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82 thoughts on “Will Kauai Visitors Risk All and Return With This Looming?”

  1. Zev P.

    Our family are planning to visit friends on Kauai and take a much needed vacation the first two weeks of December. However it look EXTREMELY daunting and risky to make these arrangements. Would appreciate any and all feedback from “Go For it” to “Stay the Hell Away?”

    1. Beat of Hawaii

      Hi Zev.

      Love how you put that. Oh it is hard to say, but things “seem” to be settling down, and that is still some time from now. If you’re asking for our gut call, it would be to come and enjoy. Let’s see what others suggest. Thanks.

      Aloha.

  2. David B

    I can tell you flat out, there is a great deal of animosity towards tourists – and second home residents for that matter – on Kauai north shore. This is nothing new, but the virus panic has been awesome. No tourists for seven months and counting. Last thing they want is for the island to open up. All these empty (much hated) vacation rentals, beaches, roads … (Paradise!)

    Reminds me of the flood a few years ago that closed the road for 14 months, except this time way better since no road convoys and is island wide, not just far north shore. The anger and hostility when the road reopened was palpable. There is a lot of entitlement. Will be worse now since they can blame disease on UNCLEAN tourists/outsiders.

    By the way, Beat of Hawaii guys, thank you so much for this blog. Is providing a very much needed forum for people who want to travel to Hawaii despite the problems.

    I would not go to Kauai as a tourist for the time being. Maybe next year? Who knows how long this will drag out.

  3. Bobby

    Did you see that there are multiple restaurants in Kauai now banning tourists from their dining rooms? I am cancelling my November trip. Shame on Lighthouse Bistro in Kilauea and Saenz Ohana Breakfast in Princeville. Way to spread Aloha.

    1. Laurie G

      Plenty is open here in Kauai! Gorgeous weather, most restaurants and shops open and all extremely welcoming. Don’t cave in to two reactionary businesses. The only case in Kauai is from a Hawaiian resident.

    2. Ben S

      Just saw this as well…I feel as though if this was truly the attitude of a significant amount of locals, maybe Kauai should have opted out? You cannot expect people to pay regular prices to go on vacation and be treated like lesser people.

      We like many others had a trip planned for early October that I cancelled a couple months ago, and sadly I have no plans to rebook anytime soon. It makes me sad that there would be hostility towards people who are relied upon for a healthy economy.

      Thanks

    3. David B

      We are PT residents on Kauai and frequent customers of the Bistro, especially their daily happy hour (one of the best ones on North Shore, if you are beer/wine drinker). Their waitstaff and bartenders are (usually) good people.

      Apparently, someone posted a picture of sign on their door that says: “Attention Bistro Patrons. Recent unquarantined travelers do not enter. You are welcome back post 14-day quarantine.”

      I normally recommend them to anyone visiting Kauai, but they are not worth a 14-day quarantine in order to eat there. Neither is Saenz.

  4. Sue L.

    Aloha! My husband and I arrived in Lihue on the afternoon of 10-15-20. Flight was non-stop from LAX and one gentleman was escorted off the plane before take-off because he continually refused to wear a mask. American Airlines was not fooling around! We were expecting chaos at Lihue airport and chaos never arose. Oh, yes, there were long lines of our flight’s passengers arriving, but the airport’s system of checking our records was efficient once we got up to that table. The inspectors were interested in our QR code which was on my husband’s cell phone and quickly retrieved. Also, our negative test results which I had a hard copy of were inspected carefully. Total time in line was about 1/2 hour. Thanks to the Hawaii National Guard, everyone was directed quickly and efficiently. Our luggage was waiting for us when we went into the carousel room. We got our pre-flight Covid testing at Walgreens in Santa Ana, CA and had our results in two days.

    2. Amy H

      Thanks so much for the info, Sue. I am flying a week from tomorrow. I plan to test at Walgreen’s also. My question is – did you take the Rapid POC test, or the RT-PCR that is listed on their website about Covid testing? I’m just wanting to make sure that the rapid test is acceptable. Thank you!

      1. Sue L.

        Aloha,Amy! We had the RT-PCR and from what I have read a few weeks ago (anything could have changed since then!), the Rapid POC was not acceptable due to many false positives. Check with Walgreens, perhaps. Don’t be surprised at all the businesses that are closed. Maybe some will reopen by the time you arrive! Best of luck to you! Sue L.

