When we took our last trip to Hawaii, we arrived home on March 1, 2020, shortly before the pandemic lockdown. This is the first time we’ve left the Twin Cities since then. We didn’t want to go anywhere until we were both fully vaccinated. We had to postpone our Hawaii trip and an Alaskan cruise several times, so we were really looking forward to Hawaii, but were wondering how much the pandemic would affect everything. I thought our experiences might help those planning a trip.
CLEAR Health Pass for Hawaii (not recommended)
Before we went to the MSP airport, I registered both of us for a free 2 month trial of CLEAR Health Pass. With it you can store your COVID testing and vaccine information. Several partners, including Hawaii, accept CLEAR Health Pass to prove vaccination. After you register, you have to go to the airport to collect your biometrics. What a joke! It should only take a couple of minutes to scan your eyes, face, and fingerprints. Their scanners were either out of order or couldn’t get consistent results. After 20 minutes and several personal trying to help, they finally got us scanned and verified. I’ll cancel my membership as soon as we get home.
Safe Travels for Hawaii (works great)
FYI, it’s not an app, it’s all through a web site. With Safe Travels, you apply for a quarantine exception by uploading your vaccination card ahead of time and enter your flight info. Within 24 hours of your flight, they’ll email a heath questionnaire. Along with questions about how you’re currently feeling, they want to know when you got your last flu shot. Since we were in Seattle by then we had to guess. Fill it out, submit it, and they’ll email a QR code. When you check in for the flight going to Hawaii, the agent scans the QR code, and puts a colored plastic band on your wrist. When you arrive in Hawaii, hold up your wrist with the band, and they let you through without any hassle. The rental car agency may have looked at the band too, because they didn’t ask for and COVID information. Just make sure you read all the information on their web site and in their emails.
Baggage Carousels
My Hawaiian Airlines app said our luggage would be at carousel 3. The sign in baggage claim said it would be in carousel 1. I found it in carousel 2. It’s not the first time this has happened. If there’s luggage coming down any of the carousels, go look to see if yours is there.
Rental Cars in Maui (piece of cake)
TIP: book it early and keep checking for lower prices. I was nervous because of some horror stories about people not getting their reserved car or having a long wait. It couldn’t have been easier. Last time we were in Maui, the Kahului Airport was still under construction. It’s finished and they did a nice job accommodating rental cars. All the major companies are in a single building inside a large parking ramp. A tram runs continuously from the baggage claims to the rental cars vendors. I reserved through National and paid a little extra for a car in the Emerald Isle. The keys were in the cars and I could choose from a wide variety of makes and models. I chose a small SUV by Ford, hopped in, and checked out at the gate.
So we’re staying at Wailea Ekahi Village on the south end of Kihei. It looks like it will be sunny, very warm, and humid all week. As we drove through Kihei on Friday, the car said it was 100 degrees. Fortunately, the condo’s AC works well. I’ll report later on Maui restaurants and attractions.