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| Above, a view of Diamond Head from Waikiki. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Planning a trip to Hawaii?
Well, although resorts and hotels are opening up, things are still a bit topsy-turvy. To navigate through the muck of regulations, Hawaii Magazine posted six tip for traveling to Hawaii right now.
They begin with:
The recent surge in new COVID-19 cases in the U.S.—spurred by the highly contagious delta variant—is concerning for travelers, even those flying to the Islands, where daily numbers are at all-time highs. On Tuesday the state reported 389 new confirmed and probable infections statewide. Hawaiʻi has reported triple-digit cases for two weeks, peaking at 622 on Friday.
This spike comes on the heels of a summer that saw near-pre-pandemic levels of visitors. According to the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, more than 2.7 million people arrived in the Islands in the first half of 2021, up 27.6% compared to the first half of 2020. In June alone, 791,053 visitors flew to Hawaiʻi from the U.S.
And while that’s great news for the state’s tourism industry, which came to a standstill during the pandemic, the onslaught of visitors to a place still dealing with COVID-19 cases and struggling with striking the right balance between reopening and keeping the community safe has created a unique set of challenges.
There are new procedures for visiting popular attractions, rules about mask-wearing, new protocols at hotels, long waits at busy restaurants and a shortage of rental cars.
Here are some tips for anyone planning to visit the Islands this year. And fair warning: Things change all the time.
To see what the six tips are, go here.
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