Hawaiʻi is open — but smart planning matters more than ever.

Six weeks after two back-to-back Kona Low storms hit the Hawaiian Islands in March, Hawaii’s storm recovery has shifted from emergency response to summer rebuild. Airports are operating normally. Resort coasts on all four major islands are functioning. The federal disaster declaration is approved. Most road repairs are done or down to maintenance work. And on May 7, the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority and the Hawaiʻi Visitors and Convention Bureau launched a coordinated initiative to rebuild visitor confidence, backed by $2 million in restricted funds the Governor’s office released the same day.

The push comes alongside fresh DBEDT data showing the storms cost the state more than $300 million in tourism revenue across March, with visitor arrivals down 1.7% and spending down 1.6% compared to March 2025. The DBEDT year-over-year drops and the $300M revenue figure are different cuts of the same story — the percentages are the official month-over-month miss; the $300M is the broader projected impact including cancellations and rebookings.

The takeaway for travelers: book the trip, but plan around the specific recovery pockets that remain. We’ve verified the current state of every closure flagged in our March 30 update. Most have lifted. The ones that haven’t are listed below.

The campaign is run jointly by HTA and HVCB. Per the May 7 press release, Governor Green said the funds are about supporting Hawaii’s economy, local businesses, and the people who depend on the visitor industry, and that visitors should know their visits help fuel recovery. Caroline Anderson, who leads HTA on an interim basis, framed the campaign as a way for genuine welcome messaging from the people of Hawaiʻi to come through clearly so visitors can feel confident their trip will be appreciated.

Beyond marketing, the practical hook for travelers is the Hawaiʻi Special Offers program — a curated list of discounts that participating businesses must offer to be listed. Minimums include 20% off standard hotel rates, fifth-night-free promotions, 20% off rental car upgrades, and 20% off activities, tours, dining, and shopping. If you’ve been on the fence about a summer trip, that’s a real lever. The current listings are weighted toward properties on Maui’s west side and Oahu’s North Shore — two areas that took the heaviest hit and have the most active inventory looking for bookings.

Coordinated partnerships with airlines and travel wholesalers are also in the package. Whether that translates into specific airfare deals depends on the wholesaler — your best bet is to check Special Offers and your usual booking channels side-by-side rather than expecting one to dominate.

Most of what was closed five weeks ago has reopened. Here’s the current state by island:

• Oahu — Haleiwa is open and asking for visitor support. Waialua and Mokulēʻia remain residential recovery zones; visitors are asked to skip those specific neighborhoods and give residents space. Waikiki, Ko Olina, Kailua, and the South Shore have been operating normally throughout per HDOT roadwork updates. Lake Wilson at the Wahiawa Reservoir is closed for state-led dam rehabilitation work, but that’s a freshwater fishing and boating area, not a typical tourist stop.

• Maui — Hana Highway is open. The intermittent rock-scaling closures from late March have been replaced by routine maintenance work — drain cleaning and guardrail landscaping per HDOT’s roadwork page. Expect occasional shoulder closures rather than full road shutdowns. Wailea, Kāʻanapali, and the resort coasts are reported normal by HDOT and operator updates. Haleakalā summit access has been restored — the sunrise reservation system on Recreation.gov is taking bookings for May and beyond. Always verify current conditions at nps.gov/hale before you go.

• Big Island — Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is open. Kīlauea remains on a USGS ADVISORY level (down from WATCH) as of the latest May 12 update, with Halemaʻumaʻu eruption episodes paused since early May. Mauna Loa is at NORMAL/GREEN. Tephra and Pele’s hair fell on Highway 11 between mile markers 30 and 34 during the most recent episode, but the highway and main park access remain open. The Kona resort coast is operating normally per HDOT roadwork updates. The brown water advisory for shorelines between Pololū Valley and Holoholokai Beach Park has lifted as conditions stabilized.

• Kauai — Closest to fully normal of the four. Routine road maintenance is the main source of any closures per The Garden Island roadwork roundup. Brown water advisories from March cleared in early April per DOH Clean Water Branch data. Resort coasts and Na Pali tour operators are running on standard schedules.

• Brown water advisories statewide — These come and go after any heavy rainfall. The current advisory map at the DOH Clean Water Branch viewer is the authoritative source. Check it before any beach day, especially after a rainy night.

President Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Hawaii on April 8, and FEMA formally affirmed it on April 16. The declaration covers City and County of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi County, and Maui County. Individual federal assistance is available to residents — temporary housing grants, home repair grants, and low-cost loans for uninsured property losses. The application deadline was extended on April 23 to June 14, 2026. Apply at disasterassistance.gov, by phone at 1-800-621-3362, or through the FEMA App.

The $300 million tourism revenue loss DBEDT estimated for March is the headline figure. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported the broader statewide tourism impact closer to $325 million when including the early-April carryover from cancellations and rebookings. Either figure tells the same story: a single bad month wiped out the per-month delta from a strong Q1.

