Hawaii is moving forward with plans to expand visitor fees at state parks and trails, marking another shift in how non-residents experience the islands. A new proposal would allow the Board of Land and Natural Resources to expand visitor fees beyond the ten parks that already charge nonresidents for entry or parking.
This development raises key questions: Which parks might be added? How will these changes impact travelers? And what does this mean for the broader trend of rising costs for Hawaii visitors?
One longtime visitor put it bluntly. Don said, “Sorry, Hawaii did this to itself. With hotels, taxes, car rental fees, and now visitor fees all rising, some businesses will slow down or even close. The experience just won’t be worth the cost anymore. Back in 2009, you could book a week at an oceanfront hotel with airfare for under $800. Now, it’s just pure greed.”
The push for more visitor fees.
The proposed expansion is part of Senate Bill 439, which recently advanced in the Hawaii Legislature. If passed, it would allow the Board of Land and Natural Resources to expand entry and parking fees to more state parks and trails that currently do not charge nonresidents.
This follows an existing system in which nonresidents pay fees at ten Hawaii state parks. In some cases, visitors also need advance reservations. Meanwhile, Hawaii residents remain exempt from these charges and continue to access these locations for free.
Currently, the following ten state parks require nonresident fees:
- Diamond Head State Monument, Oahu
- Waiʻānapanapa State Park, Maui
- Waimea Canyon State Park, Kauai
- Haʻena State Park, Kauai
- Kōkeʻe State Park, Kauai
- ʻĪao Valley State Monument, Maui
- Mākena State Park, Maui
- Hāpuna Beach State Recreation Area, Hawaii Island
- Akaka Falls State Park, Hawaii Island
- Nuʻuanu Pali State Wayside, Oahu
State officials are evaluating additional locations for inclusion in the visitor fee system. The five parks currently under review include:
- Kua Bay (Kekaha Kai State Park), Big Island
- Rainbow Falls (Wailoa River State Recreation Area), Big Island
- Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park, Big Island
- Wailua River State Park, Kauai
- Puʻu ʻUalakaʻa State Wayside, Oahu
These locations were identified based on visitor volume and the feasibility of establishing a fee collection system. If approved, they would join the existing ten parks requiring nonresident fees.
The broader impact on Hawaii visitors.
Rising travel costs in Hawaii have been a persistent concern widely mentioned in comments here, and this expansion of park fees fits into a larger pattern of increasing visitors’ expenses. Between hotel resort fees, higher car rental taxes, and rising airline prices, the cost of a Hawaii vacation continues to climb.
For some travelers, adding more park fees may feel like another expense tacked onto an already costly trip. Others may see it as a necessary contribution to preserving the natural beauty of Hawaii’s landscapes.
Readers have weighed in on similar fee-related topics before. One commenter, Lisa, shared her perspective: “I understand why these fees exist, but it’s getting harder to plan a trip without feeling nickel-and-dimed. It would be nice to know exactly how the money is used.”
On the other hand, a frequent Hawaii visitor, Mark, wrote, “I have no issue paying if it helps keep these parks well-maintained. The question is whether the funds are really going toward conservation or just filling budget gaps.”
Lastly, Sarah said, “Absolutely crazy! Maui and Hawaii in general have priced me out. I’ll go to many other places that don’t charge visitor fees at every turn. I just don’t feel welcome in Hawaii anymore.”
Hawaii’s visitor fees in a global context.
Hawaii is not alone in turning to visitor fees to manage high-impact tourism. Popular destinations worldwide have implemented similar measures to balance tourism and conservation.
Marianne questioned, “I’ll eat my hat if any of these visitor fees are used for environmental preservation. They all end up in general revenue. These fees are a newly discovered cash cow, and you can bet they will be milked for all they’re worth.”
Venice (Italy), which has been in the news this week, has introduced an entry fee for day-trippers to offset the huge strain of mass tourism. Barcelona has raised its tourist tax to address overtourism pressures, and national parks in the U.S. have gradually increased fees to manage visitor impacts.
