How Hawaii’s Pre-Travel Testing Program Works

Aloha from Hawaii! Hawaii has been an extremely popular destination for people to travel to in recent months, though traveling there without having to quarantine requires pre-travel testing, as part of the Hawaii Safe Travels program.

This isn’t as easy as just getting tested and bringing a copy of the negative result to the airport, but rather there are quite a few hoops to jump through. In this post I wanted to outline that process, and also share some of the things that I learned.

Who is allowed to travel to Hawaii?

Hawaii is not only open to all Americans, but also to anyone who is allowed to travel to the United States in general. However, Hawaii requires travelers to either quarantine or get tested:

• Those arriving in Hawaii have to quarantine for 10 days
• The only way to skip that quarantine is to participate in the Hawaii Safe Travels program, which requires taking a coronavirus test within 72 hours of the departure of your nonstop flight to Hawaii; if you upload the negative test result and complete all other requirements and documentation prior to travel, you can skip the quarantine

Note that starting at some point this summer, Hawaii plans to no longer require vaccinated travelers to get tested, though that policy isn’t in place yet (it’s expected to be rolled out somewhere around July 4). Also keep in mind that entry requirements are always subject to change, so make sure you check Hawaii’s official travel website for the latest details.

What is the Hawaii Safe Travels program?

Safe Travels is the name of the portal that Hawaii uses for granting entry to the state. You have to go to the Safe Travels website to create a profile, complete a health declaration, share personal details, and upload your coronavirus test results, among other things.

Step-by-step: Hawaii Safe Travels program

The Hawaii Safe Travels portal is kind of tedious, to put it mildly, and that’s probably by design. I’ll provide a step-by-step guide of my experience, and also share what I learned along the way.

A few things to note upfront:

• It’s extremely important that all the forms you complete and all the documents you upload are accurate, or else you could run into issues, so triple check your work
• Each adult needs their own profile in the Safe Travels portal; I’m traveling with my family (in this case a party of four) and I did all of our applications, so suffice to say that this was a bit time consuming
• There are different orders in which you can complete the requirements, so the suggestions I outline below are intended to be the most efficient, though there are other approaches you can take as well
• The most stressful part of this process was timing our tests (given the strict timeline), and then patiently waiting for the results to come in prior to travel

Step #1: Decide how you want to get tested

The state of Hawaii will only accept a Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) from a trusted testing and travel partner (you can find a full list of those here). In general there are three directions you can go, and the best option largely varies on where you live:

• There’s the option of an in-person test at all kinds of partner locations, including places like CVS and Walgreens; this typically costs ~$100-150 per person
• There’s the option of an at-home test with a company like Vault Health, whereby you video chat with someone who watches you spit in a tube, and then you overnight it to them; this typically costs ~$100-150 per person
• Some airports with direct flights to Hawaii have on-site testing with results available in less than 30 minutes, because they have an on-site lab; this is typically the most costly option, at ~$250

I know a lot of people have had good experiences with the at-home test kits. Personally we decided to just do in-person tests at CVS, since there was one near us, and it seemed more convenient than having to get on a video call, then bringing the boxes to the mail to be overnighted, etc.