State-level recovery dollars are flowing on multiple fronts. The Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture has rolled out emergency grants for affected farmers and ranchers along with low-interest emergency loans, with specifics on the linked agency page. The state DOT documented highway damage running into the tens of millions. And the Wahiawā Dam Rehabilitation Project broke ground on May 11 with a blessing ceremony — DLNR will replace the spillway with the first labyrinth (sawtooth) design on any dam in Hawaiʻi, effectively six times its current discharge width. The state’s $4.9 million acquisition of the underlying 142.5-acre parcel (with Dole donating its interest in the irrigation system) must be recorded with the Bureau of Conveyances by June 30, 2026 for the transfer to close. Total rehab cost is now projected near $60 million.

The next several weeks are actually one of the better windows of the year. Mid-May through early June is shoulder season; trade winds are settled, beach water clarity is back, and crowds at major attractions are noticeably thinner because storm coverage scared off some of the spring-break stragglers. Combined with Hawaiʻi Special Offers discounts, the value calculus tips in your favor.

Kauai is closest to “normal” — pick it if you want zero recovery considerations on your trip. Maui is fully back for resort travel, with Hana Highway and Haleakalā both accessible; just confirm any specific tour or activity 48 hours out since some operators are still rebooking March cancellations. Oahu’s South Shore and Windward side are unaffected; if your itinerary touches the North Shore, plan around Haleiwa rather than the residential blocks west of it. Big Island is fully open with the usual caveat that Kīlauea’s eruption episodes can cause short-term highway impacts. Check the USGS volcano update page before any park visit.

The one type of trip that still requires real flexibility: anything booked through a small operator on West Maui or Oahu’s North Shore that hasn’t replied to your last email. Some smaller businesses are still rebuilding. Confirm before you fly.

Hawaii Essential Information & Things To Know for Visitors

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A few specific things to do before and during your trip:

• Check our trail status page and HDOT lane closure map before any drive day. Both are updated regularly, and we keep our trail page synced with DLNR and NPS bulletins.

• Browse Hawaiʻi Special Offers before booking. The 20%-off-hotels and 5th-night-free deals are real, and listings are vetted by HVCB. Cross-reference with our hotel comparison pages for any property you’re considering.

• Lock in a rental car early. Summer demand will rebuild fast as the campaign reaches the mainland market, and the cars at the lower end of fleets disappear first. Book through Discount Hawaii Car Rental — they offer free cancellation, so you can lock in a low rate now and adjust if your dates change.

• Check the DOH Clean Water Branch advisory map the morning of any beach day. Brown water advisories pop up after meaningful rainfall. The map shows current status by location — wait for it to clear before getting in the water.

• Pick where you stay deliberately on Oahu. Haleiwa businesses want visitors. Waialua and Mokulēʻia residents are still in recovery and have asked for space. Both can be true at the same time.

• Confirm tours within 48 hours of departure. This is the one piece of guidance that hasn’t changed since March. A good operator will reach out to you first; if you haven’t heard from yours, call them.

I launched Hawaii-Guide.com in the summer of 2003, in the wake of post-9/11 air travel collapsing and a lot of would-be Hawaii travelers wondering whether to go. We’ve spent the years since helping folks plan trips through every kind of disruption Hawaii has thrown at us — fires, lockdowns, flight chaos, eruptions, and now back-to-back Kona Lows.

This spring’s rebuild felt familiar. After the March storms, we tore back into the site and rebuilt big chunks of it to be the trip-planning OS Hawaii actually needs right now — verified closure data, live trail and ocean conditions, and concrete answers to the “should I still come?” question that lands in our inbox a hundred times a week. The state’s new campaign is a useful tailwind. Our job is the same as it’s been for 23 years: get you the real answer, point you at the right tools, and let you make the call.

Hawaiʻi welcomes you back this summer. Aloha y’all.

The recovery is real but uneven. Federal disaster aid is flowing. Major resort coasts are running. Most of the road repairs HDOT was working through in late March are done or down to maintenance-level activity. The visitor numbers are the lagging indicator; the state expects them to rebuild through summer, and the new campaign is the lever HTA is pulling to make that happen faster.

For travelers, the practical takeaway: book the trip you’ve been thinking about, use the Special Offers leverage to get a better deal than you’d normally see for summer, and respect the residential pockets that are still rebuilding. Hawaii’s tourism economy has a direct line to the people you’re going to meet. Showing up matters.

We’ll keep updating this page as conditions shift through summer. The next major checkpoint is DBEDT’s April 2026 visitor data, expected based on the agency’s typical release cadence in late May or early June. That release will be the first read on whether the recovery is actually pulling forward.

Updated May 12, 2026. Sources: DBEDT March 2026 release, Governor Green’s office (March stats), Honolulu Star-Advertiser (tourism losses), Honolulu Star-Advertiser (federal disaster declaration), FEMA Individual Assistance, FEMA deadline extension to June 14, DLNR Wahiawā Dam Rehabilitation kickoff (May 11), Honolulu Civil Beat (Wahiawā Dam acquisition), HDOT Maui roadwork, HDOT Oahu roadwork, USGS Kīlauea, Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, Hawaiʻi Visitors and Convention Bureau Special Offers, Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency, DOH Clean Water Branch.