Follow the meaningful tools, guides, maps, and site improvements we ship for Hawaiʻi travelers. Entries focus on what changed and why it helps, with private implementation details intentionally left out.
Updates coveredMarch–July 2026
Last updatedJuly 23, 2026
A travel guide that keeps evolving
HawaiiGuide has grown from a primarily editorial guide into a connected planning platform. The changelog below highlights public launches and substantial improvements across trip planning, live conditions, original media, accessibility, and reliability.
Planning tools Live conditions Maps and routes Mobile and offline Audio and helpful AI Guides and field notes Safety and accessibility
Latest updates
Newest entries appear first. Each update links to public features when there is something useful to try or explore.
Today, Fun, alerts, and homepage discovery improve
The latest work makes in-trip planning more adaptive, adds lighter-weight discovery paths, and keeps safety, lodging, guide, and email surfaces current.
Added same-day Plan Rescue, departure and interisland modes, Booking Wallet context, and post-trip follow-through to HawaiiGuide Today, My Trip, and Trip Replay.
Launched the Fun hub and added more shortcut paths into playful HawaiiGuide experiences and travel tips.
Improved homepage discovery with richer planning, booking, traveler-mode, story, island, and film presentation.
Expanded opt-in alert prompts and added Box Jellyfish Watch support across relevant alert and ocean-condition surfaces.
Refreshed PARK MAUI parking, Kauaʻi birdwatching, Kauaʻi Chocolate & Coffee Festival, Nēnē nesting, Saddle Road, Road to Hana, Maui hurricane-season, and email material.
Improved golden-hour alerts, planning-library discovery, TripStart and Trip Match labels, flight-board recovery, and mobile Cost Explorer behavior.
Improved town things-to-do planning, refreshed Lahaina recovery imagery, and kept weather, gas, briefing, trending, trail, and audio automation moving.
planningflightsguidesalertsautomation
Quizzes, guide refreshes, and live-condition presentation advance
The latest work improves public discovery surfaces while keeping verified visitor guidance, attribution rules, and data automation current.
Added a stronger hero to the Hawaii travel quizzes hub and rotated homepage seasonal and announcement programming.
Aligned HawaiiGuide OS, Conditions, weather, ocean, sunrise, and forecast presentation around clearer island context.
Published or refreshed green flash, kalo/taro farm, accommodation tax, Big Island October events, Maui parasailing, and trail-status guidance.
Improved landmark tee campaign counts, Road to Hana bingo image sharpness, and Hawaii sights stamp animation.
Documented dual-author article policy and kept weather, Places, drive-time, gas, briefing, trend, cheatsheet, and audio automation moving.
quizzesconditionsguideslandmark teesautomation
My Trip reliability, drink recipes, and campaign artwork advance
The latest work strengthens trip-aware planning while expanding Hawaii Eats, improving mobile presentation, and tightening release workflow guardrails.
Hardened My Trip, Today, Book By, calendar export, trip-sync import, share hydration, and opt-in trip reminder behavior.
Improved HawaiiGuide OS wallpapers, daypart mobile mastheads, Passport promotion placement, and mobile search presentation.
Added Victoria-led Hawaii Eats drink recipes and follow-up editorial handling for the awa/kava page.
Updated landmark tee campaign cards, Maui promo artwork, and approved creative-source rules.
Refreshed sea-glass, Nā Pali, resort-fee, Oʻahu October, Oʻahu whale-watching, Travel Alerts, and Hawaii 101 email material.
My TriprecipesOSlandmark teesguides
OS polish, My Trip reminders, and commerce imagery advance
The latest work makes the app-style planning surfaces easier to use while strengthening date-aware trip planning, founder-led editorial direction, and product imagery.
Improved HawaiiGuide OS, app, Chat, and Plan screens with steadier responsive layouts, dynamic Hawaii-time wallpapers, and refreshed app assets.
Made OS customization safer with better rearrange exits, sync-review editing behavior, and mobile/desktop long-press fixes.
Added stronger My Trip date tools, including booking deadlines, calendar export, flight context, saved estimates, and opt-in trip reminders.
Expanded founder-led safety writing and refreshed Kauaʻi events, Big Island marine-life tours, recipe heroes, card grids, and reservation guidance.
Improved Tori-led guava chiffon imagery and landmark tee placements, motion, and mobile presentation.
OSMy Tripreminderseditorialcommerce
App shell, mobile reliability, and email QA tighten
The latest work makes the app-style planning surface steadier while tightening visitor email and live-update follow-through.
Made HawaiiGuide OS a more dedicated app shell, with shared branding, hero frames, headers, footers, and companion planning pages.
Improved narrow-screen layout, mobile headers, sticky masthead behavior, installed-app caches, drawer actions, and homepage overflow handling.
Wrapped site-tracked Kīlauea live coverage with final-report updates, alert cleanup, inactive banner handling, and corrected Kīlauea promotion links.
Strengthened July 17 hiking, packing, and Aloha Friday email sends with link checks, spelling fixes, and cleaner offer blocks.
