Tips for Travel to Hawaii in the Time of COVID
- 3/14/2021 UPDATE: As of April 5th 2021, Kauai is rejoining the Safe Travels pre-travel testing program for trans pacific travel. At that time they will no longer require the second COVID test.
After a year + in quarantine and doing our best to ignore travel vouchers and Facebook reminding us where we were 2 years ago, travel is slowly gearing back up.
For those of you who may be contemplating a trip to Hawaii, this post is for you. Nothing travel-related is quite as smooth as it used to be, Hawaii included.
For my Dad’s 80th birthday at the end of February, his one wish for the day was to be in Hawaii. The plan was just a hope last fall, but as Hawaii began easing up travel restrictions, we decided to go for it. So, my husband, my parents and I headed out for a 10-day vacation in Kona and Kauai. It took a fair bit of planning, be warned.
You can find all the information you need on The State of Hawaii’s website, https://hawaiicovid19.com/travel/, but that doesn’t make it necessarily straightforward or easy to find.
Basic Rules* (These rules apply to Adults and Children 5 years of age and older)
1. NEGATIVE COVID TEST
To avoid the mandatory 10-day quarantine, your negative COVID test from one of the State of Hawaii’s Trusted Testing partners, must be uploaded to the state of Hawaii’s secure site: https://travel.hawaii.gov/#/ PRIOR to landing in Hawaii.
The list of Trusted Testing Partners are on their website, and are categorized by where your flight originates, ie: arriving from the US Mainland, Japan, Canada, or Inter-Island flights. They are also categorized by airline, if that makes it easier for you.
Be careful when choosing your testing site! Make sure you have contacted the facility and confirmed their turn around times for your test result and the timing of your swab. With the test itself needing to be within 72 hours of your departure, make sure they will be able to get it back to you before you take off, keeping in mind weekend hours, cross-country lab delivery, etc. Do your research! Also, these tests can be pricy. The ones we ended up going with in Portland, OR, Smart Labs Now , were between $90- $105/person (depending on whether you went with a nasal swab or a saliva test), but did have a guaranteed turn around of 48 hours, which we received via email and were able to easily upload to the Safe Travels site.
2. SAFE TRAVELS Site
This negative test result must then be loaded on to the Safe Travels Hawaiian website. It wasn’t immediately clear to me on the main website that if you are island hopping, you MUST fill out an additional trip on the Safe Travels Website for each inter-island trip- EXCEPT for trips ending in Oahu. The trip must be created within 24 hours of your departure (can’t be before that as the health portion of the questionnaire will not populate and will not generate a QR code).
Once the negative test is uploaded to safe travels and the questions are answered, you will receive an email with a QR code that the Hawaiian Covid Customs will want to scan, along with your ID.
This process is fairly straightforward and applies to the main vacation islands: Maui, Oahu, Kona. Take the test before you fly, have the results uploaded to Safe Travels, receive QR code: all set.
Upon arriving in Kona, we all received another nasal swab prior to being able to collect our luggage. We were told we would be contacted in less than 2 hours if the swab was a positive result.
KAUAI:
- 03/14/2021UPDATE: As of April 5th 2021, Kauai is rejoining the Safe Travels pre-travel testing program for trans pacific travel. At that time they will no longer require the second COVID test.
Kauai has the strictest rules of all the islands. If traveling there you have three options to get through their COVID restrictions and onto the beach:
- If you have been in the State of Hawaii (ie. another island) for more than 72 hours, you are eligible to take an approved pre-travel test for inter-island travel to Kauai within 72 hours of arrival in Kauai.
- If coming to Kauai directly from out of state, you can take a pre-travel test, stay in a “Resort Bubble” for 72 hours or more, then take a post-travel test to be released from quarantine.
- Quarantine for 10 days upon arriving in Kauai.
Kauai takes all of this pretty seriously. We were taken aback upon disembarking at Lihue and being met by the National Guard, Air Force, Navy, Army, and local police all in their uniforms, reviewing our documentation. Seems a bit over the top just for travel rule enforcement.
The COVID tests we took in Honolulu to get to Kauai were $125.00/person. I went through the entire list of approved inter-county travel and the National Kidney Foundation of Hawai’i’s Consortium was our best choice, considering cost, location and turn-around time. All four of our results came back right around 3 hours, but from what I heard that is the absolute fastest they can result them.
A fellow traveler that I was chatting with on the flight said he took a rapid nasal swab from an urgent care in Honolulu (a trusted travel partner) that resulted in 10 min, but he paid dearly for the convenience, at a cost of $288.00. If the extra time requirements and expense of the additional testing is something you haven’t budgeted for, or you have a very large family, it is something to keep in mind.
Mask Rules/Covid Precautions:
While the Hawaiian islands are being extra careful with screening, it isn’t a free for all once you make it through. Businesses still require masks to be worn and while indoor dining is a thing, there is a much lower capacity. It was difficult finding dinner openings on Kona. Make reservations far in advance, or be prepared to wait or find an alternate location.
My Recommendation?
Hawaii is doable even with restrictions. Make sure you read all the fine print, plan your test(s) carefully once your flight is scheduled and make sure you know the specific rules unique to your particular island destination.
Changes to policies can be made overnight. Check The State of Hawaii website often if you have a trip planned and make sure you know if your tickets with your airline are flexible if anything changes. This post is not meant to be comprehensive, only a guide. Do your homework and be prepared for the time and expense.
We can all use a little more sunshine and aloha in our lives, it’s just requiring a little more of a luau to get there.
*At the time of publication of this post (03/07/2021), The State of Hawaii still requires a negative Covid test result from an approved source, resulted within 72 hours prior to arrival in the state to avoid a mandatory 10-day quarantine.
