Hawaii
This Visitor Misses Hawaii Deeply. Another Says “Never Again.'
One longtime visitor and commenter who’s been coming to Hawaii for years just announced he won’t be returning—and his candid comment has stirred deeper reflection among travelers. It appeared in response to our recent coverage of Jetstar’s decision to end flights between Australia and Hawaii, but it quickly widened the conversation. His frustration is one we’ve heard often: prices are climbing, infrastructure is aging, and for some, the experience no longer lives up to the cost.
During the same week, we also heard from a new visitor about Hawaii’s profound impact on him and how much he misses it. The experience touched something spiritual for him and went beyond costs and infrastructure. Here’s what Scott wrote:
“I got back from Kauai a week ago and still can’t shake the feeling. I’ve traveled a lot, but I’ve never missed a place like this. Maybe it was the island, or maybe it was what it stood for—slowness, nature, community, honest food, even the roosters. Whatever it was, it got into us. Something feels different now, like our whole outlook shifted after being there.”
And here is the comment from longtime reader Barry that started this discussion:
“Hawaii, unfortunately, has become unaffordable in all aspects,” wrote Barry. “The government as well as the hotels have been sucking in money for years like an uncontrolled vacuum cleaner. The beaches, the roads, the sidewalks, the washrooms, and all the general amenities like water fountains and rinse-off stations require repair or need new ones… We have been coming to Hawaii for many years…but this will no longer be the case. It’s so hard to believe that Hawaii has become an unappealing destination.”
Hawaii changes you—and not always in the same way.
Barry didn’t single out a one-off complaint. Instead, he captured a broader shift many travelers have quietly noticed over the years. While sometimes updated on the surface with refreshed lobbies and branding, hotel rooms often haven’t seen meaningful interior renovations in decades.
One repeat visitor who stays in Waikiki annually told us they were shocked by their most recent room, citing peeling ceilings, rusted fixtures, and stained upholstery. “For the rate we paid,” they said, “we expected better.” We encountered the same thing when we stayed and reviewed the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
Others have noted that while nightly rates have soared, the overall guest experience hasn’t kept pace. Resort and amenity fees now routinely add $45 to $60 per night, even as guests encounter broken rinse stations, inoperable beach showers, and sidewalks needing repair. Some of the most expensive properties—charging over $700 a night—are still criticized for dated interiors and service that fall short of the luxury promise.
Yet, during the same week Barry shared his comment, we heard from a first-time visitor who described a profoundly different experience. For Scott, the trip wasn’t about hotel polish or pricing but something more profound. It’s a reminder that for some, even a short stay in Hawaii leaves an emotional imprint with little to do with amenities or infrastructure.
Resort fees—and what really matters to Hawaii visitors.
The most common complaints we hear are mandatory “resort fees,” which now add $45 to $60 per night at many properties. These charges often cover beach towels, Wi-Fi, or in-room coffee—items that travelers once expected to be included in the base rate. These fees feel like a bait-and-switch for some, especially those staying in older or poorly maintained rooms.
One reader put it bluntly: “Enough with the fees. If you want to charge $600, then charge $600. But don’t pretend it’s $475 and then tack on fees like it’s a used car dealership.”
Others say they wouldn’t mind paying more—if the quality and upkeep matched the price. When rooms feel tired or amenities don’t work, those added fees quickly become a flashpoint.
Still, not every visitor is focused on the financial side. Scott, the first-time traveler to Kauai, did not mention what he paid. For him, the value of Hawaii wasn’t defined by line items—it was in how the experience made him feel. That contrast makes this conversation so complex: the costs have become a dealbreaker for some. For others, the island connection overrides the price tag.
Hawaii’s public spaces leave mixed impressions.
Beyond hotel walls, visitors increasingly consider the condition of Hawaii’s public infrastructure a deciding factor in whether they’ll return. Barry specifically mentioned sidewalks, beach showers, water fountains, and especially public restrooms—everyday necessities that can either elevate or diminish the travel experience. It’s hard not to feel let down when these are broken, closed, or neglected.
Beach parks may be the biggest source of frustration. We’ve seen firsthand how overuse and deferred maintenance have taken a toll, especially in high-traffic areas. Restrooms are often out of service, rinse stations don’t work, and what once felt welcoming now feels worn. For longtime travelers, the contrast from earlier visits—when facilities were basic but reliably clean—is jarring.
As one reader put it, “Crumbling and neglected infrastructure, along with substandard public services, is unacceptable for one of the most beautiful places on earth.” Another commented, “In all my travels, Hawaii gets the award for neglected restroom facilities.” And a third offered: “We need money spent on Hawaii attractions which are long neglected.”
