How To Get To The Big Island, Hawaii With Current Restrictions - December, 2020

Traveling in the midst of COVID-19 is very interesting. Politics aside, things are very different than they used to be. Airlines require you to jump many more hoops, and each state has its own rules regarding how you can enter and what you can do when you arrive. Additionally, these rules are changing constantly.

For Christmas 2020, my family made the decision to follow through with our vacation plans to visit Kona, Hawaii, for a week of “Mele Kelemaka” on the Big Island. The decision was not made lightly, and we seriously debated going, but we followed all of the guidelines and safely made it to the island on December 16th. 

Taken from Kua Bay - our new favorite beach!

It took a lot of planning to get to the island. We had to do much more than the usual “where to stay” and “what to do” research for our trip. The new COVID-19 policies almost deterred us from taking the trip, but we persevered, and figured out what we needed to do to get there safely. 

While doing our research we found others facing these same frustrations and hesitations, so I wanted to share exactly what we did to get to Hawaii safely.

*Please note that things may change before you arrive on the Island. We arrived December 16th, but things are constantly changing, so check Hawaii.gov to make sure you are up to date with current guidelines. 

Step One: Figure out Which Island To Visit 

Each island has different restrictions. Before we booked our flights we had to research each one to see where we wanted to go. We figured out where we should go by looking at different government and local websites (like HawaiiCovid19.com)  to see how things were looking and learn about current restrictions. 

For example, Kuai had a mandatory 14 day quarantine requirement regardless of test results, so we did NOT want to book there!

​We checked these sites constantly even just before our plane took off from Phoenix. Luckily, most airlines are being flexible during these uncertain times, so even if something had come up and we couldn’t have made the trip, we would have been able to cancel and reschedule or simply cancel for free. (Thanks, American Airlines!) So we booked for Kona on the Big Island based off their policies and got on our way!

Screenshot from hawaiicovid19.com

Here are a few resources that we found helpful:

• hawaiicovid19.com
• LoveBigIsland.Com
• Aloha! Travel Podcast
• Facebook Groups such as Hawaii Travel Advice, Hawaii Travel Tips, and Love Hawaii Group

Screenshot from LoveBigIsland.com

These sites were great for up-to-the-minute updates. For example, the Governor issued a mandate just a few weeks before our arrival stating that “pending” tests would not be accepted. That means that you will have to quarantine if test results are not available when you arrive. This scared us at first, because the test has to be taken within 72 hours of the flight, but these pages helped us find the right provider, test, and time frame to get it all done!

Step Two: Get The Correct COVID Test on The Correct Day

Scheduling our appointments and getting tested was by far the most stressful part of this process. All of these pandemic precautions are so new to everyone that we were all worried about doing something incorrectly. There is a lot of different information out there, and there were a lot of things we could have done wrong, but luckily, we figured it out and did everything correctly.

Viral story that hit right after we booked our flights!

Essentially, we needed to find a testing facility near us that was on the Hawaii list of official providers and get the test within 72 hours of our arrival to the island. For us, this meant we needed to be tested after noon on Sunday for our Wednesday flights. 

​We were so concerned about receiving our results in time. 72-hours is a quick turn around, but we made sure to choose a provider that offered a “rapid” test that was also classified as NAAT (Nuclear). We called ahead of time and made sure we were doing everything correctly once we narrowed down our list of local providers.

Screenshot from hawaiicovid19.com

We chose to get tested at Walgreens and had back up appointments scheduled at Go Health Urgent Care, because both provided results within 24 hours, but Walgreens had appointments scheduled 3-days out where the urgent care was first come-first served. This gave us plenty of time to get our tests on the calendar and eased some of our concerns.

Screenshot from Walgreens.com

​Walgreens's appointments are available for scheduling online at 6 p.m. CST  3 days before the appointment day. This meant that our Sunday appointments were open for booking Thursday evening.

​We all hopped online together and booked our appointments without any issue. We got our confirmation emails and were ready to get tested.

We arrived at the drive-through pharmacy window for our appointments, and all we had to do was show our confirmation emails and drivers licenses to the pharmacist. We confirmed for the hundredth time that we were getting the correct test to enter Hawaii before the pharmacist handed us our swab. Once we were handed our sterile swap, we swabbed our noses and handed them back. It was very easy!

Only about an hour later, we all received emails letting us know that we all were NEGATIVE! It was a major relief. Now, we had to prove it to get on our flights!

The email from Walgreens letting us know our results were ready.

Our NEGATIVE test results!

Step Three: Uploading Results and Declaring Our Travel

Once we had our emailed negative test results, we created traveler profiles on travel.hawaii.gov. 24 hours before our flight, we logged in and answered all of the required questions. They asked us to upload our negative results, take a health questionnaire, and declare our travel plans to the state. This was the easy part. ​

screenshot from travel.hawaii.gov

The QR code travel.hawaii.gov generated for us. This is what we showed at the airport!

​We followed the icons and answered every question honestly. We uploaded PDFs of our test results and then, were emailed a QR confirmation code letting us know that we were approved for travel.

Finally, we boarded our flight. We were nervous but excited to get to the island.

Step Four: Showing Your Code in The Airport

We were all nervous when we took off. We hoped that the QR codes, tests, and everything else were approved and correct in the system. The airlines didn’t check any of our information until we were in Hawaii which made everything even more nerve racking, because if we didn’t do it correctly, we would have just wasted 10 hours flying to be quarantined. ​

We landed on the island and kept our fingers crossed that everything would go smoothly. ​

SHowingour QR codes, I.D.s, and negative COVID test results.

​We exited the plane and instantly started walking the maze of ropes they had set up to lead us to the COVID area. This is where we got our QR codes scanned, showed our negative test results, and our I.D's. 

It turns out that we were randomly selected to be tested again. We didn’t expect to get tested when we landed, because we had read that only 25% of people were being tested upon arrival, but it seemed like our entire plane had been chosen to be tested again.

The testing area in the airport.

After we showed our QR codes, we were handed a slip of paper, and told to proceed to the testing area. We filled out more paperwork then had our noses swabbed.

They told us that our results would be ready in under 30 minutes and that we should only be concerned if we got a call letting us know that our results were positive.

My nice tester at the airport wanted to on camera! Good thing this test was negative too!

In the meantime, we picked up our luggage and our rental car and drove to our Airbnb. In that time, about an hour had passed and none of us got a call!

We had successfully and safely all made it onto the island!!!

We were so relieved that we had all made it to Hawaii without incident! From here, our vacation and our relaxation was set to begin.

First round of celebratory drinks once we made it to Kona!