Tours
Home » Getting around » Island Hopping

Island Hopping in Hawaiʻi: dos, don’ts, and money saving tips

By | updated (What changed?)

Yes, you can visit several of Hawaiʻi’s six major islands on one trip, and the flights make it easy: interisland hops run 20 to 45 minutes, often less than the drive to the airport. Each of the six is its own place, with different weather, terrain, and pace. Whether you should island hop is the real question, and the honest answer depends on how much time you have and how you like to travel.

If your trip is a week or less, hopping can eat more of it than you expect. This page is for travelers weighing one island against two or three: how long to give each before it’s worth the move, which islands pair well, and how to keep each interisland hop closer to $49 than $150.

Table of contents

The dos and don’ts of island hopping

Should you island hop at all, or pick one island and settle in? Here is the honest case both ways, so you can decide before you book any flights and start to plan your trip.

Why Should You Island Hop?

One mistake first-time visitors make is assuming the Hawaiian islands are basically the same. They are not. Each island carries its own personality and pace, despite the shared volcanic roots.

Both Kauaʻi and Maui have mountains and beaches, for example, but no one who has visited would ever get them confused. Oʻahu is the only island with a major metropolitan area, while Molokaʻi has no stoplights. Each island also has its own strengths. Maui and Oʻahu have the most white-sand beaches, while the volcanic country on the Big Island is like nowhere else in the state.

In this way, a visit to a variety of islands can offer a wider perspective on Hawaiʻi as a whole, and provide the opportunity to experience variations in landscapes and lifestyles. With proper planning, you can execute a multi-island trip that shows off what makes each island distinct.

Why Shouldn’t You Island Hop?

Island hopping is rewarding, but it costs you effort. Every move means packing up, returning a rental car, and spending a couple of hours at the airport for a 30-minute flight. Plenty of visitors come to Hawaiʻi to slow down, and that airport churn is the opposite of relaxing.

How much exploring you want to do is also a factor. If you plan to spend each and every day on the beach, staying put could be more relaxing than island hopping (though island hopping does put you on a wider range of beaches).

Other folks prefer to spend more time on one island and get to know it really well as opposed to spreading out their time across multiple islands and only getting an overview of each. If you only spend a day or two in Honolulu, for example, you will end up with a very skewed view of Oʻahu. Spending more time on one island gives you the complete picture of that particular island.

Traveling to multiple islands is also more expensive, since you need to buy the interisland flights and will incur accessory costs along the way, such as taxis, car rentals, baggage fees, short-term accommodations, etc.

More essential trip planning resources

Now that you have (almost) sorted out your interisland flights it's time to look over the other essential parts of your trip one more time:

  1. The Discount Hawaii Car Rentals website is our first stop for a quote when we need a rental car. We like them (a) because they offer the BEST rates, (b) require no prepayment and charge no cancellation fees, and (c) because they offer additional benefits such as free extra drivers and reduced young driver rates.
  2. We put a LOT of effort in figuring out which tours actually are the best. Have a look at our curated tour section to see tours that get consitently good reviews *and* offer great value.
  3. Did you know we are giving away free itineraries for all Hawaiian islands? These are a great place to start planing your own trip.
  4. Our Trip Planning 101 Guide is a another GREAT place to start planning for 1st time visitors.

Save $$$

Recommended Minimum Stay on Each Island

If you are going to island hop, give each island enough time to be worth the flight over. One day on an island is not enough. Here are the minimum stays we recommend when you are moving between them.

Details below last verified June 2026.

Name Minimum stay Why this long
1Oʻahu (Details ↓) 3 days Time to get past Honolulu and Waikīkī to the North Shore and the Waiʻanae Coast
2Big Island (Details ↓) 4 days The biggest island, with long drives; covers Kona plus Hilo and the volcano
3Maui (Details ↓) 3 days A first look at the Road to Hāna, Haleakalā, and the west and south shore beaches
4Kauaʻi (Details ↓) 3 days A day each for the Nāpali Coast and Waimea Canyon, on opposite sides
5Molokaʻi (Details ↓) 2 days Small and very local, from Pāpōhaku Beach in the west to Hālawa Valley out east
6Lānaʻi (Details ↓) 2 days Small and privately owned; tall cliffs and history, but pricey to stay overnight

Which Island Should You Choose

If you are short on time sometimes island hopping is not your best option. See our “which island is best for you” series to help you pick between your favorites.

Find out which island suits you best

Note: The times listed below are our recommended minimums for those visiting multiple islands in one trip and looking to get a solid overview/introduction.

