Trip of many firsts! My wife and I always go on an annual Pre-Valentine's Day trip. This year, we…read morechose to go to Hilo. This would be my wife's first time to Hilo and also first time on a helicopter tour. I previously worked in the helicopter tour Industry on Kauai, so I was already familiar with the top-notch operation at Blue Hawaiian Helicopters. From the moment we arrived, we were greeted by Christian and Eric and led through a Safety briefing. After the safety briefing, we were introduced to our pilot, Ryan, And he took a moment to talk about his pilot experience and spoke about what we would experience on our tour. (This added personal touch helped calm my wife's nerves for her first flight.) we were then escorted to the helicopter for pre-flight photos and to board. The 50 minute "Discover Hilo" tour was smooth, scenic, educational and entertaining. Our pilot had a good selection of music that perfectly fit the different areas that we were flying over. We thoroughly enjoyed this trip and would recommend it!

Kīlauea is currently erupting for its 28th cycle and we were fortunate enough to witness this with…read moreour fantastic pilot Chewy. Blue Hawaiian provided an excellent experience with the flight, music and info for our big island adventure. This is something we will always remember. Mahalo!

ITO just bumped LBC as my favorite airport. Flying out on a late Monday morning, we were treated to…read morelive music from Lopaka Kenoi and two of the most beautiful wahine dancing hula. They made me want to seriously study hula. My only wish would be more food selection. Easy in & out, car rentals right outside.

What an awesome and convenient way to travel between islands in these island hopper flights that…read moreget us right to Hilo to say hello to the Volcanos National Park and so much more!

Unbelievable experience. Although the cost seems steep I am so glad we pushed ourselves to take…read morethis ride. It is a ride my husband and I will never forget. We booked the day after one of the volcanos erupted and ended up with a 2:30 time which really worked out perfectly. Our guide was so amazing i believe her name was Tatiana if I heard correctly, she mentioned that she always dreamt of being a pilot since a little girl and it truly showed in how passionate she was about flying. A once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget! Side note: directions where a little confusing as paradise was separate from other helicopter tours. Best advice is to park in airport parking and walk all the way to southwest airline and you will see paradise helicopters to the right of southwest airline booth...

Great tour, amazing views, and an unforgettable experience! Would definitely recommend the "doors…read moreoff" tour with Allen who was an amazing pilot!

We had a great experience with Blue Hawaiian helicopters this week. My wife and I enjoyed an hour…read moreflight with our Pilot Kaj Loken-Kim from their Waikoloa heliport. The whole crew was very friendly and knowledgeable, but more importantly everyone made us feel safe during the whole trip. We got a breathtaking view of the Kohala Coast and landed on a secluded clearing near a spectacular waterfall. The entire experience was amazing and the video we took with us captured the whole thing for us to review and enjoy again. I hope to visit them again here or on another island for a future flight and recommend them to anyone who wants to make their visit to Hawaii amazing and memorable!

Tremendous experience! Amy our pilot and tour guide was excellent. Told us when we would feel bumps…read moredue to air flow, pointed out a plethora of unbelievable sights, and provided great insight into the island development. This was an excursion of a lifetime. You are cheating yourself if you don't do it.

1 star. Absolute bait-and-switch…read more We booked Blue Hawaiian Helicopters directly through their website. Not a waitlist. Not "pending confirmation." The site showed availability. We selected a time. We paid in full. Then, the day before the flight, they casually informed us they wouldn't fly unless they had four people. Let that sink in. If you "need four people to fly," then your website should not allow bookings for fewer than four. Period. Anything else is deceptive. Taking someone's money first and disclosing your internal minimum later is not a policy. It's a cash grab. No proactive call. No warning during checkout. No accountability. Just a shrug and "sorry." This wasn't a weather issue. This wasn't an emergency. This was poor business practice baked into their system. And judging by the volume of similar complaints online, this isn't rare. It's a pattern. Vacation time is limited. Schedules are tight. People plan entire trips around experiences like this. Blue Hawaiian seems perfectly comfortable blowing that up after holding your money hostage. Want amazing views of Hawaii? Plenty of companies can deliver that. Want reliability, transparency, and basic respect for customers? Look elsewhere. Because nothing kills the magic of a helicopter tour faster than realizing the company never intended to honor your reservation unless it worked in their favor. Savage truth: If you book here, you're not a customer. You're a placeholder!

