Inter-Island Flights

Trying to figure out how many islands we should try to visit during a vacation and would like to try to get an idea as to what is involved for inter-island flights. Do those who have done it find it ';relatively easy'; or a ';pain in the butt'; (obviously outside factors may come into play on any given day, but ';in general';). Also, what is realistic check in time for inter-island flights (1 hour, or less/more), or does it depend to which other island one is going, or on which airline? Any help will be appreciated.

Inter-Island Flights

In our experience around an hour or more but as you say alot of things are involved.

How many days because you have to checkout of your hotel get to the airport travel to the next island and get to your hotel to check in. 4 hrs give or take.

We try to get morning flights for interisland travel as it gives more time to explore and find our hotel.

Inter-Island Flights

As Jake said, it%26#39;s pretty time consuming. You have to pack up everything, check out of your hotel, get to the airport (an hour before should be fine) and return your rental car. Wait for your plane, get to the new island, wait for your luggage, get your rental car, get to your new hotel %26amp; check in, unpack. My opinion is if you have a week stay on one island. More than that you could see two, or more depending on how long you will be there.

also packing and checking out from your hotel and then driving to the new one, checking in un packing , parking, getting oriented.....The whole process will take about 4 to 5 hours out of your day for that whole process. With out the hotel checkin/out and no car rental...figure 2.5 hours per flight..in total

Many flights hub out of Honolulu... meaning if your flying from Maui to Kauai... you may have to change planes or lay over in Honolulu enroute

Mid day flights can run as high as $150 per one way flt. off hours can be as cheap as $98

I just spent 4 days on the Big Island and 4 on Kauai for a total of six flights on Hawaiian. It was doable if you limit your itinerary--I only saw the east side of the Big Island, and some of the airports are small and very efficient (Hilo more than Lihue, but both small compared to home, with rental cars literally across the street). But all that extra travel is also quite tiring.

Depends on time of day when you fly and whether you have to go back through Honolulu. I had a 31-minute connection and despite a delay arriving in Honolulu, both I and my luggage made it. But it was unnecessarily harrowing. Most interisland flights are 30 minutes, with another 25 minutes of padding for getting in and out of Honolulu.

I ended up checking in an hour+ ahead because I had to plan on rental cars too and wasn%26#39;t sure about security. You could do it in less if you took only carry on luggage, especially if you check in ahead online.

If you fly early morning or later in the evening you can still get tickets on Hawaiian Airlines for 64$ one way. I ususally show up 90 minutes before the flight to check in, but can be done in 60 min.

The thing with hopping around is you don%26#39;t get more, usually less. If you know what you want and you know you need to go to two specific islands to do it, that%26#39;s one thing.

But if you feel like you just want to see more variety, the truth is you won%26#39;t see half of the one island before you leave it, or maybe an eighth of it with the Big Island.

The opposite sides of one island are usually just as different from each other as if you had gone to another island, only no plane involved!

When you cut an island visit down to 2-4 days, you may end up not seeing what you came for. You could hit a patch of weather, or high surf, and before it subsides you have to leave. Whereas if you had booked a week, you just work around the weather by going to different areas and let it pass over.

You have very little flexibility when you book hops. As I%26#39;m sure you know, the penalties are stiff if you try to shuffle your schedule in the least.

Bottom line, there isn%26#39;t a single island in Hawai%26#39;i that can%26#39;t suffice for an entire vacation. I got to know the islands one island one vacation, and it worked very well. None of my trips were frenetic but I never ran out of stuff to do.

Also, any trip here really ought to have some time doing nothing in particular but just getting in tune with the place.

re your question about flight times ... the islands form a chain from north to south, so it totally depends on how much of the chain you traverse, and whether you go through HNL, or even double back.

An amazing number of flights from Big Island to Maui fly past Maui to HNL, change planes and fly south again. HNL is the hub for the state and is always the easiest destination -- but the least quick airport.

90 minutes is the standard on all of them for check in. You can do less but you%26#39;re pushing it. Everyone goes through the same security line, and if you arrive when a large mainland flight is also outbound, you can be in a long line. At HNL there are always a bunch of flights departing.

If you fly Hawaiian, it is very easy to check your bags at Hele On, just do the web check in beforehand or use the machine.

I personally find the flying a pain in the butt due to the liquid and gel rules for carryon. You pack your stuff, and you have to either check all your toiletries or separate them.

When I go on vacation, I hate wasting time dealing with my STUFF ... and every time I check out of a room and in, have to deal with it all again. It gets old.

I do love to see as many places as I can when I go somewhere far away that I may never return to, so I speak from experience that moving too much is a pain, experience of my own mistakes!

Aloha, I have always been a carry on person; so for me doing inter-island is easy because there is no waiting for luggage.. for most of the airports (not HNL) you are 30 mins from exiting the plane to your car if you carry on. Also when you only do carry on packing is easy so transition time is shorter.

Even if you are carrying on you need to leave at least 45 mins from car drop off to flight departure... just in case there is back-up in security.. more time (like 1 hr.) for the larger airports.

I would think it%26#39;s hard these days to do only carryon for an entire Hawaiian vacation, only one SMALL bag and a personal item.

My experience with checking bags coming into Hilo airport is that my bags were already out by the time I got down the stairs! Maui may be slower, from what I%26#39;ve read.

Flew back into Kona from HNL recently, checked one bag, and there was no waiting to retrieve it. Just walked in from the plane and grabbed the bag.

In that case I checked it because I was done with my trip and it was easier to throw my toiletries into a checked bag and not have to deal with the ziplock for liquids and gels.

On the outbound I wanted certain things in my carry-on because if they did lose my bag I didn%26#39;t want to have to go buy replacements.

I generally take a collapsible nylon bag with me, empty, and that allows me to shop a bit and bring home my purchases I put clothes in the soft bag, and put my new treasures in the luggage.

Interisland can be done with 60 minutes or even less, most of the time, but the thing is that if you are not checked in by a certain time specified on your ticket conditions, they can give your seats to standby passengers.

And if everyone checked in is on the plane, the plane can depart ahead of schedule. So, say you checked in on the web but aren%26#39;t physically at the gate yet, they can take off. And they do. They are known to leave ten minutes early at times. Again, this is a condition stated on the ticket, that the flight can leave early, so read the times given to you by the airline.

You can opt to ignore the guidelines, but you have no recourse if you miss the flight, other than pay considerably more money and hope there are seats on the next flight.

Thanks everyone for all of your help, comments and suggestions. It certainly has given us a better idea as to what is involved with each Inter-Island flight, which helps us to get a better sense of just how much island-hopping we want to do (or not!).