At the same time, visitors like Scott barely mention infrastructure at all. For them, the magic of Hawaii lies elsewhere—in the natural beauty, the pace, the feeling the islands evoke. That doesn’t make the frustration any less real, but it does show that what matters most depends on what a traveler came looking for in the first place.
The big emotional cost of walking away from Hawaii.
What makes Barry’s comment especially striking is how long he remained loyal to Hawaii before reaching his breaking point. He’s not alone. Other travelers have quietly told us they’ve stopped recommending Hawaii to friends or are now exploring alternatives. However, some admit that switching destinations isn’t the easy fix they hoped it might be.
In fact, based on our recent travels researching Hawaii and its alternatives, we’ve found that tourism challenges in places like Venice, Madeira, and Prague—among others—are far worse. Hawaii still has time to avoid going down that slippery road.
One couple told us they’d gone to Maui nearly every year since 1999 but are planning future trips to Portugal or the Canary Islands instead. For Canadians, many things make Hawaii feel even more out of reach. Once you factor in resort fees, parking, taxes, and restaurant prices, the actual cost of a Hawaii vacation can quickly snowball beyond what many feel comfortable spending.
Even among those still coming, we’ve noticed a shift in tone. Several readers said they continue to return, but with managed expectations, acknowledging that while the beauty remains, the overall experience no longer quite matches what it once was. It’s not always an angry goodbye. For many, it’s a quiet, reluctant one—made harder by how much they still love the place.
What happens when loyalty fades?
The visitor numbers may still look strong, but a shift in sentiment like this is difficult to quantify—and even harder to reverse. Travelers like Barry often return for decades, bringing friends, family, and thousands of dollars in spending each time. When they quietly walk away, they leave more than just a vacancy. They influence how others see Hawaii, and sometimes, whether they come at all.
This isn’t unique to Hawaii. Around the world, once-beloved destinations are grappling with the effects of too much tourism, insufficient reinvestment, and a feeling of being squeezed out or unappreciated by both travelers and residents.
It’s a pattern we’ve seen firsthand—and one we’ll continue tracking as we explore places like the Cook Islands, Fiji, and French Polynesia. Hawaii isn’t there yet, but the warning signs are familiar, and the opportunity to choose a different path is still very much alive.
But the pull of Hawaii is still real.
Even as frustrations rise, many travelers continue to describe something lasting and powerful about their time in Hawaii. Some say they leave feeling changed—more grounded, present, and connected to nature and people. Others tell us they miss the islands the moment they land back home. That’s why the disappointment stings so deeply: because the love for Hawaii runs deep.
There’s also something fitting—if bittersweet—about the word Aloha, which means both hello and goodbye. For many, the parting feeling isn’t anger. It’s grief. And the hope remains that one day, the goodbye might turn into a welcome again.
Still worth it—for now?
Not everyone is saying goodbye. Some readers remain committed to returning, even as they acknowledge the cracks. One visitor told us, “Hawaii has its issues, yes. But we keep coming back because no place else makes us feel the way Kauai does. I just wish it didn’t feel like we were being punished for it.”
Another wrote, “We’re holding out hope that things will improve, but it’s getting harder to justify it to friends when they ask where to go for vacation.” These aren’t just passing complaints. They’re thoughtful reflections from travelers who have loved Hawaii for decades—and whose continued loyalty shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Can Hawaii win you back?
Hawaii still offers natural beauty and cultural richness that few places can match. But the visitor experience doesn’t depend solely on scenery. It depends on value, trust, and the feeling that a vacation here will be memorable—for the right reasons, not just costly ones.
There’s still time to address the concerns travelers are raising. Hotels can reinvest in their rooms and service. Amenities and other fees can be made transparent or eliminated. Public infrastructure can be restored and maintained in ways that benefit everyone. Hawaii’s welcome can be better rooted in mutual respect, not simply fatigue or frustration.
Have you reached a breaking point—or are you still holding out hope? The fact that so many travelers still feel this deeply, even when stepping away, says a lot about Hawaii and its visitors. With Aloha meaning hello and goodbye, maybe that’s where the path back begins.
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A regular Hawaii flyer who reads BOH just put words to what longtime travelers are now seeing when booking flights. Fares have surged, planes are half empty, and the carrier that promised to break the monopoly just rolled out a loyalty program instead of keeping fares low.
Jim flies between islands often enough to know when something feels off. He told us he can afford to fly but is choosing not to, and maybe that says more than anything else right now. His focus was not on his own travel. He kept coming back to families and what it looks like when four people try to book a simple Hawaii flight from Honolulu and see totals pushing past $1,000 round trip for twenty-minute flights. He tied last week’s Hawaiian final integration by Alaska directly to the timing, with changes rushing in at once because something about the pricing suddenly felt less stable.