With Beat of Hawaii’s upcoming coverage on overtourism in Europe, a key question will be whether Hawaii’s approach aligns with these global trends or if the islands are taking a different path. Unlike cities like Venice, which have a centuries-old infrastructure struggling under the weight of modern tourism, Hawaii’s challenges come from preserving fragile ecosystems and maintaining visitor experiences.
Mickey commented, “As a Hawaii visitor almost every year for over 50 years, I feel the impact of all these visitor fees—they are outrageous! Don’t blame visitors for overbuilding. The people of Hawaii need to address the root cause of the problems they have. It isn’t just the tourists.”
What’s your take on Senate Bill 439? We invite your comments.
Lead Photo Credit – Beat of Hawaii at Waimea Canyon, Kauai, from the Waipo’o Falls trail.
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What is with the new and expanding junked car pile, going north to Lahaina near Olowalu, near mile markers 13 and 14? Visitors who use this beautiful area are NOT the people abandoning their rental cars!
Fees collected for extras should be used to clean up this area which is growing.
Way to go Hawaii keep killing that golden goose, then what? Spoiler alert no biotech company or industry is ever going to setup in the islands, you are a tourist economy and if you keep blowing it you will send most of your people to the unemployment line!
Yeah, I won’t be visiting any locale that requires visitor fees, certainly not like the ones being implemented. Here in SoCal, a big tourist area, we do not charge tourists extra. If there’s a parking fee to use the beach, for example, Everyone pays it, or no one, depending upon the area and the attraction. I understand that Hawaii is a bit different and faces a number of challenges, but overcharging the Golden Goose isn’t the way to do it. Maybe voting out politicians who don’t have the states’ best interests at heart might be a start. Maybe not approving mammoth resorts instead of reasonably priced housing and upgraded schools would be another.
In just a few weeks, my wife and I are heading for Hawaii (Oahu, Big Island, and Maui). Unfortunately, this will be our last trip because we don’t like being taken advantage of, and these fees and all the add-ons for a rental car, are the definition of being taken advantage of. My wife was born in Hawaii and I spent over 9 years living there. We love the state but I’m not feeling the love in return. The South Pacific and Europe are calling for us. Good luck Hawaii. You’ll need it.
We went to Tahiti Christmas of 2023. It was wonderful. I’d really recommend it. We bummed around Papeete and then took a Windstar cruise, flying United Polaris both ways. I actually want to return there more than Maui, and I love Maui. Apart from airfare, it wasn’t drastically more expensive than a premium Hawaii experience. I would recommend spending extra for the premium seats if you can afford to depending upon where you’re flying from.
This is what kids do—they don’t know how to clean up the mess they’ve made, so they point fingers at the easiest and nearest target. Logic and planning don’t factor into it. Blaming the tourists is the easy way out—fortunately we can vote by taking our vacation money elsewhere.
It is the Aloha Spirit in action.
Funny that the preceding article was about airline greed and how traveling to HI is no longer what it used to be. Airlines ain’t the only greedy.
Our visits to Maui and Kauai have not been as much fun these past few years because of these fees and requirements. Forcing visitors to make paid reservations for parking and entry (which become available exactly 30 days in advance, on a website) can be quite frustrating, and it really reduces my enjoyment of the travel experience. We used to love wandering around the islands, but for the past few years we have just felt as if we had fewer options for spontaneous discoveries, while being increasingly regulated and overcharged. Honestly, we might as well stay home if we can’t park and/or visit the places we’d love to try because we don’t have advance reservations. Very frustrating.
I have never seen a state more in need of the Doge treatment, Hawaii is becoming a joke.
Hawaii is so far left it is insane.
You are so right I Guarantee you Elon would find huge waste and corruption here. I moved to Maui 8 years ago. And I have seen so much corruption in politics nd fees while the polticians give themselves raises and people have no recourse.
