A helicopter adventure exploring the lush valleys and breathtaking waterfalls on the north shore of Kona was on my bucket list! Connor, the pilot, and the Sunshine Helicopters crew gave an unforgettable flight of a lifetime. We took the Kohala Hamakua Coast Tour. It was spectacular! We paid the extra for the First Class Seating...I highly recommend this option if your budget allows. Connor, a lifetime resident, gave an interesting and engaging narrative. The valleys offered a pristine viewpoint only available from the air. I always felt very safe. It was exhilarating lifting off and maneuvering up through the valleys, hovering just in front of the falls to make sure we had our photo op. If you are going to the Big Island of Hawaii, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS HELICOPTER TOUR. read more

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1 star. Absolute bait-and-switch. 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! read more

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

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Wow! Outstanding and certainly lived up to the Hawaii Reveal book recommendation. A must see of the island. Pilot was full of facts and gave a great history lesson to boot. read more

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Amazing!! This was my first helicopter ride and my first visit to Hawai'i! I was a little nervous but our pilot JOHN was absolutely wonderful, driving so smoothly, and offered so much history of the entire landscape as we flew! You also get a picture taken with the option to buy it! read more

Great experience. Do this early in your trip. What a VIEW. Great crew. I felt super safe and I'm afraid of heights! Also two in our party have nausea often and we're not sick. read more

Sunshine Helicopters - Aerial Tours Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

The volcano and waterfall tour was excellent! The views are spectacular for both sides of the helicopter. Ryan was our pilot and she was an excellent communicator! Having fun with her was an amazing bonus to an already fabulous experience. read more

Sunshine Helicopters - Aerial Tours Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

Amazing ride! Incredible views! This staff is just amazing. We got a shuttle from our resort. Maria, the pilot, is so knowledgeable and makes sure everyone on both sides of the helicopter can see. We had to change flight path and still had just incredible views. We signed up for their big island deluxe -and ended up doing the west Hawaii alternative. It still had everything we wanted to see. read more

Sunshine Helicopters - Aerial Tours Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

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Expensive but worth the ride. We saw many waterfalls. We also paid the extra $ to have a copy of the ride. read more

Sunshine Helicopters - Expensive for 30 minutes ride, but it was enough to see many waterfalls and the north shore. - Aerial Tours Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

Very poor value. Way too expensive for what you get. Pre-flight instructor was great. Pilot was great. Just way too much money for the product they deliver. I suppose it is intended for the inexperienced tourist with money burning holes in their pockets. It did not come close to the great experience I had it past years with two helicopter tours on Kaua'i. But it was more expensive..... read more

Excellent group of people I was a bit nervous about taking flight in a but once up I felt @ piece.. definitely a must if u come to the big island of Hawaii. U won't regret it. read more

Sunshine Helicopters - Aerial Tours Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

Absolutely the highlight of our honeymoon and visit to the big island. Such a wonderful way to get up close and personal with Kīlauea, Mauna Kea & Mauna Loa. The getting a chance to go inside the the valley, absolutely phenomenal.. the coast line is like no other. Mahalo for your professionalism. All the staff were fabulous! read more

Sunshine Helicopters - The Thomases! - Aerial Tours Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

So awesome. The pilot was wonderful and very informative. The rest of the staff was also very helpful and extremely friendly. The flight was very smooth and honestly the coolest thing I've ever done. read more

Sunshine Helicopters - View from the copter - Aerial Tours Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

One of the best things ever !! The people were great and friendly and the Pilot was so informative and the ride was so fun read more

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What incredible views of the NW coast of Hawaii! We had a great time! Great family outing!

