Reviews

Excellent Helicopter tour

I was so impressed with the trip. We have a disabled son and there were no limitations. He had the window seat and enjoyed the entire flight. Thank you so much for having the capabilities to take disabled individuals on this amazing journey.

amazing tour, our pilot Brandon was an excellent host.  his narration and addition of music that was themed to each area that we were visiting was a great touch!  I would recommend this to anyone visiting the island!

We were booked on a charter tour with another company which was canceled because of poor visibility in the primary areas of interest and although I had five days left on the island, they had no aircraft available. Having toured with Blue Hawaiian twice on Maui and once on the Hilo side, I checked availability online. Unfortunately, the online booking system locked-up twice so I called the 800 number. I friendly agent found us 2 seats on the whole island tour on the last day of our stay, fortuitously, she gave us a repeat customer perk. After checking in, an agent pulled our group aside and said the earlier tour was reporting poor visibility in one of the tour areas basically north to the northeast part where volcano Kilauea is located. Though no active flows and such at this time, seeing recent flows and impact was one of our PRIMARY reason for a big buck tour. GOOD for Blue Hawaiian: The agent explained the situation. We could rebook or cancel, or they were offering an extended version of their Kohala waterfall tour. We accepted the enhanced Kohala tour which included looks and the extinct volcanos on the near side of the island, an extended look for waterfalls, and even a little time whale watching. Although we had seen a small pod offshore during dinner the previous night, we probably should have looked more at other inland sights as April 16th is a little late for whales. The interesting narration and Q and A during the look at the old volcanos was excellent. The terrain and remnants of the volcanic origins of the island is so much more expansive and vast than ever conveyed by photos or video. From the colorful impact of iron or sulfur to just the expanse of black rugged lava and lighter smooth lava is stunning to the visual senses. Also, this in some ways highlighted the disappointment not seeing the more flows from the last Kilauea event. Having toured by copter and fixed-wing on Oahu, Maui, and Kauai, I was not expecting to be overwhelmed by the waterfalls but the recent rains meant the falls were particularly spectacular. I think the changing cloud and weather might have cut us off of some of the falls, but I was awed by the number and size and density of the falls in the Kohala region. If you can't do the whole island tour or tours from both sides of the Big Island, the Kohala area is spectacular. The Eco-star copter is really nice. BIG windows, individual seats, a/c. The front is a great place particularly with the individual, offset seats (our experience with A-star bench seat is a tad tight). Our pilot seemed to not only have a good grasp of the tour script but was really acknowledgeable about the volcanos and other questions that were asked during the flight. The check-in and waiting areas are clean and well maintained. We have flown with companies where these areas appear a little "rustic" for my tastes and a little suspect for what else might be a little worn. I've done air tours in planes on the islands where I felt the same, but Blue Hawaiian is clean and well maintained, even the bathrooms. I did receive a discount for being a repeat customer, but I think the "whole island" price for the tour we got was a little high. Probably, 3/4 of the whole price was more in line for what we received. However, that does NOT take away from the quality of the experience we did have. Advice - Book whatever tour early in your trip so if something interferes, you still have a chance to tour. I'm glad we did; the Kohala falls and volcanic artifacts were worth the time. Blue Hawaiian assigns seats; I bet you can ask but I also bet they'll say a computer program assigns the seating by passenger weight to best balance the bird. If it really matters, one of the companies will let you pay extra for the front seat. Oddly, most tours go counterclockwise meaning the left side is slightly better but our pilot did a very nice job of slowly circling to give both sides great views and photo ops. I prefer the smaller copters (3 and 4 passengers), but the Eco is the most comfortable with better windows that the A-star. We first flew with Blue Hawaiian in 1999 on Maui and 5 other times. First class company.

Just a warning to those with long legs who have a hard time keeping their knees bent for about an hour. I’m 6’2”, but have long legs and a short torso. I also have an old basketball injury that seems to cause a bit of pain when my one knee is bent that long. This is not a knock against the company. They were wonderful. The pilot was great with commentary and answering questions. And the rest of the staff were great with instructions. This was just me sitting where I was. I just happened to be in the back row, middle where there was no leg room. My knees were pretty much on the back of the seat in front of me. It was fine for the first half hour, but after that it was pure pain. From that point, I was just waiting for it to be over. To make it worse, there were a couple shorter people in front with more space who could easily bend their legs - LOL. I totally understand that they arrange it all by weight for safety and all, so all good. Again, just something to be aware of and nothing against the company - they were awesome.

Même c’est un peu cher il faut le faire. Ça donne une excellente vue sur l’île de Kauai. La balade dure globalement 1 heure et tant mieux car à la fin j’avais un peu mal au coeur. Le pilote est génial et ses commentaires tout au long du vol sont très intéressants même si je n’ai pas tout compris.

Fantastic trip...the weather was perfect and so was Mike S. (the pilot)....you Rock Mike. Thank You for very memorable trip.

Great Helicopter, Great Pilot, Great staff, and ultimately great views of the island, volcano activity, and water falls.

This was absolutely marvelous experience!

Our first flight. "Amazing" does not do it justice. Best activity!

what an amazing flight, great pilot ..

AWESOME! But don’t be over113kg or250lbs or you will get slugged with an extra $225AU or $160US. This was very very disappointing and made the trip VERY expensive.

Had a wonderful flight with Josh. Made sure everyone on board got a view of what we were seeing. Covered quite a bit of ground, by air!

The helicopter ride was one of my life's most interesting events. I would highly recommend this place.

We took a flight over the volcano and lava flow and it was fantastic. Steve, our pilot, was very knowledgeable and pointed out some fantastic facts about the last eruption and how the island was affected. Cannot recommend highly enough!