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The Hawaii Safe Travels Program is Required for All Travelers to Hawaii, requiring a negative COVID-19 PCR test result from a test with a State of Hawaii Testing Partner taken within the 72 hours of the final flight leg to Hawaii. Keep in mind that as of time of writing, in early April 2021, even fully vaccinated visitors must obtain a negative COVID-19 PCR test result, and the negative result must be in hand prior to boarding the final leg of your flight to Hawaii, otherwise you'll be subject to the state's mandatory 10 day quarantine.
Since we recently went through this process, here are our tips:
1. Take a Rapid Test from a Hawaii Test Partner
Previously, we took a Vault Health COVID-19 at-home saliva test prior to traveling to Bermuda. That worked smoothly, and Vault Health is also a Hawaii Travel Partner, but for Bermuda we also were able to test within the 5 days prior to our flight. For Hawaii, the test must be taken within the 72 hours prior to the departure time of the final flight leg to Hawaii, and since the negative result must be received before boarding, we didn't want to take any chances with a potentially delayed test result.
Coming from NYC, GoHealth Urgent Care was our best bet, since our visit was covered by insurance and the rapid test cost $75 per person with our insurance; it may even be free depending on your insurance coverage. We spent less than 25 minutes at the clinic and left with print outs of the negative results in hand. Also see Hawaii COVID-19 Rapid Testing: Walgreens, GoHealth, CityHealth.
Whichever option you choose, make sure to mention to the provider that you are going to Hawaii and need the State of Hawaii format for your test results. Make sure that the form with your negative test results meets the following requirements:
- Your first name, last name, date your test was taken, type of test taken, name of trusted testing partner and lab on the test results.
- Your first name, last name and date of birth on the test result matches the first name, last name and date of birth in the Safe Travels digital form.
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2. On the Hawaii Safe Travels Web site, Create a Trip for Each Hawaii Flight Leg
If you first land in Honolulu and then have a flight to a neighboring island, create two trips, the flight to Honolulu and the flight from Honolulu to the neighbor island.
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3. When Uploading Test Results, Only Use a PDF file
As the site indicates, the file type must be a pdf file. Don't upload a screenshot or photo of your negative test result, it won't work.
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4. Contact the Hawaii Safe Travels Help Desk if You Get the Message “Verification in Progress”
If you upload your pdf form of a negative COVID-19 PCR test from a Hawaii Travel partner taken within the 72 hours prior to the departure of your final flight leg to Hawaii and get a “Verification in Progress” status, call the Help Desk at 855-599-0888. The form is supposed to be automatically verified by the system and have the status “COVID Negative” soon after you upload it. In our case, none of our pdfs were automatically read and we had to contact the Help Desk to get them manually validated. The manual validation changed the status to COVID Negative.
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5. Bring Print Outs of Your Negative COVID-19 Test Results
Make sure you have a print out of the negative COVID-19 test result for each person in your party, not just a digital copy on your device. At least some screeners will want to see the printed copy.
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If you've used the Hawaii Safe Travels Program to travel to Hawaii recently, what are your tips?
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