  5. Traci H

    Please know this they have patents on all the viruses and patents on the vaccines they create both then make money both ways off the people It is sickening Hawaii Please do not believe all the media Lies about Human Corona Virus aka Covid it’s been around all our lives more people die from Flu that’s a Fact The Government is trying to Ruin the economy don’t fall for all this crap it’s a Lie

    Also wearing masks can cause you harm a lot of harm

    There are a Lot of Doctors telling people not to worry about covid read the back of any can of Lysol it says “For the Elimination of Human Corona Virus” For those of you that are “In the Know” try to tell people more facts show them the patents and numbers the patent on the virus was granted in 2014 the patent on the vaccine was granted November of 2019

    Also Bill Gates has Zero knowledge of medicine yet creates vaccines that harm people a company he finds has the patent on the vaccine he also Funds the CDC & WHO & DR FAUCI along with Monsanto and many more he gave a Ted-x talk on how he wants to kill people with his vaccines see for yourself Hawaii Please Do Not Believe all the Lies it will Destroy Hawaii Thank You for your time and consideration in this matter Do your own research be warned it gets
    Very bad Have a nice day God Bless us All

    Mahalo Aloha

  6. Paul H

    Aloha all,

    There seems to be a lot confusion on the board about the 7 day average of 5 cases to move to tier 2 and reinstate the quarantine. This is a 7 day moving average- so basically, there would need to be 35 cases over any 7 day period for the quarantine to come back. This number is in alignment with the medical resources on the island. I actually think it is fairly generous and that we have a good chance of not hitting that number with the testing regime and masks/ social distancing.

    1. David B

      If the statement said “average of 5 new cases a day” (35 a week) I would agree with you. But it just says “5 cases”. Perhaps you are interpreting the mayor’s intent correctly, IDK, but clarification from the mayor would be nice.

      Also depends on the official recovery time for each new case. Some people never have symptoms, so when are they considered a recovered case that is no longer active (for example).

        1. David B

          so, “daily” means “daily new” as opposed to “daily existing”? Would be nice is mayor would simply make clear what he means.

          In the meantime, Coconut wireless reports that a Wainiha (Kauai) woman traveled to Oahu for a funeral, returned home with said virus, and gave it to husband. Neighborhood freaking out, had a big “free testing” event yesterday. Well, they can’t blame it on pre-test tourists ….

  7. Tom M

    We are heading to Kauai on Sunday and have a place there that needs work. We’ve been tested by “trusted partners” but not sure we’ll have results by the time we land. Since we own our place, we can stay there until the negative test shows up, but then how do we notify officials and get “released” if we have to quarantine for a day or so? Can we just upload our negative test results and be free to go out?

    By the way, we did testing with a non-trusted partner that guaranteed faster turnaround and those tests were negative, so we are feeling safe that we’re traveling while negative and not posing a risk to others.
    It’s really too bad that Hawaii has limited the testing to only certain partners. Testing centers in the SF Bay Area are really backed up. It’s also not possible to find out the turnaround time for test results before booking a test as the various sites aren’t really taking phone calls.

    Thanks
    Tom

    1. Beat of Hawaii

      Hi Tom.

      Not sure if you saw the comment on this earlier this morning, wherein someone had the same situation. When they got the results they uploaded them to the website, but it told them manual approval was needed and they were stuck figuring that out.

      Aloha.

  8. Jan M.

    If the average vacationer spends $195 a day, then the 12-person, 10-day vacation our family is hoping to enjoy in August 2021 would bring $23,400 to Kauai. Normally, we would already have a place picked out and be looking for best deals on airfare. That sure isn’t happening right now, though. What in the world happens if you are already there and then one family of five tests positive – are you going to be kicked out or what? Over the months, while reading everything BofH publishes here I feel my enthusiasm for Kauai ebbing. And that’s saying something! I’m crazy about Kauai and looking forward to my 12th trip – this time with most of our kids and grandkids – but I guess only time will tell now. Thank you SO much for the great job you guys do of keeping us in the loop.Mahalo!

    1. Beat of Hawaii

      Hi Jan.

      Thanks so much. It sure is frustrating. On the other hand, when it comes to travel (perhaps other than drive-to), it seems to be like that in more places than not at present.

      Aloha.

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