Can you travel To Hawaii without stress given the latest unprecedented Covid situation?
351 thoughts on “Safe To Travel To Hawaii? Anxiety About Shutdown Amid All-Time Record Covid”
Comments are closed.
Home » Blog » Hawaii Travel Tips » Safe To Travel To Hawaii? Anxiety About Shutdown Amid All-Time Record Covid
Mahalos for providing a safe space to discuss sensitive topics: medical science vs “rights,” public health vs “freedom,” facts vs opinions, everyone’s needs vs personal wants, etc.
My wife and I had a trip home planned for May 2020, but due to COVID cancelled. We re-booked the trip for October 2021, but have now cancelled that trip too. We’re vaccinated and masked, but worried about breathing an airplane’s recirculated air for five hours, and about encountering some rabid anti-masker on the flight. Our main concern though is our impact when we arrive. After being in a crowded airport and on a tightly-packed plane we don’t want to be unknowingly carrying COVID and then spreading it to everyone when we get home. We don’t want to be super-spreaders, don’t want to turn the children of hotel staff, restaurant and retail workers, etc into orphans. Nothing we do should cost other people their lives. My want to revisit Zippys, Leonard’s, Side Street Inn, Rainbow, L&L, and even a local 7-11 for a musubi should not negatively impact anyone’s need to live. I have no right or freedom to end others’ lives.
Cancelled outings cut off peoples’ incomes everywhere, Hawai’i included. But here’s the deal: I would rather everyone be alive and poor than dead and rich. No exceptions, including people I disagree with: I’d rather you be around to disagree with me than that you become a COVID statistic. I’d rather hear you complain about masking and vaccinating than have to read an obituary written by the family you left behind.
We’ll try again, we’ll reschedule our trip for 2022 maybe. I know that when we get home, Hawai’i will be a very different place than I remember. But home is home, ohana is ohana, and I will always defend the people and places I love.
Hi Robbos.
Thanks for your input on this important topic. We appreciate it.
Aloha.
just got back from Maui, got a positive covid test four days after I got home. In the plane As soon as the pretzels come out, the masks come off. Yes, I was vaccinated, and we wore masks while we were there. Good luck if you decide to go.
Nancy, I really hope you and anyone else who tested positive are doing well.I’m going to suggest to you that the cause of your positive test came from somewhere other than the short period on the plane when people were eating snacks. Can I ask what airline you flew with. This quote comes off website of the airline we are flying to Maui on in 8 days. Wife and I have agreed to forgo eating and drinking for the 5 hours in the air. Not the easiest thing to do but in 5 hours no damage will come to the human body by not eating or drinking fluids. Here’s the quote>>> “On transpacific flights, our cabin air is cleaned through high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters that create a dry and essentially sterile environment, inhospitable to the growth of viruses.”
It was either the plane or airport, we tried to stay 6 feet apart in line, but personal pushed us along. We ate all meals at the condo, and really stuck by ourselves. I’m recovering, and no one else got sick. I’m just fortunate it happened on our way home. Am I going back to Hawaii? yes, anytime soon? NO!
“We’re vaccinated and masked, but worried about breathing an airplane’s recirculated air for five hours, and about encountering some rabid anti-masker on the flight.”
Robbos, do you know that stress and worrying will kill you?
Research teaches you that you’re statistically safer traveling in an airplane, than shopping at your local grocery store. The cabin airflow in a commercial plane is renewed (not recirculated) through the entire cabin within a 2-3 minutes window. Virtually all modern airliners (including those that go to Hawaii) have HEPA filtration systems installed in them…the same type of systems in hospital operating rooms.
Seriously though, why would you think it’s sensical to say, you “would rather everyone be alive and poor than dead and rich”…exactly how do you rationalize the finality of that statement? The reality is that most people with significant wealth have little issues/struggles in times like this. You’re actually suggesting that people would be better off destitute and suffering, where they’d have a greater chance of dying from things like starvation, mental illness and suicide, by losing all they worked for their entire lives. AND, they could STILL catch this virus and die on top of that! 🤦♂️
Then you’re going to infer people “have no right or freedom to end others’ lives.”?
Since when did it become my responsibility to make sure you take care of yourself, so I don’t end your life from a virus that I didn’t create?! If everyone took care of their own health, we wouldn’t have all this death. Do you comprehend that?
Let’s start thinking rational and making sense, eh? You might reevaluate your logic, because most people would rather not be living in poverty and sacrificing their own happiness and wellbeing to keep you safe, especially when it’s up to YOU to take care of yourself. I take care of myself and family the way I see fit. I don’t expect you to stop your life for me, and I expect the same reciprocity.🤷♂️
Wow, your sense of entitlement is breathtaking.
Indeed
Thanks for sharing your perspective Jim. I wish you health and happiness.
Amen!!
We’re continuing with our plans–Kauai, 2 weeks, leaving in 25 days. This announcement was made too late to cancel our condo. The agency wouldn’t even allow rebooking for a later date. Our trip insurance doesn’t cover the Governor asking us not to come. We have several restaurant reservations and a Capt Andy boat trip that have not notified us (yet) of cancellation. We’ll do our best to keep our distance from others and continue to mask up–just like we’ve been doing since March 2020! Fully vaxxed and wondering why businesses in Kauai aren’t mandating vaccines for their employees. Wouldn’t that be better for the economy than discouraging tourism?
