Hawaii is open for tourists if you are willing to jump through just a few hoops to get there. Travelers must have a negative covid test result prior to departing the mainland to bypass Hawaii’s mandatory 10-day quarantine.

Each traveling adult will create an account with the State of Hawaii's Safe Travels and have their own QR code. Once your account is created, enter in your trip details (each leg of your trip). Upload your negative covid test results taken less than 72 hours from departure. Take a selfie. 24 hours before your departure, a health questionnaire will be available in the app for you to complete. Once all steps are submitted, a QR code will be generated and emailed to you. Save this QR code to your phone. Also, print off a copy as well as a copy of your negative test results in case needed. Airport personnel will need the QR code to locate and validate your Safe Travels Hawai‘i information upon your arrival in Hawai‘i.

Covid testing for Hawaii travel has specific rules and restrictions.The state of Hawai‘i will ONLY accept Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) from a certified Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) lab test results from Trusted Testing and Travel Partners will be accepted. Your test must be taken less than 72 hours from your departure flight time to Hawaii. This is the flight that gets you to the Hawaiian islands (usually your connecting flight).

You may have to factor in the time zone your departing flight is in when calculating the 72 hours. For example, if your flight is 9am PST from Seattle to Maui, that would be 12pm EST. You would want to take the approved Covid test no sooner than 12pm EST/9am PST, 3 days before departure.

Once you receive your test results, it is always important to review the documentation provided from the testing facility to ensure your name and birthdate correct (matching your drivers license), date and time stamp is correct, and that it states NAAT.

Inter-island travel between Kauai, Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii Island also has requirements. Travelers will follow similar procedures as the 72-hour pre-travel testing program. Oahu does not require additional testing when arriving inter-island.

Maui is also requiring the use of the AlohaSafe app. In conjunction with the above, you will need to download this app. The app will notify you should you of had contact with someone who tested positive. Maui also just announced that they will be completing mandatory testing on arriving flights. This will be completed free of charge at the airport.

We have heard great things about Vault (order test 1-2 weeks in advance) as well as Walgreens (ID NOW is a nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) and can be scheduled 3 days in advance). We have personally used the Walgreens ID NOW testing. It was easy to make an appointment in advance and we received our results approx. 4 hours after the test.

We recommend having a backup plan when it comes to testing. Consider ordering a Vault test and use incase an appointment is not available at Walgreens.

This process may seem a little stressful, but reviewing this information will help prepare you for the process. As always, it is your responsibility to know any travel requirements your destination may have. The pre-travel testing program is ever changing and should be reviewed before your trip. The details above were the requirements at the current day.