My daughter recently had a 2 hour session intended to determine if she was ready to take the DMV road test and, if not, what skills she needed to work on in order to be successful. She is a late driver (20) and is very conscientious but nervous, so we selected Aloha based on their philosophy of being nurturing, calm, and supportive. Her experience was quite literally the opposite. It was far more detrimental than helpful. She returned home from a two hour session stressed and physically shaking. To say she was traumatized is no exaggeration. Though their google reviews are good, there are yelp reviews that mirror her experience. A detailed list of her instructors behavior is below. -Instructor immediately made a racist comment when she entered the car -- "the only person to crash my car was an Asian girl" and proceeded to show her Polaroids of the accident. -Repeatedly tried to refer her to a man who could "get her a license outside of the DMV". -Constantly Grabbed the wheel when there was no need. -Shifted, Broke, and accelerated for her with no explanation and left her confused as it what she should do -- extremely unclear about instructions. -Randomly stopped at a store off of rt. 1 for 15 minutes to get a charging cord leaving her to wait in the car. -2nd racist statement when he returned he said "sorry it took so long, you know Mexicans". -Harsh tone/raised voice in inappropriate situations. -Encouraged other drivers on the road to make illegal/dangerous passes. -Instructed her to drive down lee chapel road to show her where the two SoCo students recently died. -Played Christian music the entire time, both distracting and potentially insensitive. -Generally unkind, unhelpful, and actively worsened her confidence in her ability to drive. The more I think about this, the angrier I get about this experience. I am convinced he was trying to make her feel like a far worse driver than she is to refer her to his sketchy friend for an illegal license. I did contact the owner and received a phone call two days later confirming that he had spoken with her instructor who confirmed "some" of what she reported. He was apologetic and agreed to refund our $150 fee and offered to personally give her a lesson. We declined. I am only writing this review to warn others. read more

My daughter just did driving classes with Kwasi and he was great always on time and got her lessons done quickly. She learned a lot and got her license sent from the dmv right after she finished her classes. Recommend highly read more

My daughter had a driving session with instructor Kwasi yesterday and it was terrible to say the least! He is very rude, yells at his students all the time (and justifies his behavior by saying "this will make you the best driver"). HE IS THE ONLY INSTRUCTOR AVAILABLE FOR FAIRFAX HIGH SCHOOL, so parents be aware! Kwasi was scheduled to start the session at 6:30 but was calling and texting us at 4 PM saying he has a window now and needs her to start earlier. She couldn't make it at 4pm, so we were rushed to start at 6 pm. She was home by 7:12pm, 28 minutes early. She returned home stressed and physically shaking. Below is someone's review on Google which describes pretty much what we went through! To add: Kwasi makes his students stop at the gas stations and cafes to go pee, shows gruesome printed pictures of crashes including people involved (does he have family's permission to show these pictures to strangers?!) "My daughter recently had a 2 hour session intended to determine if she was ready to take the DMV road test and, if not, what skills she needed to work on in order to be successful. She is a late driver (20) and is very conscientious but nervous, so we selected Aloha based on their philosophy of being nurturing, calm, and supportive. Her experience was quite literally the opposite. It was far more detrimental than helpful. "To say she was traumatized is no exaggeration. Though their google reviews are good, there are yelp reviews that mirror her experience. A detailed list of her instructors behavior is below. -Instructor immediately made a racist comment when she entered the car -- "the only person to crash my car was an Asian girl" and proceeded to show her Polaroids of the accident. -Repeatedly tried to refer her to a man who could "get her a license outside of the DMV". -Constantly Grabbed the wheel when there was no need. -Shifted, Broke, and accelerated for her with no explanation and left her confused as it what she should do -- extremely unclear about instructions. -Randomly stopped at a store off of rt. 1 for 15 minutes to get a charging cord leaving her to wait in the car. -2nd racist statement when he returned he said "sorry it took so long, you know Mexicans". -Harsh tone/raised voice in inappropriate situations. -Encouraged other drivers on the road to make illegal/dangerous passes. -Instructed her to drive down lee chapel road to show her where the two SoCo students recently died. -Played Christian music the entire time, both distracting and potentially insensitive. -Generally unkind, unhelpful, and actively worsened her confidence in her ability to drive. The more I think about this, the angrier I get about this experience. I am convinced he was trying to make her feel like a far worse driver than she is to refer her to his sketchy friend for an illegal license." We also contacted the owner, and he was actually very helpful and apologetic. He offered to refund the entire amount and suggested to set us up with another instructor from Aloha but we decided to go to a different driving school. read more

Pretty horrible experience. Would not recommend at all. Unkind and unprofessional instructor.

