Our trip to Hawai'i in January was one of the wildest experiences we'd ever had.
Not because of anything that went wrong, but because of the simple fact that *we got there*!
The islands had been a pipe dream for the both of us for the longest time; neither of us would have ever imagined we'd actually end up there.
We're both seasoned travelers, and American citizens, and yet Hawai'i had always eluded us.
All it took was a global pandemic and a lower price of airfare to get the both of us to our bucket list destination.
Remember, if you're traveling right now, make sure to follow all of the recommended CDC and WHO guidelines!
We are not responsible for any poor decisions that are made that put the health of others at risk. Always wear a mask, keep a safe distance from other people, and make sure you get tested as often as possible.
For those of you not based in the US and aren't familiar with restrictions within the US, Hawai'i is one of the only states with the luxury to restrict travel and enforce quarantines and isolation on arrival. Why? They're a group of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, of course! And the only way to get there is by air, basically, so federal restrictions or not, Hawai'i's state government can say "NO ENTRY UNLESS..." and they're totally cool to do that.
The state was, in fact, not accepting any visitors from outside the islands at all without a mandatory 14-day quarantine up until around October 2020. At that point they began requiring entry to certain islands in most cases with a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours of your flight to the destination island. Certain airlines began offering testing centers in airports, and the state of Hawai'i listed all the agencies and health centers they accepted tests from (since not all tests are created equal, but of course...).
Long story short, we took a mail-in test offered by Vault Health, which we'd tried out in December before going up to Upstate New York to stay with my parents. It worked well, though the holidays did cause delays in shipping, and we figured we were good to go for Hawai'i once we got ours in the mail and did the supervised call before sending in the test via UPS. In case you're interested, the Vault Health test we've found to be the most convenient, especially if testing centers in your area of the US are only open for people who are experiencing symptoms (in New Jersey and Metro NY we found that 90% of testing centers won't even let you make an appointment if you're not experiencing symptoms and haven't been in contact with anyone who's tested positive, symptomatic or not). They ship the kit to your door, and it's a saliva kit, so it's convenient. You just get on a Zoom call with a qualified supervisor just to make sure you're following the procedures and your test can actually be handled correctly, and once you're done, you pack it up and drop it off at your nearest UPS drop station. Easy peasy! Plus, for the price, you get next-day shipping. (We're not affiliated with Vault Health in any way, shape, or form, but we figured, okay, we're a travel blog, might as well talk about Covid tests for travel, right?)
Anyway, we sent in the kit on Wednesday, which was, in fact, 72 hours before our flight to Honolulu. We were flying Newark - San Francisco - Honolulu, and the flight to Honolulu left in the evening, so we needed the test done by then. It's kind of a lot of calculating, especially if you're terrible at math (like the both of us), but generally... count back three days from the leg of your trip that takes you to Honolulu (or your island of choice), and convert the time zone. If necessary, of course.
The tests were supposed to be processed by Friday evening, Saturday morning at the latest, the day of our flight.
Friday came, and no word on the results. We're both planners, but Shani can't function without a plan B (and of course this is meant in the best possible way), so she began looking at other options for testing just in case the test results didn't arrive in time. United Airlines offers testing services in conjunction with a San Francisco-based health clinic at the airport that is accepted by the State of Hawai'i, so she booked us both appointments before the flight to Honolulu. The cost was twice as much what we paid for the mail-in test, which was not cool, but... I came around to accepting the cost eventually.
Saturday morning arrived, and on our way to Newark Airport, Shani saw that her test had come back negative, but no word yet on my test. That sinking feeling began to creep in. You know the one. The one you used to get when you realized you forgot something you really should not have forgotten. That one. Even though nothing was forgotten; it was simply out of our control.
We land in San Francisco, I was praying beyond all hope that by some miracle there was an update in my email... but alas.
Okay.
So here's the part where I would normally be freaking out, nearly in tears because my dream trip is about to be taken away from me (Since I'd been dreaming about going to Hawai'i since I was in diapers. Literally. You can ask my parents.).
Except that I'd already reserved the appointment for the clinic in SFO to get tested.
Hooray!
We found the testing center, they let us both be tested early (our appointments were for an hour after we actually arrived there); Shani decided to get a second test just to make sure all the paperwork was in order.
Fifteen minutes later, we had our negative tests in hand, which we promptly uploaded to our accounts with the Hawai'i Government Safe Travels database, and went back into the airport to wait for our flight.
At the gate, before the flight was even boarding, United had a team set up at a table with a list of the passengers where each of us had to present the QR code provided by the Hawai'i State Government website (the Safe Travels) where we confirmed our negative test results, and were given a blue bracelet to confirm that we were ready and healthy to board the flight and enter O'ahu.
We weren't sure whether to be surprised or not that there were actually people at the gate who did not realize that a negative test was required, and we're guessing they had to run downstairs, see if there were slots available for testing, and rush back up within the next 45 minutes before the flight took off. We never found out what happened with them, but it wasn't our concern.
Six hours later, we got off the plane at Daniel Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, took a deep breath of the rich, tropical air (that was not as heavy as we were expecting it to be), and felt so relieved, and too excited for words, that we were finally in Hawai'i.
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