He did not soften it and said the Aloha spirit has been replaced by what he called a greedy eye for profit. Jim asked Alaska to explain what was happening, and he is not alone. He is just someone who said it clearly.
Fares up, planes not full, but the math no longer works for anyone.
Fuel is the obvious headline, but it does not completely explain what visitors and residents are seeing. The Middle East conflict pushed jet fuel to over $200 in a matter of weeks, hitting an industry where fuel now accounts for an unacceptably high percentage of operating expenses. US carriers largely folded that increase into base fares rather than as a separate charge, which helps explain some of the jump but not the entire pricing behavior now showing up on Hawaii interisland flights.
Federal Department of Transportation data covering the 12 months through August 2025 showed Southwest filling just 51.9% of its Hawaii flights between islands, while Hawaiian sat near 74% over that same period. That disparity has held for years now, and planes that are half full usually do not support higher fares because airlines lower prices to fill empty seats. That is how this business works when carriers actually compete.
We checked it ourselves this week. Lihue to Honolulu for meetings in June came back at about $230 round trip per person before any seat selection or other fees, and the flights were wide open on both Hawaiian/Alaska, and on Southwest across the day, with plenty of seats and seemingly no pressure on availability. High fares alongside empty inventory are telltale. This is not a capacity problem; it is a pricing decision.
Southwest came to Hawaii to break the monopoly then finally stopped trying.
Southwest entered Hawaii in 2019 with a simple pitch. Break the Hawaiian Airlines monopoly and keep fares honest. The $39 fare sales became the symbol of that promise, and people remember those numbers because they reset expectations overnight.
Those fares are gone. They did not just fade slowly; they stopped showing up. Southwest never got its Hawaii loads where it needed them, and even after cutting capacity twice in 2025 to shrink its operation, the planes stayed underfilled. Hawaiian held steady in the mid-70% range on the last count, while the competitive pressure that was supposed to keep prices in check no longer seems to matter.
Now both carriers are moving in the same direction on price, and fuel gave them a great reason to move together. No one needed to say anything publicly. The result is the same: the discount era has ended, and nothing valuable has replaced it on the fare side.
Airline points programs are not fare sales.
This week, Southwest expanded its Ohana Rewards program for Hawaii residents, and the pitch sounds familiar. Hawaii residents earn 1,000 points per one-way flight, awards starting at 4,000 points, two free checked bags, and a quarterly 10% discount code.
So two full-fare round-trip tickets earn one free one-way ticket. Is that a deal when the cost per flight is so much higher than it has been before? It asks residents to pay full price repeatedly to earn back a fraction of a trip, and for Hawaii visitors its even worse.
Southwest used to advertise fares that moved the market. Now it advertises points that require multiple paid trips to unlock a limited return. Hawaiian’s Huakai program runs essentially the same playbook on the other side. The headline is up to 20% off one neighbor island booking per quarter, but that’s only for holders of the old Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard. Regular members get 10%. The discount code applies to up to 6 companions on the same reservation. Perks sit atop high prices, with rules that make them hard to use.
When Southwest, which built its reputation on cheap fares to Hawaii, shifts to selling loyalty points, the signal is clear. The focus moved from filling seats with lower prices to holding prices high and offering rewards later, and reader Jim saw that shift when booking, before any press release explained it.
Residents bear the highest cost when flights to Hawaii become a luxury.
Mainland visitors experience it differently. If they book a direct flight to Maui, Kauai, or Kona and stay put, there is no impact. And that direct to neighbor island flight shift has been building for years as mainland carriers added more nonstop routes to Maui, the Big Island, and Kauai. Flying between the Hawaii islands is no longer a key part of many visitors’ itineraries.
The people left flying between islands are residents, and some visitors, those visiting multiple islands, and those going to see family, attend meetings, handle medical appointments, show up for events, or support kids playing sports and music across the islands. Many of these are not optional trips. There is no ferry, there is no road, and flying Southwest or Alaska is the only way.
When fares double and stay there, the choice becomes simple and hard at the same time. Pay it or do not go. Jim chose not to go because he could make that call, but many could not.
The group with the least flexibility is paying the highest prices, and the carriers serving that market have stopped competing on airfare. What they are offering is Hawaii resident loyalty programs of far less value than better airfares.
Jim said it plainly. That is not Aloha when, in a Hawaii flight market, the people who need the service most are the ones with the fewest options.
The shift arrived suddenly.
Two airlines that once competed hard on price are now moving together, and loyalty program enhancements are landing at the same time as clear airfare spikes. Fuel is the reason everyone can easily point to, but the alignment on pricing is the piece that people feel, and that we are writing about. Jim asked Alaska to explain itself, and he has not heard anything that answers his question.