Oʻahu

Minimum recommended stay: 3 days.

Why: To understand Oʻahu, one needs a few days to explore beyond Honolulu, Waikīkī, and Pearl Harbor. Oʻahu is extremely diverse, with a variety of cultures and landscapes and a mix of city and outdoor opportunities that include the Koʻolau Mountains, the North Shore, and the beaches of the Waiʻanae Coast. Plus, lots of great restaurants.

Waikīkī Beach on Oʻahu with Lēʻahi (Diamond Head) rising behind it

Waikīkī Beach on Oʻahu with Lēʻahi (Diamond Head) in the background. Credit: Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) / Vincent Lim

Big Island

Minimum recommended stay: 4 days.

Why: The Big Island is so big that all the other islands combined could fit inside of it, which means longer drive times between areas. Four days will not allow you to explore the entire island, but it’s enough time to give you a pretty good overview. Spend a few days in Kona, and then hop over to Hilo-side to explore Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

Maui

Minimum recommended stay: 3 days.

Why: There’s a lot more to Maui than what you could explore in three days, but it would allow you a very good first look, including the Road to Hāna, Haleakalā Volcano, and the beaches along its west and south shores.

Snorkelers and a catamaran in Honolua Bay

Snorkelers and a catamaran in Honolua Bay, one of the few sheltered bays to snorkel on Maui. Image credit: Edmund Garman, source.

Kauaʻi

Minimum recommended stay: 3 days.

Why: The Nāpali Coast and Waimea Canyon are the two major natural attractions on Kauaʻi, so any visit must include a day exploring each. Since they are on opposite sides of the island, driving between them will give you a great look at the Kauaʻi’s diverse environment.

View from the Waimea Canyon Lookout

The easily accessible Waimea Canyon Lookout looks straight down into Waimea Canyon. Image credit: Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) / Ben Ono

Molokaʻi

Minimum recommended stay: 2 days.

Why: Molokaʻi is a small island, but the experience there is unlike any other you’ll find in the islands. Minimal tourism infrastructure keeps the island feeling extremely local, with lots of space to spread out from Pāpōhaku Beach in the west to the historic and sacred Hālawa Valley out east.

The north Molokaʻi sea cliffs seen through the window of a small airplane

A view of the north Molokaʻi sea cliffs through a small airplane window. Image: Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) / Blake Bronstad

Lānaʻi

Minimum recommended stay: 2 days.

Why: Lānaʻi is privately owned, and that decides what a night there costs. The former Pineapple Island has a handful of properties and none of them publishes a nightly rate outside its own booking flow, so price a real date range before you book. If the overnight cost doesn’t work, the ferry makes Lānaʻi a straightforward day trip from Maui instead, which is why we put the minimum at two days rather than ruling it out.

Puʻu Pehe, also called Sweetheart Rock, a sea stack off the south coast of Lānaʻi

Puʻu Pehe (Sweetheart Rock) on Lānaʻi is a popular photo spot with a storied history and almost nobody around. Credit: Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) / Tor Johnson

Suggested Island Pairings

The islands pair in a handful of combinations that make sense, but one piece of advice comes before all of them.

Our best tip and most strict advice in this regard is to always start with Oʻahu if it’s on your itinerary. Because it is the most populated and busiest, it can be quite a shock to arrive at this metropolitan island after spending a few mellow days on, say, Big Island. It’s much better to experience the busiest island first, then chill out from there. For this reason, we always recommend starting your trip on Oʻahu and then continuing on to other islands.

That said, here are some suggested island pairings that make sense to us:

Oʻahu, Big Island, and Maui

Why? A classic first trip. Oʻahu for the city and its beaches, then a few days of hiking and volcano country on the Big Island, and finally Maui to finish on its long resort beaches and small towns.

Minimum recommended time: 10 days (but plan to go for at least 14 days if you can).

Start here to plan your trip to Oʻahu, the Big Island, and Maui

The following guides are good places to explore if you want to get a feeling for what to do while visiting Oʻahu, the Big Island, and Maui.

Oʻahu:

Big Island

Maui

Kauaʻi, Maui, and Molokaʻi or Lānaʻi

Why? Start off with some outdoor adventure on Kauaʻi exploring Waimea Canyon and the Nāpali Coast, then split for Maui for some beach time and soft adventure (visiting Haleakalā, Road to Hāna, etc). Then, catch a ferry over to Molokaʻi or Lānaʻi (or both) for an easy third island that feels nothing like the first two.