Awesome!!! Everything from the service to the flight was wonderful! Don, our pilot was great and…read moregave us a great tour. I would highly recommend this experience.

Although we weren't able to do the full tour due to it being a little cloudy, James and Dylan made…read morethe experience worth it. James was very communicative about updates about weather and the different locations. When we got to the spot, Dylan was very friendly and pretty honest about the sky being unfortunate and that we may not get clear skies. He told us we could wait or just leave now and reschedule or get a refund. At our tour start time he decided to cancel the tour but offered a mini tour for free instead. Since we weren't able to rebook, we opted for this option instead. Dylan was extremely friendly, knowledgeable, and funny. He was able to show us some cool stuff they saw last night. It was for sure a bummer that we had our tour canceled, but everyone made up for it and we still got a full refund. We knew it was a gamble, but we chose this company since they gave full refunds if it was cloudy and they fulfilled that promise and then some. We still walked away with a very cool experience. Highly recommend! If we come back, we will for sure try again.

Would not recommend this tour. Save yourself the money and drive up to Mauna Kea on your own…read more To be fair, the staff were friendly, knowledgeable, and did a good job getting everyone safely to the viewing location. We also lucked out with excellent weather. Unfortunately, those were the highlights. The experience itself was surprisingly chaotic. While the lead astronomer, Dylan, was trying to give his presentation, the photographer was constantly lining groups up for Milky Way photos just a few feet away. Between the photography, people talking, and others getting up for pictures, it was difficult to hear or stay engaged. If you're expecting a peaceful evening learning about the night sky, this isn't it. Dylan was clearly knowledgeable, but his presentation felt more like a stand-up comedy routine with astronomy mixed in than an actual guided stargazing experience. Instead of focusing on the stars and constellations we were actually looking at, much of the discussion revolved around black holes, nebulas, and other astronomy topics that had little connection to what was visible in the sky that night. It was entertaining at times, but not what we signed up for. The telescope felt especially misleading. The website advertises that one is provided, but guests never actually get to use it. Instead, we were shown images on an iPhone that were presented as if they had just been captured, only to later discover they had been taken weeks earlier. That left a bad taste and felt unnecessarily deceptive. By the end of the night, we genuinely couldn't figure out what our nearly $300 had paid for. The viewing location was on public land just minutes off the highway with no special access, we never looked through the telescope, and the astronomy portion rarely focused on the sky above us. In the end, it felt like we paid hundreds of dollars for hot chocolate, a folding chair, and two professionally taken Milky Way photos. Mauna Kea is breathtaking and absolutely worth experiencing. This tour, however, added very little value and actually detracted from what should have been a memorable, peaceful night under the stars.

We enjoyed our trip with Paradise helicopters and glad we chose them. The ground crew was extremely…read morehelpful and informative. The pilot was just playing awesome all the way around, great guy, that caught us up to speed with the cultural side and a great tour guide. Took his Time around Kilauea to make sure both sides of the helicopter got great shots. Flying over the entire island, experiencing the volcanoes, the rainforest, the ranchlands, over 30 waterfalls including some that are 1,000 and 2,000 foot waterfalls. The vantage point to see the entire island, beaches is one of the best things that has ever happened in our lives, this is truly a bucket list that you need to add to your trip. This is the ultimate way to see the island, and we did the big tour that was almost 2 hours. Check your photos and videos as you are taking them. FYI. Depending on the position of the helicopter, sun or overcast will affect on howmuch glare/reflection you get on videos and photos, so you will need to try to take photos from a few different spots and angles near the glass. Practice makes perfect. Add, the soundtrack that plays while he is giving you the history of different spots is a hoot!