The taxes are insane.
The roads are not maintained except by the mega resorts.
The locals are being ripped off.
On and on…
Maui leadership is corrupt to the core across the board.
I don’t see a problem charging for state parks, here in NH you have to pay to get in, unless you have a special license plate the benefits the state parks.
I don’t see a problem with charging an entry fee to state parks either, but it should be charged to everyone, not just non-residents. Where I live, residents aren’t exempt from paying the fees.
During Covid, the Kauai mayor said he didn’t want coupon clippers on his island. The current governor says he wants high end tourists. News flash: those coupon clippers are the ones that save for years for their once in a lifetime trip to Hawaii. They are the ones who would spend the most because it’s probably their only trip here. Price them out and what’s left? High end tourists, who probably don’t spend their money at small local shops.
Fees do not go to maintain the parks. Take Waimea Canyon on Kauai. Visited 2 years ago. Parking & entrance fees, but the rest rooms were pig stys. Literally filthy. Handicapped bathroom also filthy. Living in Volcano on Hawaii Island, we do not get the tourist dollars that even Kona gets. Charging a parking fee at Rainbow Falls, for basically a 15 minute stop? Cruise ship excursions are even getting out of hand because vendors have to add these fees. Sorry, when you eat into tourist dollars with these petty fees, they stop coming & local businesses suffer. Our politicians have lava where their brains should be.
Hawaii is not the only tourist haven that is imposing fees to visit & enjoy the islands. Places like Kyoto Japan, Barcelona Spain, Venice Italy, to name a few are having to impose fees or limit the number of people visiting popular sites to balance the residential populations & the increased numbers of visitors.
This is, perhaps, a trend or beginning of world wide awareness where tourist will have to pay for visiting to balance the local communities that want less of a tourist imprint.
I have been to all those places and the fees actually goes to the sites…not so the politicians can get a pay raise. Their fees are reasonable (not like Hawaii where you pay per car And per person) and these places don’t force you to make reservations and pay in advance for someplace you can’t enjoy if it’s raining.
Remeber, residents of these countries Also have to pay! I think that is what upsets many visitors to Hawaii is being treated as a cash cow.
These fees are getting ridiculous! Any other state I have visited, the residents also had to pay to use the parks…they may get a discount, but they still had to pay. Many of these fees you have to make reservations days if not weeks ahead of time…I don’t want to reserve and pay for a beach and it’s raining on that day. People come to Hawaii to relax…not have to schedule every day. I work on the islands every year but am not a resident, I rarely plan in advance because it depends on the weather, what work was like the day before, how well I slept and what I may feel like doing (hike, body surf, snorkel etc). I may not come here any more if I can’t enjoy Hawaii on my days off.
Unfortunately the adults have left the state in terms of being finically responsible with taxes and fees. With mismanagement of taxes they assume there is a bottomless wallet that visitors have and are willing to pay. I will vote with my dollar and take it elsewhere. Too bad as my wife’s grandparents were born there. I love you Hawaii but your becoming unaffordable.
I’m with Marianne, I’ll eat my hat too if the gov’t uses those fees for up-grading and protecting the environment. I’m sure the legislature will find a ‘better use for them’. I’ve referred to visitors before as the ‘cash-cow’ of HI economy, and this just reinforces it. But, with only the visitors paying these fees, the inference is that only the visitors cause damage when they visit the islands and the locals, when they go places like parks and beaches, don’t??? But the visitors pay the whole bill via fees??? That’s a clever perspective!
In the end, visitors will still be viewed as ‘the problem’ and locals as the victims. Just keep in mind, locals, that your government encouraged all this tourism as a way to ‘build’ HI, and gain additional income. Now you have to live with all those big hotels that support the very ‘problem’ you hate to love, tourists and their dollars.
So the question is: “Will the new State fees for the Hawaii State Parks affect vacation choices and drive tourists to spend their dollars elsewhere?”
