The Road to Hana is 620 curves and 59 bridges, and it takes most people ten to twelve hours. The same rainforest is twenty minutes away by air — and the place our top flight lands, a former taro plantation in the Wailua Valley, has no road to it at all. Nine flights are compared below, from $396, with the three road tours beside them.
Flights from
12 listings compared$396
Our top pick, seventy-five minutes with a rainforest landing, is $2,303
Average rating
12 rated listings4.7 ★
Across 1,952 verified reviews
Time in the air
Our top pick40 min
Plus thirty minutes on the ground where no road reaches
Everything you can book here
Nine helicopter listings and three road tours, because the road is what the flight replaces. Eight fly the coast, the craters and the neighbouring islands. One lands in the rainforest. And three drive the Road to Hana, so you can see exactly what the twenty minutes is saving you.
★ 4.9 · 332 reviews
★ 5 · 21 reviews
★ 5 · 9 reviews
★ 4.8 · 45 reviews
★ 4.9 · 7 reviews
★ 4 · 1 review
★ 5 · 7 reviews
★ 4.6 · 646 reviews
★ 4.6 · 689 reviews
★ 5 · 1 review
★ 4.8 · 188 reviews
★ 4.6 · 6 reviews
Three questions
Twelve listings, and they come down to three decisions: whether landing somewhere matters, whether you want doors on or off, and whether you would rather spend the day on the road instead. Pick what matters and the page picks the tour.
See it before you pay for it
Three things, and the first is the one no road reaches: the Wailua Valley from inside it, standing on a former taro plantation with the rotors stopped. Then the Hana coastline and its waterfalls, which the road shows you in glimpses between trees. And the sea cliffs of Molokai, the tallest in the world, on the two-island flights.
Side by side
Everything here is one of three things. A forty-five to fifty-minute flight covers the coast, the craters or Molokai. The seventy-five-minute flight lands, which is a different product entirely. And the road tours take eight to eleven hours to reach the same rainforest by car.
Swipe the table sideways →
| MOST BOOKEDMaui: Road to Hana Helicopter & Waterfall Tour with Landing | Hana Rainforest and Haleakala Crater 45-min Helicopter Tour | Maui and Molokai: Spectacular Helicopter Tour | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per person | $2,303 | $396 | $611 |
| Duration | 1h 15m | 45 minutes | 1h 30m |
| Cost per minute | $30.71 | $8.80 | $6.79 |
| Lands on the ground | Yes | No | Yes |
| Departs from | Kahului heliport | Kahului heliport | Kahului heliport |
| What you see | The Hana coast, then thirty minutes on the ground | Haleakala crater, then the Hana rainforest | West Maui, Molokai and a ranch landing |
| Crosses to Molokai | No | No | Yes |
| Rating | 4.9 · 332 | 5 · 21 | 5 · 7 |
| Best for | Ground no road reaches | The cheapest way into the air | The longest flight here |
| Book this one→ | Check dates | Check dates |
Free cancellation up to 24 h · Reserve now, pay later
Verdict
Seventy-five minutes over the Hana rainforest with a landing in the Wailua Valley. Three hundred and thirty-two ratings at 4.9 stand behind it, which is more reviews than the other eleven listings on this page put together. The one reason to book something else is money: forty-five minutes at $396 still shows you the same coast.
Check dates and availability→Before you book
One listing on this page carries 332 ratings and three carry none at all. That does not make the new ones bad — but an unrated listing tells you nothing, and a 5.0 from three people tells you very little. Read both numbers before you decide.
Two-minute check
Twelve listings and a lot of near-identical titles. Three answers narrow it to one: how many minutes you want in the air, how far the fare stretches, and whether landing somewhere is part of the point.
How long do you want to be up?This decides more than the price does
What are you willing to spend?Per person unless it says private
One island or two?Two listings cross to Molokai
You'll get the flight that fits your answers, the thing about it that catches people out, and an honest word about how much evidence its rating rests on.