These guys were so well organized and helpful. Tim was our pilot was patient and knowledgeable and gave everyone in the copter great views. If you visit the island and really want to see all there is to see, you've got to do a helicopter tour. We got great views of the three big volcanos (Mauna Kea, Mauna Lani, and Kilauea) and saw active lava going into the ocean and we saw the most magnificent valleys on the north shore. The staff was awesome! read more

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This was an incredible experience!! We had the best pilot (Maria) who was very informative and the views were spectacular. read more

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Pretty cool. Ground staff was friendly when we arrived and the helicopter was right on time. Our pilot/guide did a good job pointing things out and narrating along the way, though it wasn't really a friendly two way chat session (in theory we had mics). The ride can be bumpy particularly when circling over something interesting, if you're a person who gets motion sick - definitely use a patch or down some dramamine. Fortunately, I read another yelper's review and took meds an hour before takeoff, saved my butt. I felt safe most of the time, though when we dipped into a ravine to check out some amazing waterfalls (see pic) the winds knocked us around. The pilot reassured us it was all good, and it obviously was (still here!)... but it's adrenaline pumping when cliff walls are a few hundred feet away. Glad I can finally check "helicopter ride" off my bucket list! read more

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Yay this was a lot of fun! I did the coast tour which was a lot cheaper than the volcano tour, but it was still great. Although honestly I was starting to feel a little queasy towards the end (as did my boyfriend) so if you've never been on a helicopter before, you may want to consider the shorter tour to save money and save your stomach. Anyway, they did pick us up from our hotel, give us a rundown on what to expect and safety procedures (don't want to end up with guy from Indiana Jones!) and then you are off. Every seat seemed to have a good view. You go down in valleys, see waterfalls, see some plane crash remnants, fly over the water, and it's all very beautiful. If you've never done it before, a definite must do. If you have tried a helicopter one, step it up and do the more deluxe one. It's worth the money. read more

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Awesome experience! All crew members are so nice and Ryan, the pilot, is amazing! This is a must do!!

TIP: Book your tour during the beginning of your stay on the island. Because safety is their priority (which I'm grateful for), they will cancel/reschedule flights if weather isn't safe for flying. Our first flight was cancelled and fortunately we were able to squeeze onto another flight the morning before we left the island. If you book it on your last day and it gets cancelled you may be out of luck (obviously you'll get a full refund). Review of 2 Hr Flight: Amazing experience with Ian as the pilot and an efficient and friendly ground crew. Ian provided a smooth ride and a tour with lots of fun facts about the island. It's clear that safety is their number one priority. Because of the active eruption, we were lucky to see Fissure 8 spewing lava about 200 feet in the air, and a huge lake of lava. Truly a once in a lifetime experience. Then we flew down the coast where we could see hundreds of waterfalls before flying into Waimanu Valley where we got up close and personal with some of the tallest and most impressive waterfalls I've ever seen. There isn't a bad seat in the house because the windows are so large. They recommend that you wear a dark shirt and sunglasses so that you don't catch the reflection of your clothing on the window. Would absolutely recommend it if you can swing the price. Note: My iPhone pictures don't do it justice. Bring a DSLR if you have one! read more

Sunshine Helicopters - Aerial Tours Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

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Sunshine helicopters and the staff are amazing! Maria was an amazing pilot and very knowledgeable!

Had an amazing time. Eric was a great pilot and very informative. We saw sites that we never would have seen. Well worth the time and money. Everyone should do this at least once. read more

We loved our tour with Sunshine Helicopters. We were initially going to do a longer tour with volcanoes and waterfalls but due to weather downgraded to just waterfalls. It ended up being a blessing in disguise because after about 45 minutes we were all a little nauseated and we felt like we got enough of a good experience. Customer service was top notch and we felt very safe! read more

Great experience. Excellent customer service. Such a fun time with our family, and great experience.

Our flight was amazing. The pilot was knowledgeable and made it so we could all enjoy all the sights while learning so much about the big island. read more

We had a great time on the helicopter tour. Our pilot Spencer and Michelle were very professional and friendly. And me and my wife had a wonderful time, thank you very much. read more

Sunshine Heli was awesome! Uncle John was fantastic, nice smooth ride with lots of knowledge in the House! Thanks Sunshine for the Memories!! read more

Amazing views, fantastic pilot and very knowledgable about the landscape of the Hawaii Island. You will not regret it.

