 yen per day for insurance, making 9,700 yen a day. For 3 nights and 4 days, the total comes to 31,300 yen. These were the rates when I used it in October 2025, calculated in 24-hour periods rather than calendar days. Aero K had recently launched its Cheongju–Okinawa route.. with a 6 a.m. departure.. so plenty of people who need a car early in the morning use White One too. So.. it’s a really good service for people who’ve traveled to Japan several times. Car delivery 😀

Choosing a car is one of the biggest issues when planning a family trip to Okinawa, so consider the Serena too. It seats 8, is inexpensive, and is surprisingly clean. With this much mileage, you’d usually expect some fading and wear.. but it’s been very well maintained.

There are also reviews of White One’s Voxy and Noah below, so I think comparing them would be worthwhile.
I’ll leave it there for now and be back tomorrow with more Okinawa travel information. Mata yasai