Six kinds of trip
Ratings are the operators’ own numbers on GetYourGuide, shown exactly as published. We do not write reviews and we do not average other people’s into a score of our own. Our top pick carries 332 ratings at 4.9; two listings here carry almost none, and we say which is which on every card.
★★★★★
Based on 1,952
verified reviews
Every rated listing on this page, scored by the people who took it on GetYourGuide.
Read all 1,952→Maui: Road to Hana Helicopter & Waterfall Tour with Landing
From $2,303 · 332 reviews
★★★★★
Twenty minutes out over the Hana rainforest, thirty on the ground at a former taro plantation in the Wailua Valley, twenty back. 332 ratings at 4.9 — more than any other flight here.
Hana Rainforest and Haleakala Crater 45-min Helicopter Tour
From $396 · cheapest flight
★★★★★
Forty-five minutes over the Hana rainforest and the Haleakala crater. 21 ratings at 5. It lands nowhere, and for a scenic flight that is the honest price.
Maui and Molokai: Spectacular Helicopter Tour
From $611 · 7 reviews
★★★★★
Ninety minutes across Maui and Molokai, where the cliffs on the north shore are the tallest sea cliffs anywhere. 7 ratings at 5.
West Maui and Molokai Special 45-Minute Helicopter Tour
From $396 · 9 reviews
★★★★★
The waterfalls cut into the West Maui mountains, then across the channel. 9 ratings at 5.
Maui: 3-Island Hawaiian Odyssey Helicopter Flight
From $3,353 · 6 reviews
★★★★★
Maui, Molokai and Lanai on one flight. 6 ratings at 4.6, and the price ceiling of this page.
Maui: Small-Group Road to Hāna Sightseeing Tour
From $282 · the road version
★★★★★
Eight hours, 620 curves and 59 bridges. It is a famous day and a good one — it is here so you can see exactly what the forty minutes of flying is trading against.
What it really costs
A forty-five-minute helicopter tour of Maui starts at $396. Doors off is $452. The flight that lands in the Wailua Valley rainforest is $2,303, and the two-island flights above it run to $3,353.
Swipe sideways →
| What you are paying for | Price | What you get | Cancellation |
|---|---|---|---|
| A scenic flight, 45–50 minutes | $396–$459 | The Hana coast, Haleakala crater or the Molokai cliffs, doors on or off | Free cancellation 24 h |
| The flight that lands, 75 minutes | $2,303 | Forty minutes in the air and thirty on the ground where no road goes | Our top pick · 332 reviews |
| The Road to Hana by car, 8–11 hours | $199–$282 | 620 curves, 59 bridges, and the whole day gone | For comparison |
The honest answer
For the flight that lands, yes, and the reason is access rather than speed. The Wailua Valley landing site has no road to it. Not a rough road, not a permit road — none. Thirty minutes standing in that rainforest exists only for people who arrived by air, and that is the whole of what the fare buys.
The tour, minute by minute
The heliport sits beside the main airport. No listing includes a transfer, so allow half an hour from Kihei and closer to an hour from Lahaina, plus parking.
Names, weights and a short briefing. Weight decides where you sit, because the aircraft has to balance.
Four to six seats, headsets on, and the pilot talks to you through them for the whole flight.
The heliport sits beside the main airport, in the middle of the island. The windward coast is underneath you within minutes.
Waterfall after waterfall down the windward side — the same ones the road shows you one at a time, from a car park, through trees.
Behind the coast, the flank of Haleakala is cut by dozens of stream valleys with no road and no trail. From the ground you see the coast; from here you see what is behind it.
Down in the Wailua Valley at a former taro plantation. Rotors stopped, thirty minutes on the ground, and the only people there are the ones from your aircraft.
Seventy-five minutes gone on our top pick, forty-five on the short flights, ninety on the longest. You are back with the afternoon still in front of you.
The one thing to know
Everything else on this page is a preference. This one is geography. The Hana Highway runs along the coast; the valleys behind it are cut into the windward flank of Haleakala and most of them have no road, no trail and no track. The Wailua Valley, where our top pick lands, is one of those. You cannot drive there, you cannot walk there, and there is no viewpoint that looks into it. Thirty minutes standing on that ground exists only for people who arrived by air, and that is the whole of what the fare buys.