Add that to the gutting of the National Park Service Employees by the current administration making Hawaii’s National Parks even more crowded, or even at all available?? Are Volcanoes Park or Pearl Harbor also on the block??
It’s looking like a large percentage of the reasons people go to Hawaii are going to be even harder to access and enjoy, if at all. Less hours, less staff, and more fees from both State and Federal?
Death by a thousand cuts come to mind. Truly sad to see such treasures so maligned. They belong to all of us and should be revered and protected.
California has an extensive state park and beach system heavily used by millions of residents and out of state visitors. Locals and out of state visitors pay the same entrance and parking fees.
But Hawaii politicians don’t want local voters to have to pay anything for upkeep of parks or the soon to be raises for the governor and others. Let the scum outsiders pay.
Years ago, when traveling up the ‘left coast’, I stopped at a couple of Oregon state coastal parks to camp. As an out-of-state person, I had to pay a fee, but locals paid nothing, or a reduced fee. So, in some ways, HI is just catching up to a trend that other states in the ‘lower 48’ have been doing for years.
California residents pay the same rate as visitors to access public lands. As a tourist to Hawaii, these fees/reservations always make me feel unwelcome. There is already a massive cloud of hate toward tourist from residents. The fees/reservations make that cloud darker.
Thanks Rob and Jeff. I just disclosed some rates as when I was shopping for rates. My package 2007 $1850 7 days 6 nts with airfare at the Miramar 2 adults 2 kids with airfare from westcoast 2008 same hotel 8 days 7 nights with airfare $1625. 2009 Ohana East 7 days 6 nts $1200 with $250 delta airline credit per person applied. When I was a child my dad paid $347 for 7 days 6nts with airfare in 1968 to stay at the Royal Hawaiian Resort Hotel. Back when Hilton Hawaiian Village was only the rainbow tower. The only thing that has never changed in 40 years is the rainbow on the tower. Diamond Head, Fort Derussy Sunset Beach, North Shore, the lagoon, and the smell of Lei Flowers. Everything else has changed. Surely missed the Hawaiian hospitality that was given back then. I was embedded with the real Aloha Spirit as a kid. Now not so much. Wish it was the same. Now it’s too commercialized.
The Wildlife Refuges in Kauai have just been decimated by federal employee layoffs.
Hawaii’s cost structure is atrocious. Energy, fuel, food, housing, fees, and taxes are among the highest in the nation. Worse, the Tax Foundation of Hawaii concluded Hawaii has the highest tourist taxes in the world. I say again, Hawaii is the global number one in tourist taxes.
It will get worse. Other than tourism, no profitable industry or business will ever — ever — locate to Hawaii. Wasteful government spending and grossly overpaid Hawaii state employees will seek to take more money from the purses and wallets of those who enter the state.
Accordingly, every single aspect of visiting Hawaii will soon have a fee, a tax, a surcharge. Every single natural Hawaiian resource will be monetized. Every beach, every park, every trail, every path, literally everything in Hawaii will soon have a fee, a tax, a toll. Other than breathing, literally anything you do will have a demand you pay, and pay, and pay, and pay, and pay, and pay, and pay, and pay.
They are looking to give those grossly overpaid state legislators a 40% pay raise. No money for teachers, but money for the most useless & corrupt group of people in the state. No accountability for our tax dollars.
I have heard the comment that Hawaii isn’t Disneyland. Well instead of a gate admission that offers free rides the norm for Hawaii is charge for all the parks, scenic area’s, and activities. Pay fees and make reservations. Guess what same thing. The cheaper thing to do is just to shop. At least you walk away with an item. IMO these other fees make one feel victimized like you have been buried up to your head in sand. IMO more of a hassle and definitely not worth the price. I don’t come to Hawaii to admire the sights from only my hotel room. Maybe Hawaii only wants visitors that never or are afraid to get their feet dirty. Sorry don’t want to feel like I’m trespassing in some Hawaiian’s what they call home or backyard.