Trip motivation
My family lives in Hawaii and we make yearly trips to visit the grandparents. This was our second visit to Hawaii during Covid (We also visited June 2020). The rules are constantly evolving and have changed since we went. It is always a good idea to make sure you are up to date on the hoops you’ll need to jump through for any country/unique area.
Travel restrictions and testing
When we traveled, we needed to have pretravel testing or to undergo quarantine upon arrival. As of July 8, vaccinated travelers are exempt. Either way you will need to create an account with the state of Hawaii safe travels website and upload the required documentation (Either negative test or image of vaccine card) If you still need to get a negative test (because of unvaccinated members of your party), make sure you read through the testing partners list. In Montana (our previous stop), we did rapid tests at a Walgreens in Helena, uploaded our pdf results and were pre-cleared. There is also a questionnaire to complete 24 hours prior. When we got to the Seattle airport for our second leg, it was straightforward to get a blue bracelet at the gate desk that allowed us to bypass the long lines in Oahu.
Flight details
Read more about tips for long airline trips here.
Getting There:
Bozeman (BZN) to Seattle (SEA) 8:00a-8:54a (1h 54m)
to Honolulu (HNL) 11:21a-2:35p (6h 14 m)
Airport Lounges
When traveling with layovers or to new cities, we always check the website of the airport and the priority pass lounge website prior to the trip (link). The Chase Sapphire Reserve card (in addition to others) comes with priority pass access. This will give you a card that gets you access to lounges at different airports. It is more common internationally.
In the Seattle airport, there were several choices including the Club brand and 2 restaurants. At the club, you can get snacks and alcohol and have a quiet place to sit. We used the priority pass restaurant benefit at a Vietnamese restaurant called Bambuza. Here we got pho for breakfast and some fruits and sandwiches for the plane for later. When you pay, you give the cashier your card and they will wipe out $28 per person. We ordered 2 smoothies, 3 phos, a thai tea and some extra food for the plane (spring rolls, fruit, and a sandwich). All for free!
Other travel perks
Another perk we got from several credit cards we used is Global entry/Pre-check. This is always helpful for avoiding lines and spending as little time as possible with others. After you get your credit card, you’ll use it to pay for the global entry fee and get reimbursed immediately. For more on this benefit and how to use a credit card to receive it for free, see here. The cards below are ones that we’ve used but there are definitely more options
Where we stayed: Free nights at my parents
Not everyone is lucky enough to have free housing with family. We were also fortunate to not have to fight the car rental game (as we had family to lend us a car for the duration of our stay). The main location of hotels are in the Waikiki area with additional options on the West and North areas of Oahu. If you have kids, the top hotels with slides are the Disney Aulani Resort, Hilton Hawaiian Waikiki, and the Turtle Bay Resort. There are a wide variety of price points and luxury to hostel options. Hyatts, Hilton, Marriott are also options if you have a points balance!
