I wrote a post back on August 24th about 10 good reasons to postpone your Hawaii trip. The reason was because Governor Ige of Hawaii pleaded with tourists not to come. He said, “Our hospitals are reaching capacity and our ICUs are filling up. Now is not a good time to travel to Hawaii.” He added, “It will take six to seven weeks to see significant change in the number of COVID cases. It is a risky time to be traveling right now. Everyone, residents and visitors alike, should reduce travel to essential business activities only.”
Well, I’m happy to report that yesterday, Governor Ige announced at a press conference captured by local news KHON that, “It is now safe for fully vaccinated residents and visitors to resume non-essential travel to and within the state of Hawaii.” He added, “We want to invite and encourage fully vaccinated visitors and residents to travel for business or leisure, transpacific and inter island.”
HLTA president and CEO, Mufi Hannemann, warned, “There’ll be some questions again on what kind of services we can offer because it’s dependent on the property. It depends on the business and because every county has different rules, in terms of large gatherings, indoor gatherings and the like.”
I love this quote at the end, from Kalani Kaanaana of The Hawaii Tourism Authority: “We’ve had challenges with monk seals and sea turtles, but also how do we make sure that they’re renting legal accommodations, that they’re using reef safe sunscreens.” He added. “The biggest thing that we can do is ask visitors to consider our story first, before they jump on social media to show and tell theirs.”
To give us something to look forward to, especially after the post-Christmas depression, I booked our family of four tickets to the islands in January since airfares are so low. Here’s how I saved $280 on United after I booked our flights.
If you’re traveling to the islands be sure to reference Hawaii’s official websites:
–GoHawaii.com
–HawaiiCovid19.com
Regarding Hawaii, what about people with natural immunity and not able to get vaccine due to certain health conditions? Is there a way to travel with this situation? I did read something from Hawaii that you can show a negative Covid test within 72 hours of flight. Is that still true? Sure appreciate your feedback.
OK. That’s good enough for me. Christy and I are going next month, using some Chase points for accommodations. We’re looking forward to watching the Humuhumunukunukuapua`a swimmin’ by. HA
Tanya, I hear you and am with you on your comment. I am responding to your comment and I am sure Johnny Jet will soon. This article to me is very confusing and the language being used by Gov Ige. Hawaii Gov Ige is probably saying fully vaccinated people can come without a test, but I am sure or at least I hope anyone unvaccinated can still take a Covid test. The problem I have is the recent spike in Hawaii was probably due to the fact they weren’t testing fully vax people and now it appears they are not again. Just because numbers are down, should not be the open door to Hawaii again. I hope to God they test fully vax people too. The words are not clear. It sounds to be a preference of the state to invite fully vax people in, but they can not tell a un vax person not to come esp is they take a test. There has been no Domestic law or mandate put into place that does not allow a un vax person to travel, and even when that does happen, a neg test or exemption should qualify. Johnny, do you know if it is fully vax with test or without test and has he said no unvax person. I don’t believe so. They have been doing the Covid tests and that has seemed to work fine and should continue no matter what your status.
If you’re not vaxxed you can test out
https://hawaiicovid19.com/travel/getting-to-hawaii/
Upon further research, Your article should say Hawaii is inviting back “non essential travel with a preference for fully vaccinated travelers, and they will get to bypass testing and quarantine.” Very misleading, and not on your part, but by the State of Hawaii. They are not saying no to unvaccinated, as negative Covid tests are still available for travel into Hawaii.