Four parts of the flight
No road, no trail and no track reaches it. Thirty minutes on the ground.
Black rock, surf and stream mouths — the coast the 620 curves follow.
The tallest sea cliffs in the world, across the channel, with no road along them.
A seven-mile basin at 10,023 feet, with cinder cones on its floor.
Start here
Here is the thing that decides whether a helicopter tour Maui sells is worth the money, and it is not the view: the place our top flight lands has no road to it. Not a rough road, not a permit road, not a trail with a gate. The Wailua Valley taro plantation is reached by helicopter or not at all, and the thirty minutes you spend standing in it exist only for people who arrived by air.
The Road to Hana is the comparison everybody actually makes. Sixty-four miles, about 620 curves and 59 bridges, forty-six of them one lane. Two and a half to three hours of driving without stopping, and ten to twelve hours round trip once you stop for the things you drove out there to see. It is a famous day and a genuinely good one.
The flight does the same coast in twenty minutes each way. Which sounds like the whole argument and is not. Speed is the smaller half. The larger half is that the road shows you the rainforest in glimpses between trees, from a car park, and the flight shows it to you from above and then puts you down inside it.
The cheaper flights are a different product, not a smaller one. Forty-five minutes at $396 covers the Hana coast, the Haleakala crater or the Molokai cliffs, doors on or off, and lands nowhere. If you want a scenic flight, that is the honest price for one. Our top pick is not a longer version of it.
Doors off changes the photographs and the rules. Age ten and up, sixteen for an outside seat, goggles provided and required, nothing loose in your hands, long hair tied back. Nobody reads that part until check-in, and it is why people get turned away.
The weather that matters is not the weather at your hotel. Maui is two islands of weather. Kihei and Lahaina can be cloudless while trade-wind cloud sits on the windward side — which is exactly where the Hana rainforest is. Morning slots beat afternoon ones for this reason alone.
And the last thing, which no listing says plainly: your seat is assigned by weight. Small helicopters are loaded for balance, so unless the listing guarantees a window you may end up in the middle — which on a flight down a coastline matters more than it would anywhere else.
If forty-five minutes is not enough
The short flights all do the same thing well: the Hana coast and its waterfalls from above. These three go further — across the channel to Molokai, doors off, or down onto ground that has no road to it.
Practical
Four things decide how this goes: which flight you booked, whether the doors are on or off, what you weigh, and the weather over the windward side of the island, which is not the weather outside your hotel.
The Hana coast, the Haleakala crater or the Molokai cliffs.
Same route, nothing between you and the air. Age 10+.
The West Maui waterfalls, or the Hana rainforest.
The longest flight here that does not land.
Forty in the air, thirty on ground no road reaches.
Eight to eleven hours. Here so you can see the trade.
Where our top pick lands. No road goes there.
Waterfalls the road shows you one at a time.
A seven-mile basin cut by two valleys that met at the summit.
The tallest sea cliffs in the world.
Cut through with waterfalls no trail reaches.
Humpbacks between the islands from December to March.
The heliport is beside the main airport.
Small aircraft are loaded for balance, not preference.
Ten and up, on every doors-off listing here.
No hats, no bags, hair tied back, goggles on.
And it is not the weather outside your hotel.
The pilot talks to you through them the whole way.
On most listings on this page.
Clearest air, least cloud over the rainforest.
One aircraft, limited slots, 332 people have rated it.
Our top pick has 332; two listings here have almost none.
Only some listings guarantee one.
Settled trades and full waterfalls.
Best time
Flights run all year and the island has no bad season. What moves is the trade-wind cloud over the windward side, which is exactly where the Hana rainforest is — and the whales, which are in these waters for half the year.
Apr – Jun
Settled trade winds, the least cloud over the windward coast, and the waterfalls still full from the wet season. If you want one window for the Hana flight, this is it.
Sep & Oct
The end of the dry season: clear air, calm mornings and the fewest visitors of the year. Waterfalls are thinner than in spring but everything runs.