My best advice as a tour guide here on Kaua’i is stay out of enclosed restaurants. Fresh air is your friend on this trip to Hawaii
Most (not all) tourist-centric restaurants on Kauai are “open air” – meaning no closed windows or doors, but they all have roofs. Apparently, the state considers anything with a roof to be indoor dining. Example is the Olympic Cafe in Kapa`a, where being inside is not much different than being outside, especially when the rain goes sideways. The owner there gets a lot of grief from the COVID hysteria folks because he complains about the state rules limiting patrons, masks, etc. There are reasons to be cautious about the Olympic (never look in the kitchen), but lack of fresh air circulation is not one of them.
OT – Rumor has it the waitstaff at a certain restaurant on the north shore (rhymes with mistro) are “revolting” over the reduced patron rules, since the reduced tips it hits their wallets. What that actually means? IDK. We’ll stop by on our way to the house next week to check it out.
Thank you KauiDoug. I wish more people understood the dining situation. A lot of folks must’ve flunked science class. You wear your mask the whole time in and out of the restaurant, but take it off to eat. It’s not like the virus yells, “Time Out!” and heads to the corners while you’re eating. Help out restaurants by ordering take out or delivery, but stay safe. We do a lot of eating in our car or we picnic. Or take the food back to your condo/resort. Just think about how the virus is a tiny aeresol that can hang in the air, even after the covid infected person has left the room.. and consider what you’re doing.
Aloha,
Here’s solution to Hawaiian Covid problem. But first let’s review the facts as noted in a Beat of Hawaii article this week.
“Hawaii House Speaker Scott Saiki was more blunt, noting that public health statistics show residents, not tourists, are mainly responsible for spreading Covid-19.”
It time to get tough with residents who are not vaccinated in Hawaii. Tell all residents they have 3 choices: 1) get vaccinated, 2) be subjected to confinement at their home and wear ankle GPS monitoring bracelets connected to local police personnel or 3) leave Hawaii. Anyone not vaccinated under house arrest, err, house detention that leave their home can be welcomed by police to new accommodation in a small room with metal bars. Applying these 3 solutions will bring Covid cases way way down.
Jim
Vaccinated Long term Hawaiian Property Owner and Hawaiian Resident
Im going if i can be let in. Have family there and im going to see anither new grand baby. The hospitals are not over run, the cases of “vaxd” people are huge not rare because its not a vax in the first place. We need to stop listening to the people who are lying to all of us and get on with our lives like normal. The CDC admitted there is no actual test for the covid-19 virus so in the oast 18 months evryone who had a cold or flu or anything associated with a respiratory sickness was counted as the covid CDC said it them selves, so please stop being manipulated by politicians.
(Deleted – warning on not adhering to https://beatofhawaii.com/comment-policy/)
Your callous disregard for the 4.5MM people worldwide who have died from covid is astonishing. Children have been orphaned, millions have lost their spouses and/or grandparents due to this pandemic.
I guess it is just an inconvenience for you.
(Edited – warning on not adhering to https://beatofhawaii.com/comment-policy/)
I’m cancelling our trip – 4 of us all but the 4 year old not vaccinated. No one is happy but when the locals are such a high risk its just too risky since we’ve all been told younger kids and even those vaccinated are getting sick. IF we were to get sick how would we get home? So sad.
My family and I were supposed to visit Maui at end of September-October but I respect the governers request for visitors to postpone so that’s exactly what we’re doing. Eventhough we’re all vaccinated (except my 10 yr old) we know there are still risks and we would hate to add to the islands overwhelming medical situations should something unexpected happen. We’re all bummed that we can’t come now but when it’s safe, we’ll get there. I hope others can and will respect the rules of the islands and get this under control.
We had planned a trip to the Big Island last year in December, cancelled it and didn’t go. Rescheduled for this September 2-12-2021. With Gov Ige’s request to wait we got very confused. Wondering what to do. What if we get sick and get stuck in Hawaii, with anything covid or any other issues. After long talking it over, we decided to go. Taking extra caution by taking 72 hr covid test anyway for travel. We both are fully vaccinated. We also tried to reschedule for October or November with no hotel openings available. We are using our timeshare for this vacation, get a away. Not always easy or impossible to change without any loss of money. As of today we are still going
We planned as a family of 6 a trip to Oahu and Kauai to celebrate my 35 year anniversary. We made all the reservations in February with the vaccine coming out thinking all would be behind us by September!! This week, with the governor advising tourists to stay away I contacted all 3 houses we will be staying at and only one was flexible enough to give us credit fie a later stay. We spoke as a family and decided it would be a big loss on the other 2 houses 6k dollars worth of stay we would lose so we are going with lots of precautions and everyone vaccinated!!
We had a trip planned last year for our 35th Anniversary. We had also qualified for the Southwest companion pass which is one reason why we chose Hawaii. Southwest extended the pass to December of 2021 so we rescheduled our trip for November 7-19. I have spent countless hours planning this, now that we have to be our own travel agents. So as of today, we are still going.
Our daughter and her husband have made a plan to meet us in Kauai for 4 days. I’m not sure all of this could come together again, so the plan is on.