Paige was an exceptional pilot and all the folks at Paradise Helicopters (those answering phones…read moreand greeting you upon check-in) were helpful and professional. The booking process was easy and they kept you informed with all you needed to know for the tour leading up to it. As nervous as I was to go up, they made me feel safe and I had a great time. The flight was unreal and Paige really knew what he was talking about! I'd highly recommend taking a helicopter ride with Paradise to see the amazing sites of The Big Island from overhead! It's an unforgettable experience!

Donald was amazing. Fun twilight trip. Did get to see the lava flow and share all those fun…read morememories with everyone at home. Would recommend to anyone visiting the islands. Thank you Donald.

If you are in Kailua Kona and want to go for an airplane tour, book a trip with Big Island Air…read more Our pilot, Anthony, was super friendly and knowledgeable. The small plane held 9 passengers. We were each weighed during check-in and then they assigned the seats to us to evenly distribute the weight of the plane. Our tour was the perfect length. While I didn't get nauseous, there were parts of the trip were my bf did turn a little pale (so if you are sensitive to motion, you may want to take some medicine beforehand). While this was a pricey excursion, I think it was well worth the cost because it cuts down on the amount of driving you'd have to do to get to some of the spots covered on the tour. Also, the aerial view gave me a greater appreciation for the beautiful land. I can still vividly recall the powerful image of lava gracefully flowing directly the ocean and the mighty waterfalls majestically flowing for what seemed like miles! Just to reiterate a tip from Keiko S. If you plan on taking pictures-wear something which will not be distracting if it is reflected on the window. I wore a polk-a-dot romper so some of my pictures have random dots :I

we stayed in Maui and booked the volcano helicopter tour. The clouds were…read morelow so we could not go to the caldera but we didn't even get to see a volcano or go over the national volcano park. they took us to a lava field and waterfalls. very very disappointing to lose a full day of vacation for this. we could have paid the same price to see some more amazing waterfalls in Maui for half the price. would recommend a hiking or driving tour.

We booked this through TripAdvisor, which was a very simple process. I had booked the volcano park…read moretour but we didn't get to see the volcano park and they took us to the coast and waterfall instead. Fast forward 2 days and it was perfect out... didn't go those days though. Tried to make the best of it but for $680 I would've rather seen the park. And we got paired with a very annoying couple.

This review is strictly for Cameron, our tour guide. He has set the bar for everyone else. I was…read moreamazed by his legitimate Aloha spirit (harder to come by than professed around the islands). He has the type of personality that I could see as a successful tv host on a discovery or nature channel type show. He offered a wealth of knowledge about the land, flora, fauna, history, and beliefs of Hawai'i. At every point he kept us safe, entertained, and informed. He has made Hawai'i my favorite of the islands. My only complaint about the tour has nothing to do with him, but with scheduling. I really didn't want to go to a hotel gift shop and would have preferred more time to swim or snorkel.

What an amazing experience. We booked a tour to see the lava fields and enjoy a snorkeling…read moreadventure and it was a full day of adventure. Keep in mind there is no snorkeling on this excursion and the area around the Hilton is not safe or appropriate for snorkeling. I am writing the review solely on the lava field excursion part. My wife was very dissapointed that there was no snorkeling as we purchased new snorkeling equipment. Roxy was our tour guide and was probably the most knowledgeable and professional tour guide we have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Roxy was knowledgeable in the history of volcanoes on Hilo and elsewhere, horticulture, bird species, animals, Hawaiian culture, tourist attractions, history of the Hawaiian Islands, tribes and Capt. Cook, beaches, teachings, burial practices and so much more. Roxy told stories of the early days in Hawaii and how it evolved. Also as a noted her driving and safety practices were impeccable. If you are planning to come to Hilo you must make it a point to reach out to Roxy. We spent approximately 8 hours on the tour and it was so enriching although the lack of snorkeling was a dissapointment . Highly recommended Mahalo