Dec – Mar
Humpbacks are in the channel between Maui, Lanai and Molokai, and the two-island flights often see them. The trade-off is more cloud over the windward side and more rescheduling.
Jul & Aug
Everything runs, the mornings are clear and the afternoons build cloud over the rainforest. Book the first slot and book it early — this is the peak.
Worth knowing
Book the first slot of the day. Trade-wind cloud builds over the windward side through the morning, and the windward side is where the Hana rainforest is. A clear sky over your hotel in Kihei tells you nothing about the weather forty miles away.
Book a window seat if the photographs matter. Seats in small helicopters are assigned by weight for balance, and on a flight down a coastline the side you are on decides everything.
Read the doors-off rules before you book one. Age ten and up, sixteen for an outside seat, goggles required, nothing loose in your hands and long hair tied back. People are turned away at check-in for exactly these.
Seventy-five minutes is not seventy-five minutes of flying. On our top pick it is forty in the air and thirty on the ground. That is the product, and it is why the fare is what it is.
Do not do the Road to Hana by car on the same day. Ten to twelve hours of driving and a flight in one day is a great deal of Maui for one calendar square. Pick one.
Read the review count, not just the score. Our top pick carries 332 ratings at 4.9. Four listings on this page carry fewer than ten. A 5.0 from one person is not a recommendation.
Round out the trip
75 min · ★ 4.9 (332)
$2,303View 45 min · ★ 5 (21)
$396View 55 min · ★ 4.8 (188)
$2,653ViewGo deeper
Common questions
From $396 for forty-five minutes. Our top pick, seventy-five minutes with a rainforest landing, is $2,303. Flights that land go to $2,303. Doors off is $452, and ninety minutes over both islands is $611.
Because the road follows the coast and the interesting geography is behind it. Most of the valleys on the windward flank have no road, no trail and no viewpoint, and the valley our top pick lands in is one of them. The air is the only access.
Everything leaves from the Kahului heliport, beside the main airport. Allow thirty to fifty minutes to get there depending on traffic.
Forty-five minutes covers one coast or one crater. Seventy-five with a landing is the best-reviewed helicopter tour Maui sells. Ninety adds Molokai and the second volcano.
Four listings on this page cross the Pailolo Channel to the tallest sea cliffs in the world. They are a different experience rather than a longer one.
Usually not. Small helicopters are loaded by weight for balance. Some listings guarantee a window seat — check before booking if photographs matter.
Yes. The main seasonal factor is trade-wind cloud on the windward side, which is thickest from December to March and builds through the day in every month.
The flight, a headset with live pilot commentary, and a safety briefing. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before on most listings here.
Free · no account needed
One PDF: all twelve listings by length and price, what forty-five minutes actually covers against ninety, which one lands, and the months when the windward side is clearest.
The plan is on its way. If it isn't there in a minute, look in Promotions.
Why trust this page
Prices, durations and ratings are read off the live listings rather than copied from other affiliate pages. Departure airfields and route details come from the operators’ own descriptions.
Every flight here is sold on scenery and priced on time in the air. We put the minutes on every card and the cost per minute in the comparison, because that is the number that actually separates them.
One listing here carries 332 ratings and four carry fewer than ten. Both can be good; only one has been tested, and we label it that way rather than sorting everything by score.
Twelve listings, ordered as a shop window rather than by price, ranked on what they cover and how much evidence stands behind them. We earn a commission when you book, and it does not change what we recommend.
The answer
If you are booking one helicopter tour Maui offers, book the seventy-five-minute flight at $2,303. It carries 332 ratings at 4.9 — more reviews than the other eleven listings on this page put together — and it covers the Hana coast and lands in the Wailua Valley. If the budget is tight, the forty-five-minute flight at $396 still gives you the one view that has no ground-level equivalent.
Check dates and availability→ Free cancellation up to 24 hours · Reserve now, pay laterBefore you go
All twelve listings by minutes and price, which one lands, and the months when the windward side is clearest.
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Maui: Road to Hana Helicopter & Waterfall Tour with Landing
★ 4.9 · 332 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h