I am giving a one star as the instructor, Dave showed up on time I am an adult very experienced driver that has a valid license. I gave up driving after a medical procedure and felt I needed a refresher and confidence builder. I worked with Dave who constantly reminded me to stay away from any car in front of me as he complained about always needing brake relining. He was not satisfied with 2 or 3 car lengths behind a stopped car at a stoplight and wanted more distance than that while driving down the road. Dave stated that you should not use the brakes except occasionally. Brakes after all are expensive. He talked incessantly, mostly about the teenagers he taught and how the rich parents provided them with credit cards and during driving would go through fast food drive throughs ( treating Dave) on the parents credit card He clearly stated his preference for working with teens. I am in my 60s. He did not give any feed back except about the distance between his car and all cars in front of his car. Not one word of encouragement was ever given by this so called instructor. Not one word about anything except the need for distance between his car and cars in front of his. He did not offer anything that I was able to take away and use except his fear for his brakes. I cancelled my future appointments with Dave and will use another instructor for another school. I am hopeful that there will be feedback given and I can drive safely again, no thanks to Dave from Aloha Driving. I am looking for an instructor that actually instructs and I will never use Aloha again, nor will I recommend it to anyone! read more

When I was faced with the need to prepare my youngest daughter for becoming a licensed driver I found myself a little overwhelmed. Navigating through the DMV can be quite challenging and daunting as an overprotective father. So I chose to use a Driving school to tackle this chore and I landed on Aloha Driving Academy LLC. Aloha Driving Academy really lives up to their slogan "A Calm Learning Environment". My daughter's driving instructor, Bob, was and is a rare combination of providing authoritative instruction in a stress free laid back manner. My daughter was able to concentrate on driving and demonstrating the skills needed to drive on the road unsupervised. As a parent it can be a very stressful time turning over the keys of an automobile to a teenager with all of the distractions in today's social media/cell phone dominated world. Thanks to Aloha Driving Academy, my daughter is now a new but confident young driver! read more

I have three kids, age 25, 21 and 17. The first two received their licenses through Aloha Driving Academy and the third is currently enrolled. In my experience, this school is responsive and flexible. I had the first session scheduled immediately. The time and date were convenient for us and the instructor comes to our home. The times for rest of the sessions were agreed between the student and the instructor. We originally selected Aloha Driving Academy because all the older kids in the neighborhood used them, and I am happy to recommend them to others. I have been very pleased by the school and, most importantly, by the results. I have two good drivers and fully expect to have a third one soon. read more

Not impressed. They responded fast at first, but then after telling me they would contact their drivers to see if they could schedule my daughter, they never called back. I called again two weeks later. Again, they said they needed to message the drivers. I asked if they could call me back the next day and they agreed to do that. But they still never called back, plus the girl was rather rude the second time I talked to her. She was polite the first time, but after that it went down hill. Ended up going with someone else (Tala Driving School) who actually answered their phone, emailed, and called back. read more

Bad experience. Aloha Bob forgot to tell his instructor to pick up my son. So we waited. And waited. When I called to get an explanaiton, he wanted to reschedule to the next week. Sorry Bob, should have offered something up. Me and my kid lost time waiting for you. Your apology was weak. read more

Amazing teacher. Made driving improvement class interesting and passed by fast. I highly recommend going ahead with Aloha Driving Academy!

Terrible experience. My son took behind the wheel with this company, his instructor was Kwazi. The instructor was constantly grabbing the wheel while my son was driving - which I find unexceptable. I asked if they were about to hit something, he said no Kwazi just kept grabbing and yanking on the wheel, and not just to him but to the others in the car as well. After the course he passed and was given his paper to keep with the permit and told that the courts would contact him for the court date to receive his permanent license. We waited and waited thinking they were behind because of COVID, after 6 months my son checked on it and the DMV had no record that he had passed. Luckily he had the paper -after a very long day and a lot of searching on the DMV's part they finally found it - they told us the company never submitted the information to the right place. So, my son had been driving on an invalid license for 6 months! It is straightened out now. But I would not recommend this company to anyone. read more

It took over a week to get our first driving appointment, that was fine. The day of our 5 PM appointment with Bob I got a text 7 minutes before arrival time to say they were stuck in traffic, 21 miles away. At 6:20 I asked if I should assume the appointment was being rescheduled since it was an hour and a half late, pitch black outside, and raining at that point (I just didn't think those were the best conditions for the FIRST driving experience.) At 6:22 he replied to say they were 9 miles away, and they were in a location that wasn't even in line from where they were at 5PM. I expressed that I was disappointed and this was unprofessional. He offered me another appointment 5 days later and during school hours. That was it. He called awhile later making excuses about the traffic and how it wasn't his fault but again offering nothing other than the Tuesday during school hours. read more

Everything about this experience was good for my daughter and us parents. My daughter splits her time between two counties and so we were lucky to get Aloha Bob, who was able to accommodate my daughter's complicated schedule between Haymarket and Centreville. He kept us all informed via group texts of scheduling and areas to work on. My daughter said he was very nice, and very patient. She was a nervous driver, but has grown notably in the time she spent with Aloha Bob. I'd recommend Aloha based on our experience. read more

We had a fantastic experience! My daughter was able to start lessons the week we called and they were very accommodating with her school and work schedule. Ernest always showed up at the scheduled time, but on the rare occasion he was delayed he would text her to let her know. He was even willing to start very early on Saturdays before work. Ernest was a firm but fair instructor and when he said she was ready, we were all confident! Thanks, Ernest (and Nicole!). read more