Island Hopping Tips

[MightyDuck001]

I'm planning out my September trip and wanted to know if anyone has any tips for island hopping and what the airports are like--get there really early? are they crazy crowded with long lines at security like MCO?

What I'd like to do is head to Kauai first for Labor day weekend for their half marathon (Friday to Monday) and then go to Aulani on Monday. My plan was fly nonstop JFK to HNL on Hawaiian and then connect to Kauai but I'm not sure how to space them out. I'm balancing my dislike for really long plane rides (I once flew New York to Tokyo nonstop and just wanted someone to kill me and end my misery) with avoiding the anxiety of missing a connection (this happened to a friend when she flew to Hawaii and connected in Las Vegas).

 

[nkereina]

We traveled to Hawaii this past September and island hopped - my trip report and pics are in my signature. We island hopped three times - we flew from Buffalo to Atlanta to Honolulu and stayed in Waikiki our first 3 nights, then hopped to Maui for 3 nights, then Kauai for 3 nights, then back to Oahu/Aulani for our last 6 nights. It was a lot, but we enjoyed it. Also starting and ending our trip with Oahu allowed us to book round trip flights to and from Honolulu which was cheaper for us.

We scheduled our inter-island flights for mid-morning - around 11am-12pm. My thought process was that we could have a last breakfast at our resort and then head to the airport without having to get up at the crack of dawn to rush to the airport. Also, my thought was by the time we arrived at our new resort, it would be check-in time and we could get in our room. All of this was true, but we did feel almost like we lost a day each time we island hopped because it was time consuming. If I had to do it over again, I'd take either a very early flight or very late flight so you can have a full day in either the island you are going to or the island you are leaving.

As far as the airport, we never found the security lines very busy and the Kauai airport is very small. We got there about 2 hours early because we didn't know what to expect, and it definitely was not necessary. We killed a lot of time. Overall, the process was easy since the airports are small and quick to navigate.

 

[ehrawn]

I'm planning out my September trip and wanted to know if anyone has any tips for island hopping and what the airports are like--get there really early? are they crazy crowded with long lines at security like MCO?

What I'd like to do is head to Kauai first for Labor day weekend for their half marathon (Friday to Monday) and then go to Aulani on Monday. My plan was fly nonstop JFK to HNL on Hawaiian and then connect to Kauai but I'm not sure how to space them out. I'm balancing my dislike for really long plane rides (I once flew New York to Tokyo nonstop and just wanted someone to kill me and end my misery) with avoiding the anxiety of missing a connection (this happened to a friend when she flew to Hawaii and connected in Las Vegas).

Oahu resident here. The Hawaiian and Inter-Island terminals rarely have lines. 45 min ahead of your flight is usually fine; 60 min is safe.