What are you seeing when booking Hawaii flights now? Please tell us in the comments below.
Photo Credit of Waikiki from Diamond Head: © Beat of Hawaii.
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Forecast for Big Island Windward and Southeast
| Shores | Tonight | Saturday | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surf | Surf | |||
| PM | AM | AM | PM | |
| North Facing | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 |
| East Facing | 4-6 | 4-6 | 4-6 | 4-6 |
| South Facing | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 |
| Weather | Mostly cloudy. Numerous showers. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low Temperature | In the upper 60s. | ||||||
| Winds | Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. | ||||||
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| Weather | Partly sunny. Numerous showers. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Temperature | In the upper 70s. | |||||
| Winds | East winds 10 to 15 mph. | |||||
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| Sunrise | 5:50 AM HST. | |||||
| Sunset | 6:44 PM HST. | |||||
Forecast for Big Island Leeward
| Shores | Tonight | Saturday | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surf | Surf | |||
| PM | AM | AM | PM | |
| West Facing | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 |
| South Facing | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 |
| Weather | Partly sunny until 6 PM, then mostly clear. Isolated showers. |
||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low Temperature | Around 70. | ||||||||||
| Winds | Southwest winds around 5 mph, becoming northeast after midnight. |
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| Weather | Mostly sunny. Isolated showers. | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Temperature | In the lower 80s. | ||||||||
| Winds | South winds around 5 mph, becoming west in the afternoon. |
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| Sunrise | 5:54 AM HST. | ||||||||
| Sunset | 6:48 PM HST. | ||||||||
An incoming northwesterly swell will bring rising surf to north and west shores overnight, with surf peaking near advisory levels, before gradually easing through the weekend. Another, slightly smaller northwest swell is expected early next week, and another long-period northwest swell may arrive late next week. Surf along south facing showers will trend upwards over the weekend with the arrival of a long-period south-southwest swell. Surf along east facing shores will trend downward over the weekend as the trade winds weaken.
NORTH EAST
am pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Semi choppy with ESE winds 5-10mph in the morning increasing to 10-15mph in the afternoon.
NORTH WEST
am pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Clean in the morning with ESE winds less than 5mph. Bumpy/semi bumpy conditions for the afternoon with the winds shifting W 5-10mph.
WEST
am pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Light sideshore texture in the morning with NNW winds 5-10mph. Bumpy/semi bumpy conditions for the afternoon with the winds shifting to the WNW.
SOUTH EAST
am pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Sideshore texture/chop with NE winds 10-15mph.
Data Courtesy of NOAA.gov and SwellInfo.com
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The Hawaiʻi State Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday approved House Bill No. 1800 CD1, the state’s supplemental budget bill for the fiscal biennium 2025-2027.
The measure was finalized in a joint conference committee after both chambers initially passed different versions. The bill will now be up for final reading in both chambers before heading to the Governor’s desk for his signature.
The appropriations are as follows:
General Fund
Fiscal Year 2026: $10.42 billion
Fiscal Year 2027: $10.63 billion
All Means of Financing
Fiscal Year 2026: $19.77 billion
Fiscal Year 2027: $20.31 billion
“This budget uses cost-saving measures to help keep our promise to address the high cost of living and deliver meaningful tax reform to Hawaii’s citizens, especially our working- and middle-class families. At the same time, we are strengthening the State’s resilience through responsible long-term investments that promote regional economic development and environmental stewardship,” said Senator Donovan M. Dela Cruz, Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means (Senate District 17 – Portion of Mililani, Mililani Mauka, portion of Waipi‘o Acres, Launani Valley, Wahiawā, Whitmore Village).
“The CIP budget reflects our commitment to protecting health and safety, preserving and modernizing state facilities, and investing in the critical infrastructure and public assets our communities rely on. These investments also support affordable housing, strengthen education, and advance economic development that will help sustain thriving communities across Hawai‘i,” stated Senator Sharon Y. Moriwaki, Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means (Senate District 12 – Waikīkī, Ala Moana, Kaka‘ako, McCully).
“This budget reflects the House’s continued collaboration with the Administration and the Senate to take a balanced, responsible approach to preserving core government services and strengthening our safety net for Hawaiʻi’s residents—especially those who rely on these services as a lifeline,” said Representative Chris Todd, Chair of the House Committee on Finance (House District 3 – portions of Hilo, Keaukaha, Orchidlands Estate, Ainaloa, Hawaiian Acres, Fern Acres, and parts of Kurtistown and Kea‘au). “It prioritizes critical needs across housing, agriculture, natural resources, transportation, public safety, and economic development, setting a strong foundation as we respond to federal funding cuts that have impacted Hawaiʻi and required the state to urgently step up to support our residents.”
Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
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