Minimum recommended time: 8 days

Start here to plan your trip to Kauaʻi, Maui, and Molokaʻi or Lānaʻi

The following guides are good places to explore if you want to get a feeling for what to do while visiting Kauaʻi, Maui, and Molokaʻi or Lānaʻi.

Kauaʻi:

Maui

Molokaʻi or Lānaʻi

We have two overview guides to get you started:

Big Island and Maui

Why? The Big Island and Maui sit about a 20-minute flight apart. Two islands is plenty: a real change of scene, with enough time and energy left to get past the surface of each.

Start on Big Island and spend long days “out in the field” exploring the volcanoes (hiking, lava viewing, stargazing) and remote coastal areas, then end up on Maui, where you can kick back on its long west-side beaches.

Minimum recommended time: 7 days (although 10+ days gives you more time to enjoy your trip).

Start here to plan your trip to the Big Island and Maui

The following guides are good places to explore if you want to get a feeling for what to do while visiting the Big Island and Maui.

Big Island

Maui

Oʻahu and Kauaʻi

Why? Again, sometimes less is more. These adjacent islands complement one another well: you visit the “big city” on Oʻahu where the travel is more fast paced, then end up on the quaint and quiet island of Kauaʻi.

Minimum recommended time: 6 days (but if you can, aim for at least 8 days)

Start here to plan your trip to Oʻahu and Kauaʻi

The following guides are good places to explore if you want to get a feeling for what to do while visiting Oʻahu and Kauaʻi.

Oʻahu:

Kauaʻi:

Day Trips Between the Islands

If you are short on time or money, a day trip to another island can make sense in a few specific cases. Not every pairing works for it, but a handful do.

The first option would be to simply fly over to another island in the morning, rent a car and drive around, and then fly back that same night. Because flight times are relatively short, it is possible to do this, and if you already have a good deal on accommodation on one island, you can avoid the overnight costs of staying on another island by going there and back in a day.

However, this strategy has obvious drawbacks: you’re spending money on the flight and rental car, but limiting your experience to whatever ground you can cover in those daytime hours; plus, you’re spending a few hours at the airport on each end.

Other day trip options make a little more sense, but they are limited to certain islands.

Maui to Lānaʻi

From Maui, you can take the ferry to Lānaʻi with Expeditions, three round trips a day, seven days a week, on a crossing of about 1 hour 10 minutes. Sailings leave Māʻalaea Harbor in central Maui at 6:30am, 11am and 3:30pm and come back from Mānele on Lānaʻi at 8:30am, 1pm and 5:30pm.

Note the harbor: the ferry moved from Lāhainā to Māʻalaea after the 2023 wildfire, and the Public Utilities Commission recognized that change in its 2024 rate order, so any guide still sending you to Lāhainā is out of date. Adult fare is $66 one way; children and resident seniors pay $15 one way.

You land at Mānele Small Boat Harbor. Hulopoʻe Beach and the Mānele-Hulopoʻe Marine Life Conservation District are a short walk from the dock, so you can swim or hike straight off the boat without arranging a ride. Check in 45 minutes before departure. Parking at Māʻalaea is paid by the hour, where the Lāhainā lot was free. There is no Uber or Lyft on Lānaʻi, so if you plan to leave Hulopoʻe you need to call the Lānaʻi City Shuttle or a taxi ahead of time.

Maui to Molokaʻi (now by air only)

The Maui to Molokaʻi ferry stopped running in 2016 and has not returned, so Molokaʻi is reachable only by air now. Mokulele serves both of Molokaʻi’s airports, Hoʻolehua (MKK) and Kalaupapa, on nine-seat Cessna Grand Caravans. Parking at Hoʻolehua is free and unlimited, and Alamo is the only rental company on the field. A free MEO bus runs hourly from the airport, but you’ll want your own vehicle to reach most of the island.

Kauaʻi to Niʻihau

Niʻihau is known as “the Forbidden Island” because it is privately owned and off limits to visitors. There are, however, some exceptions, including day tours that allow you to access certain parts of the island. HoloHolo Charters on Kauaʻi organizes a trip to Niʻihau, a great way to touch down on another island without worrying about logistics.

Airline Options and Typical Costs

Once you have decided to hop, you are almost always flying. Here are the carriers, the one ferry that still runs, and what a typical interisland ticket costs.

Only one interisland passenger ferry still runs: Expeditions, between Māʻalaea on Maui and Mānele on Lānaʻi. For every other route, flying is your only option.

