As soon as we heard Hawaii was opening back up again to tourism we decided to book a last minute trip to Oahu. We visited last August and had a total blast. If you missed those posts or are somewhat new here you can check out some of the things we did here, here, here, and here. I also wrote a hotel review for where we stayed. Justin and I feel it’s a great location for a family vacation. We knew this trip wouldn’t be the same but we were still looking forward to getting away as a family. Because we just went through the process of preparing for our trip and just got back I figured I should share the process with all of you in case you’ve been considering traveling to Hawaii now that they’re back open or are just curious about the process or how safe we felt.
What you need to know before traveling to Hawaii:
1. You will need to register with https://travel.hawaii.gov/#/. Each adult family member will need to create an account and provide all travel information including flight info, hotel information or address of airbnb as well as upload some documentation prior to your flight. You will need to fill out a health form 24 hours before your flight and as soon as you receive your COVID test results you will need to upload them there as well.
2. You will need to get a COVID test no more than 72 hours before your flight to Hawaii. One this site they share the approved testing locations. You need to get a COVID test from one of the approved locations. We took our test at our local CVS. It cost $139 per test. Children under 5 do not need to take a COVID test. I will say I was super nervous about the test only because I was afraid it was going to be super uncomfortable but it was honestly a breeze. We took our tests in the car with the nurse on duty walking us through what we needed to do.
3. You will have to wear a mask for the entire flight. Unless you are eating or drinking; that is the only time you are able to sit without your mask on. We flew Southwest and they were providing water and a small snack packs only. We did pack a few snacks ourselves and so Mason has plenty to eat and in the end it didn’t feel like we were uncomfortable in our masks for to much of the flight.
4. Once your flight lands in Hawaii you will have to wait in a line to be processed. Plan on having a copy of your negative COVID tests as well as have your hotel information or lodging accommodations info handy in case they need it. We didn’t have any issues with our info being uploaded on the Safe Travels Site and didn’t end up needing to show our copies to them when we were checking in. They also do temperature checks as you get to the front of the line so if your temperature is above 100.6 I believe you will need to quarantine regardless of test results.
5. While Hawaii is starting to open back up some services are still not available. The spas for instance are not open yet and a number of restaurants or only open for take out only. We were able to find plenty of dine in options and felt super safe and comfortable everywhere we went.
6. Now is a great time to visit if you’re not into crowds. Even though our flight to Oahu was a lot more full than I wouldn’t have expected it to be the amount of tourist currently visiting is significantly less than normal (as to be expected). Hawaii is used to seeing 38,000 tourists arrive each day and right now they’re seeing about 10,000.
7. You will probably want to check with your hotel to see what amenities are open and which ones are still closed. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency this time since they were offering a killer deal for first responders. The restaurants didn’t open back up till half way through our trip and the pool restaurant and bar was still closed as well as the hot tub. But the Alohilani Hotel where we stayed last August had everything open except the aquarium bar. The spas as I mentioned above were still closed everywhere including hotel spas.
8. The hospitality was amazing! Everyone was so appreciative of us being there and the service was amazing. Not to say that it wasn’t amazing before (because it was) but you could tell each person we interacted with was so happy to have tourism back.
I hope you found these travel tips to be helpful and to put your mind at ease about traveling during covid-19 and especially traveling to Hawaii now that they have opened back up to tourism!
As always, thank you so much for stopping by the blog today!