Refreshed Oʻahu food tours, National Public Lands Day, vacation photographer, fall waterfall, hiking, map, route, and destination-icon surfaces.
OSmobileemail QAKīlauea
Founder trust, live volcano alerts, and app polish advance
The latest work strengthens editorial trust signals, makes guide access smoother, and keeps app-style planning surfaces steadier on mobile.
Improved the Free Pocket Guide path with cleaner email unlock behavior and a dedicated follow-up delivery workflow.
Added clearer founder/editorial judgment markers, including John's Take, Field Notes from John, and John's Pick systems.
Kept site-tracked Kīlauea live coverage aligned across eruption updates, trail status, current USGS camera links, and human-approved alerts.
Alerts, trip continuity, Passport, and discovery improve
The newest work makes it easier to opt into timely updates, return to a plan, keep island discoveries organized, and move between the right HawaiiGuide tools.
Launched HawaiiGuide Alerts for opt-in weather, volcano, travel, Aloha Today, and important article notifications.
Improved My Trip recovery and made trip access settings easier to find across views.
Expanded HawaiiGuide Passport across the islands and added printable completion certificates.
Added the first activity, dining, packing, and Road to Hāna trip quizzes.
Improved maps, nearby context, traveler feedback, and the structure of practical trip-planning content.
live conditionsquizzesmapsvisitor tools
What the work adds up to
One connected planning layer
Finders, calculators, itineraries, saved trips, Passport, Today, and HawaiiGuide OS help travelers move from early research to in-island decisions without starting over.
More useful in the moment
Conditions, alerts, route context, airport guidance, nearby recommendations, and offline improvements make the guide more useful after a traveler arrives.
More original ways to explore
Illustrated field guides, Nature Lens, original maps, public route audio, recipes, founder stories, and island discovery tools add depth beyond a conventional travel article.
Steadier quality over time
Accessibility work, content reviews, freshness checks, mobile polish, and reliability improvements help the growing platform remain practical and trustworthy.
This public changelog is a selective record of meaningful releases, not a complete engineering log. For company announcements and selected milestones, visit the HawaiiGuide newsroom.
Trade winds are strong right now, with high surf hitting the south shore today. Windward areas are seeing frequent showers through the weekend.
South-facing beaches have dangerous surf today through Sunday—stay out of the water unless you're an experienced swimmer. East-facing shores will build rough water by Sunday or Monday. The bigger picture is a tropical system, Fausto, heading our way. It's weakening but should arrive near the islands by Tuesday or Wednesday as a tropical storm or weaker system, bringing strong winds, rough seas, and heavy rain. The exact track is still uncertain, so check the forecast daily.
Get your beach time and water activities in today through early next week on the leeward side, where conditions stay calmer. Be ready to shift plans by midweek when conditions turn rough.
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Windy conditions across Maui right now, with trade winds gusting strong. South-facing shores have high surf today and will see another big swell Saturday and Sunday—the water's dangerous unless you're an experienced ocean swimmer.
Through the weekend, windward areas will get frequent showers while trade winds stay gusty. The bigger picture arrives midweek: Hurricane Fausto is weakening as it moves toward the islands and should reach Maui as a tropical storm or weaker system Tuesday or Wednesday. That'll bring rough seas, strong winds, and heavy rain. Track and timing are still uncertain, so check updates daily.
Hit the leeward beaches and snorkel south Maui coasts today through early next week, but stay out of windward and south-facing waters through Sunday.
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Voice
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Windy conditions dominate right now with strong trade winds pushing across the island. South-facing shores have high surf today—dangerous water if you're not an experienced swimmer.
Through the weekend, those south shores see another big swell Saturday and Sunday, and east-facing shores will build dangerous conditions by Sunday or Monday. Windward areas get frequent showers. A tropical system—the remnants of Hurricane Fausto—is weakening and headed toward the islands as a tropical storm or weaker system by Tuesday or Wednesday, bringing rough seas, strong winds, and heavy rain midweek. Timing and track are still uncertain, so check updates daily.
Leeward beaches on the Kona side stay your best bet today through early next week, but avoid the water on the windward and south shores through Sunday.
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Voice
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Strong trade winds are pushing showers across windward areas through the weekend. On Kauaʻi, expect frequent showers on the windward side.
High surf is running on south-facing shores today and will build again Saturday and Sunday—stay out of the water unless you're an experienced swimmer. East-facing shores will also see dangerous swell by Sunday or Monday. Hurricane Fausto is weakening as it moves toward Hawaii. By Tuesday or Wednesday it should reach the islands as a tropical storm or weaker system, bringing rough seas, strong winds, and heavy rain. Track and timing are still uncertain, so check updates daily through midweek.
Beach time on leeward shores works through early next week. Plan water activities for today, but be ready to shift if Fausto's track becomes clearer—conditions will deteriorate by midweek.
Created with AI from the official NWS forecast discussion · verify with NWS before heading out