You have three airlines to choose from: Hawaiian, Southwest and Mokulele. Hawaiian has the most routes between the major airports. It now sits under the same parent as Alaska Airlines, which is why the two share a baggage policy and a single loyalty program, though Hawaiian still sells and flies Neighbor Island routes under its own name. Alaska announced in July 2026 that it is moving Hawaiian’s interisland flying onto Boeing 737-800s from 2028, crewed out of Honolulu, as the Boeing 717s retire.

Southwest serves five Hawaiʻi airports (Honolulu, Kahului, Kona, Hilo and Līhuʻe) and has moved to assigned seating. Mokulele flies to nine airports on five islands, including small fields the jets don’t serve, and its Caravans cruise low enough for real coastline views. It doesn’t serve Hilo.

Prices vary with route and time of day. In our own searches a one-way usually lands between about $50 and $150, with roundtrips commonly running $100 to $300 and sometimes higher. No carrier publishes a floor fare, so treat those as observed rather than quoted. The deep sub-$35 promos of past years have mostly disappeared, and while flexible timing still trims the cost, don’t build a budget around a fare under $40.

Dive deeper: You can read more about these flights and how to save money on them in our interisland flight guide.

A nine-seat Cessna Grand Caravan of the type flown on Hawaiʻi interisland routes

A nine-seat Cessna Grand Caravan, the aircraft type Mokulele flies on every one of its interisland routes.

Flight time between the islands

Flights between the islands are short, about 20 to 45 minutes depending on the route. You will spend more time at the airport than you will in the air.

Approximate flight times between Hawaiian islands.

Approximate flight times between Hawaiian islands.

Important: sometimes saving time is better than saving money!

Sometimes the cheapest flight option for your island-hopping adventure is one with a 1-stop layover in Honolulu. While these flights sometimes leave at a more convenient time, and you can sometimes save money on these kind of flights, we strongly recommend against them.

A layover adds two hours or more to a 30-minute flight, and the fare saving is small. Set that against what the rest of the day costs you: flights, accommodation and a rental car add up to something like $500 a day for a couple, so half a day spent in the Honolulu terminal is the more expensive choice by a wide margin. Book the nonstop.

3 Tips to save money while island hopping

Three small moves keep interisland costs down: watch the bag fees, handle the rental car right, and time your flights around the commuters.

  1. Consider bag fees
  2. Get smart with your rental car
  3. Time your flight for extra savings

The super-savers among you may also be interested in our tips to save money on your Hawaiʻi trip.

Consider bag fees

Checked bag fees will quickly add up so it pays to be aware of the extra costs when deciding on what airline to fly.

  • Southwest’s two-free-bags deal is for residents. Rapid Rewards members with a Hawaiʻi mailing address on the account check their first two standard bags free on nonstop interisland flights, surfboards included, as long as the Rapid Rewards number is on the reservation. The headline on Southwest’s interisland page reads “two free checked bags on interisland flights” with no qualification, and the residents-only condition sits in the footnote. Visitors pay Southwest’s standard checked-bag fees, which the airline no longer prints as a figure, so price them in the booking flow before you compare fares (source).
  • Mokulele charges less: $20 for the first checked bag and $30 for the second. Watch the limits rather than the price on these nine-seat aircraft, though. A checked bag maxes out at 70 lbs and 30 by 14.5 by 45 inches, and your personal item at 15 lbs (source).
  • When you fly Hawaiian Airlines between neighbor islands, your first checked bag costs $30 and your second costs $40. That’s the intra-island schedule specifically: the same page charges $45 and $55 on North America routes, so don’t read the higher pair by mistake. Hawaiʻi residents on a Huakaʻi fare get the first interisland bag free (source).

Get a great deal on your rental car

When you get to a new island, having a rental car (see our complete rental car guide here) will greatly increase the amount of things you can see during your stay.

Prices fluctuate, but we have finally found a company that has always given us great prices, and we heartily recommend them to you. Don’t spend more than you need to.

We love using Discount Hawaii Car Rental when island hopping. They don’t require advance payments to secure your reservation and charge no cancellation fees. They also offer additional benefits such as free extra drivers and reduced young driver rates.

Get a direct (and free) quote from Discount Hawaii Car Rental and see your savings.

Time your flight for extra savings and don’t compete with commuters

Tickets cost more during the morning and evening commuter hours, when residents are flying between islands for work, and at other busy times like Sunday evening. Move your flight to the middle of a weekday and the same route often drops a tier. Mokulele publishes some of the lowest interisland fares we can find on its own site, from $54 on the short Hāna to Kahului hop, though those are small-plane routes rather than the main jet market.