Hawaii travel news: January 26, 2021

– There are two airlines now, Alaska and Hawaiian, that are offering  “Hawaii Pre-Clear.” This process allows travelers to bypass airport screening upon arrival in Hawaii — provided that they complete their Safe Travels profile and have a negative test result before arriving at their departure gate. To learn more about these programs and where they’re offered, see these links:

• Alaska Airlines Hawaii Pre-Clear
• Hawaiian Airlines Pre-Clear

– If you’re thinking about planning a trip to Waikiki sometime before June, you might want to be aware of a noisy beach maintenance project that may take away some of your daytime beach access. It may be a bit of an eyesore, too. This project entails dredging sand off shore and pumping it to eroded areas of the beach.  See this link for details of this project with areas of highest impact shown. If you want to stay in or around Waikiki, but minimize any impact to your vacation, our advice would be to stay at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (see our review), which is situated a good distance away from the project activity. Another good choice would be to stay at the Kahala Resort (see our review), which is about 10 minutes away, but easy to access the restaurants and shops of Waikiki.

– Maui Ocean Center has reopened. Visitors must make reservations and pre-purchase their entrance fee.

– Driving Maui’s road to Hana is going to become more complicated, especially if you want to visit one of the journey’s highlights, Wai’anapanapa State Park. A reservation system and entrance fee is anticipated to launch in February per Maui News.