If you want to actually fly in a helicopter, go with a better established firm. Booked and paid for a tour in the first class seats. After 4 days of not flying, they said they were promoting our flight to fill the extra seats....Given they didn't even add the new flight on their website, they were not trying. We missed out on seeing the iand because we trusted Sunshine Helicopters. If you want to actually fly in a helicopter, go with a better established firm. read more

We honeymooned on the big island and this was the most amazing experience. It exceeded all our expectations. Beau Brown was an awesome pilot and guide. the music was fun and the conversations entertaining and interesting. We saw lava lakes, lava flowing on the surface and into the water. Beau made sure we saw as much as possible. We flew along the northern coast and saw many waterfalls and then into a series of valleys that were the most breathtaking site I've aver seen. I had tears of joy running down my face. I would take this trip every day if i could with Beau Sit in the front seats. It's definitely worth the extra money. We got the video of our trip with the audio so we can see it over and over again I'm going to be a helicopter pilot when I retire!!! read more

Sunshine Helicopters - Aerial Tours Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

The views were absolutely stunning! I would definitely recommend this helicopter tour if you want to see some of the most breathtaking sights Kona has to offer. read more

A helicopter tour was always on the "oh...someday" bucket list. We checked it off the list this week, flying with our pilot "Nell's" and touring the coastline. He is both a great pilot and guide. Only regret, we should have done this sooner. read more

Family helicopter ride. We enjoyed our experience flying on a helicopter tour of the upper section of the big island. Instructions were clear and we enjoyed a great view prior to take off. Everyone was friendly and helpful. Our pilot, Chris, was very informative, funny and had a great play list for the ride. Flight began along coast and spent some time looking at waterfalls, valleys and ruins. It was enjoyed by all! Thank you! read more

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We had a fantastic flight with Ian. He gave a great narration of the island and told some fascinating facts about the volcano eruption. Flight was smooth and Ian made me feel safe. Our driver, Derek, picked us up on time and was delightful. He also told us great facts about the beaches around the hotel. By the time we left Derek, we made a new friend on the island. Our first flight was cancelled due to weather, but the office staff was easy to work with and rebooked our flight the next day. If your looking for a helicopter trip, use Sunshine! read more

Sunshine Helicopters - Super cool pilot, Shane. - Aerial Tours Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

Thank you for the spectacular helicopter ride over Kilauea and Mauna Loa! Also the Kohalo forest and valleys with waterfalls were beautiful! Connor, our pilot was so knowledgeable and took the extra time to show us an old buried aircraft. We were blown away by the beauty of the valleys! Excellent way to explore the island! Thank you again! Would highly recommend and would try again! Also felt very safe! We were rescheduled to the following day due to weather which we appreciated. Thank you! read more

Undependable and unapologetic... If you're not worried about last minute cancellations for your +$1,200 Big Island Volvano helicopter trip... then Sunshine Helicopters is for you!! Seriously, these people called 10 minutes before they were supposed to pick us up. They said they couldn't fly because of the weather. (Interestingly enough, all of the other helicopter tour companies were flying but, of course where all booked). They thought they might be able to do a limited waterfall tour but, needed two more passengers. After they couldn't find more last minute passengers they called and canceled all together. Oh and when we asked if we could get on any of the tours for the remainder of the day they responded that they were fully booked... interesting that weather no longer was a problem... Any rate, we should have booked with a more reliable company that is willing to make things right when they can't follow through on delivering their services. We hope this helps others avoid the same disappointment on what should be time of your life! Book elsewhere! read more

We had it up on Friday to take to to our fall island tour, but at the last minute the clouds rolled on Kilauea and the pilot says I'm not going to charge people when what you want to go see is Kilauea and I know by looking at cameras that it's not going to be visible. We chose to reschedule. We went out on Tuesday and was able to take in the rainforest waterfalls the ocean and other volcanoes once again Kilauea I was banked in with fog. These people are extremely professional, all the Pilots are former military and it was actually a total riot. We would highly recommend this company to go out will get a really nice look at the big Island of Hawaii. read more

No way would I recommend them. We scheduled a week before. They changed the time, the type of tour, and while we were on the bus to go to out to our scheduled they canceled the whole trip they said due to mechanical issues. Worst company! read more

The pilot was so knowledgable and friendly. He answered all question we had and took us to see the whales from sky! read more

Sunshine Helicopters - Shoreline - Aerial Tours Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii