You may have seen that several Beat of Hawaii (BOH) visitors have recently reported negative experiences when not following the rules and coming to Hawaii. We want to make certain this doesn’t happen to you, and there’s no reason to not have a great travel experience to Hawaii, even during COVID. This comes on the heels of our post yesterday about two residents returning to Hawaii with positive test results who were arrested on arrival.
Here’s an example of one conversation happening in our comment section and there have been others quite similar.
Commentor: “We got our results after arrival. All negative but since it posted after we arrived we got stuck in quarantine!”
BOH: The rules clearly are that you must have negative results in hand on arrival in order to avoid the 14-day quarantine. That has been true since Hawaii quarantine rules changed in November. No exceptions will be made. The rules could change going forward, but it is necessary to comply with them as they exist when you travel here.
Commentor: “So the Scanners at the airport made us sign a 14 day quarantine, called our hotel & condo told them we were to be in quarantine… They give you a one time use key for the elevator & your room, you can not rent a car but can take Lyft, taxi, bus or shuttle, no room service, no microwave in room, no one will enter your room, limited number of restaurants will deliver so you are stuck w insta cart who charges x4 more for food and locked like a prisoner in you hotel/condo. You can only leave your room for medical treatment or ck out, if you leave and get locked out or caught outside your room they will call the cops on you! $5,000 fine and 1 year in prison!”
BOH: The rules are clear that should you be quarantined, you are not permitted to leave your accommodation for any reason other than medical emergency or to leave Hawaii. If you are staying in accommodations with kitchen facilities, that is of course much better. The single-use key and the inability to rent a car while under quarantine is also clear.
Commentor: “Unfortunately, this trip has now become a nightmare! My family has only seen the airport, view of the Ocean on the drive to the hotel/condo. Not what we were expecting at all! I did spend thousands of dollars to be treated like a prisoner! Mind you we all tested Negative!”
BOH: It is indeed unfortunate and this did not need to happen. You should absolutely not travel to Hawaii without negative test results that can be presented on arrival. Period. Testing negative subsequent to arrival, at least at this time, does not change the 14-day quarantine requirements.
The island of Kauai currently has different rules.
Kauai is for now on its own course and requiring a 14-day quarantine for all arrivals regardless of test results. Several accommodations here are designated part of “Kauai resort bubbles” where you can be electronically monitored, yet move around the resort during your quarantine and not go off-property. All other islands allow visitors with negative test results on arrival to move freely without quarantine.
Again, we believe there will be more Safe Travels program changes ahead but we don’t have further details yet.
That’s so disappointing to hear, too bad you couldn’t fly back to LA and get tested in the airport and then go back to Hawaii.
We had the opportunity to visit our daughter on Oahu back in January and loved every minute of it. Not sure if I would go back until things get back to normal.
Planned a really nice and expensive graduation trip to Hawaii. Had negative test results within 24hrs of our departure however the stat of Hawaii would not accept our test because the lab was not an affiliated partner. I understand the want and need to protect everyone but I think the rules should be more consistent and actually use the medicine and science behind it. We are also vaccinated but weren’t vaccinated in the state of Hawaii so still had to quarantine. We ended up leaving after spending one day in Hawaii. As a physician I will never understand the handling of this pandemic. Super disappointed in my experience please don’t let it happen to you.
Here is my problem. We are flying from Hawaii to Honolulu for 1 day (leaving 8am flying back in 9pM. Now I find that out that interisland travel has changed back to requiring a pretest for the flight back in to Hawaii, adn I have to be tested on Honolulu – which its a 1 day trip so I can’t get results back in 24 hours, so I would be quarantined. I have TRIED AND TRIED for over 10 hours to get Hawaiian airlines to change the flight by 1 day so that we can just be quarantined in a hotel for 1 day until we leave and fly back home, So please somebody help! I’m trying to be honest here, but this is ridiculous. I am also fully vaccinated. My 15 year old son is not.
Hi Lisa.
We deleted your all-upper-case-text, which is not permitted per our comment policy.
There are accepted tests from trusted partners in Honolulu that will return results in under one hour. Check Hawaii Pacific Health for one. Likely there are others too.
Aloha.
I thought Hawaii was now allowing inter-island travel without quarantine or pretest for people vaccinated in Hawaii? Did that get called off?
If you are vaccinated in Hawaii, as in live there. If you are vaccinated in the states and traveling to the the islands, it is still not called off and probably won’t be until July or later.
but Shout-out to Hawaiian Airlines who finally texted me back!!!
I was going to have to pay $350 for my & my sons test and jump through hoops to get the test done on Honolulu to get back to the Big island on the same day and still might have been quarantined in the airport or hotel- not able to get my luggage from the condo after getting the test done.
So instead of paying $350 for the test, I was able to get the return flight changed to the same day I am flying home and spent $400 for a hotel for 2 nights in Honolulu instead. so Thank you to Hawaiian Airlines agent for helping me! If I could find them I would hug them! and thank you to this forum for at least letting me know about the rapid tests that get results in 20 minutes.
Covid anxiety is an absolute public hysteria. A total gaslight. Covid is worse than the flu….but it is way closer to the flu than it is to the Spanish Flu. We will look back on our response to this with absolute shame. What a disaster for the poor business owners and workers victimized by the H government
Thanks for the info we had to cancel our Christmas trip to Kauai. No one will put up with these crazy rules. All our flights were canceled anyway. My state had no lock downs everyone is fine. Don’t be afraid of the media hype on covid. It is just the flu bro.
Thank you Beat Of Hawaii for clarifying the Hawaii/Kauai rules for our visitors. If I were to take a very expensive vacation during a Pandemic, I would make sure I studied the rules everyday prior to departure.
Hi Erin.
Good point on being sure. Thanks.
Aloha.