All Signs Point To Ending Restrictions + Hawaii Travel Recovery

Breaking: Plan to Eliminate Island-by-Island Travel Rules Gets Heard

Updating HB1286 with Hawaii legislature to the forefront. If passed, all islands would follow a single COVID travel policy.

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248 thoughts on “Breaking: Plan to Eliminate Island-by-Island Travel Rules Gets Heard”

  1. Loving Kauai as much as we do, they have to prove to me that closing down, having such strict restrictions, etc has done very much to protect the island but has rather ravaged the economy of the island.

    Having said that – the topic at hand being an all-island set of Covid standards – PLEASE, please, please – that should happen. Hawaii is suffering enough from the downturn in tourism and the total confusion on rules and restrictions has got to be part of the mix that is causing that downturn.

    OK – let the “nastygrams” begin!

  2. Thanks.

    IF a person has been vaccinated for COVID19, let them come in.

    IF a person has tested negatively before traveling AND after arriving in Lihue, let them come in with no quarantine.

  3. Have you heard when they plan to vote on this bill and what the effective date will be?

    We rescheduled the Kauai trip from Feb to March since we were locked into the airline fare.

    Thank you

    1. Hi Cynthia.

      This will be one of the stories we continue to update to its conclusion. But at this time, we don’t know the answer to either of your questions.

      Aloha.

  4. It is so sad what the governor has done to this beautiful island and those that live there and have or had a business. We have a beautiful home on Kauai for over 15 years and many visitors have enjoyed it but due to the shutdown and quarantine not only have we not been able to go to the island but visitors and friends cannot come. We were able to visit in November for the short opening before it was shut down again and it was so sad to see the local business/ restaurants closed. The people who live there are so upset. The number of cases do not warrant this. It is totally anti Aloha. The island is is worse shape then after Aneki. Visitors cant afford to visit under these guidelines and will not come back. When visitors come to the Hawaiian Islands they generally visit at least 2 and maybe 3 islands. The islands should have the same standards. We will be selling our home and just keep the beautiful memories and people in our history books

  5. J.W. Wrote an absolutely brilliant commentary. I concur 110% and commend him for being honest. So many of us feel this way, but have not been able to express ourselves so eloquently. It is a shame to kill the economy/livelihood of Kauai with such ludicrous restrictions. Please re-read J.W.’s comments below and think deeply about these facts. Please, please consider re-opening the islands without restrictions. KAUAI’S life depends on it!!!!

  6. Hawaii is being looked at from the mainland as a unfriendly place that’ is xenophobic against anyone not living full time on the islands. The warm and aloha marketing has now vanished.

    The regulatory over reach of businesses along with high taxes is what holds back your state just like other states with similar views and regulations and poor economic results.

    Kauai is the poster child on these matters. They argue they are taking the draconian measures to protect the local population. But while opened there were 1.4 cases a day which since closing the infection rate stays about the same. In a year one person 85 years of age with large underlying issues died. Now they say “no problem” just take a test on the mainland , fly to another island , stay for 3-4 days the take another test and fly to Kauai and stay in a bubble resort then take another test and move again to where you want to stay and you can then enjoy the island. Are they crazy? What is crazier is Kauai had just implemented a process to make decisions based upon a rolling 7 day average. Then weeks later completely discards the policy. To top this vaccinated or past infected folks are not excluded from this insanity. So each flu or subsequent Covid uptick is the island on a permanent cycle of shutting down ?

    Most of the islands infections come from family gatherings of residents. Get a common sense policy in place immediately or die as a state.

    Only one message comes thru – Aloha doesn’t exist, they are willing to decimate our economy over the minuscule risk that a couple folks may die when drug and alcohol use, domestic abuse and business failures are at heighten levels. How healthy are those for your state?

    Due to the confusing and non scientific based decisions it will take years for the state to recover. Get your act together and open up with basic precautions or fade back into your myopic agenda while the rest of us find permanent options to spend our free time in other locations.

    1. I’ve lived on Kauai for 20 years…
      You have perfectly described why I now have come to the end of my rope, J W.
      Fear, of isolated people with limited life experience, is what rules the ignorant mindset of most of its native inhabitants. Most have never been off the island, literally, or consciously. If they do leave, they only go to Las Vegas. I have become jaded & prejudiced by living there. The land & ocean’s beauty have lost their luster because the people have lost their old ways to care for them, or for themselves either. They just hate, period. There actually is no aloha left for the most part. It has become an unhealthy place in which the waning influx of ‘healers’ has failed. Those I love have all left, and I will be right behind them. I have already spent 14 days in quarantine once. I have spent 4 months waiting to return and get my stuff, for them to find another way.
      Isolation & xenophobia is all they have left. Covid 19 did not wreck the island, is was just an excuse for the final self-inflicted death blow to the minuscule tatters of culture, community, & environment that are left remaining. Just as before, like the rage of supposed lost sovereignty that enabled dysfunction, they will blame outsiders for their own failures once again. I have failed to become one of them, or one with them. And now the challenge for me is to not fail in my exodus, to leave with my wits and my meager possessions Intact.
      If any of you know of some space in a container to share, I would love to know…
      Looks like I will return next month to empty my home & salvage what I can, and move to the mainland where Covid has begun to reveal some positive change rising among the sickness and death. The ‘island’ mentality of America First has begun to weaken on the mainland of late, and there may be some hope for this country yet, as light at the end of the pandemic tunnel can now also be seen.
      I doubt that light will ever reach Kauai. I fear the darkness there will only grow.

    2. Well said, JW. We love Kauai but the current situation does not make us want to return anytime soon. We will be in Maui next week instead of Kauai.

      Johns Hopkins University has said this week that new Covid-19 cases nationwide are down 56% in the last month. Approximately 27 million people in the US have contracted Covid-19 that they know of. A Johns Hopkins University spokesman said they are fairly confident that they only know of 1 in 4 cases and that the rest are asymptomatic or were so mildly ill they never went to the doctor or got tested. That means potentially 100 million people in the US have already had Covid-19! And Kauai wants to shelter itself from the rest of the world. Life goes on. Don’t be afraid and learn to adapt.

  7. I am a mainland resident who has a deed for property on Kauai. That deed gives me access to a property for one week, aka a timeshare. We are very respectful of the policies for Hawaii in general and Kauai specifically. It is the same respect I would expect for Kauai travelers to my locality to respect.
    Obviously the islands are unique in that you are not going to drive a car between them. Not like the mainland. Thus there is quite a difference in how each island wishes to operate their safety protocols.
    What I wish is that the governor and island’s top officials would develop a cohesive set of protocols that will accommodate all the islands. The piecemeal approach is destructive to the economy of Hawaii.
    It is unfortunate that the governor or legislature has to do a “top down” approach, but if that is the case, do it. It is the high time for vacationers to Hawaii. The “go, no go” decision time is evaporating.
    Immediately pass the statewide legislation superseding individual island and county rules so that we know what to do to safely visit Hawaii.

  8. I say let each island make their own decision on what is best for them as they are now doing. One shoe does not fit all. Vote in representatives that you know will truly represent you as a citizen of that island .
    I honestly don’t think those making the rules really are looking out for the best interest of the citizens if they continue keep businesses shut tight and people are losing jobs and livelihoods

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