Our top pickMost booked
60 minOahu 60-Minute, Doors Off
★ 4.9 · 453 reviews
- One hour, above Hawaii's attractions
- Helicopter tour from Honolulu
- Most booked
- Free cancellation
$507
Check availability→ 
Honolulu helicopter tours
Honolulu helicopter tours show travellers Oahu's coast and valleys from above. We compared 8 flights, with prices from $380, free cancellation, and the top tour rated 4.9 from 453 reviews. Doors-off views over Diamond Head, Waikiki and the Koolau waterfalls reveal Oahu's scale.
Flights run year-round · free cancellation up to 24 hours
From, per person
7 flights compared$380
Today's lowest price across all 8 flights
Average rating
7 rated flights49
865 verified reviews across 7 flights
Time in the air
Shortest to longest20–65min
Shortest: Waikiki
Longest: Complete Oahu Island
Free cancellation 24 h
Reserve now, pay later
Mobile voucher
Doors on or off
Instant confirmation
Shared or private
Choose your flight
Every Honolulu helicopter flight
Seven flights leave the same airport on Oahu. What changes is how much of the island you cover, and whether the doors come off. Every price is per person.
Best valueDoors off
45 min45-Minute, Doors On or Off
★ 4.9 · 236 reviews
- 45 minutes, over Oahu's most secluded areas
- Shared or private helicopter tour
- Coast, city, and forest landscapes
- Free cancellation
$460
Check availability→ 
Rated 5.0Pali cliffs
30 minPath to Pali, 30 Minutes
★ 5.0 · 107 reviews
- 30 minutes, on a Path to Pali tour
- Private or shared tour
- Waikiki skyline, Diamond Head, Makapu'u Point
- Free cancellation
$413
Check availability→ 
Cheapest20 minutes
20 minWaikiki 20-Minute
★ 4.9 · 33 reviews
- 20 minutes, over some of the island's sights
- Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head
- Cheapest here
- Free cancellation
$380
Check availability→ 
Eco-Star50 minutes
50 minBlue Skies of Oahu, 50 Minutes
★ 4.9 · 26 reviews
- 50 minutes, over Oahu's sights
- State-of-the-art Eco-Star helicopter
- Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, Waikiki
- Free cancellation
$412
Check availability→ 
Whole island65 minutes
65 minComplete Oahu Island, 65 Minutes
★ 4.8 · 9 reviews
- 65 minutes, over Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head
- Oahu's sights from above
- Longest tour here
- Free cancellation
$495
Check availability→ 
Golden hourSmall sample
50 minWaikiki Sunset, 50 Minutes
★ 5.0 · 1 reviews
- 50 minutes, over the deep blue waters
- Waikiki skyline at sunset
- Last rays of light
- Free cancellation
$483
Check availability→ Still deciding?
Which flight is yours?
These seven are not longer and shorter versions of one flight. Twenty minutes covers Waikiki; sixty-five covers the whole island. Pick what matters most and we will name one.
See it before you pay for it
What you actually see up there
The skids leave the pad and inside two minutes Honolulu is behind you. Waikiki reads as a strip of towers against a reef that turns from jade to deep blue in a single line. Diamond Head is a bowl you look straight down into. Then the island flips: the windward side is green to the waterline, the Koolau range drops in vertical folds, and thin waterfalls run down them after rain. On the longer flights you come home over Pearl Harbor with the Arizona memorial a small white bar in the water.
Side by side
Twenty, thirty or sixty minutes
The three flights most people choose between. Same aircraft, same airport, doors on or off on all of them. What changes is how much of Oahu you get.
Swipe the table sideways →
| Waikiki 20-min | TOP PICKOahu 60-min | Path to Pali 30-min | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per person | $380 | $507 | $413 |
| Time in the air | 20 min | 60 min | 30 min |
| Cost per minute | $19.00 | $8.45 | $13.77 |
| Waikiki & Diamond Head | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pearl Harbor | Yes | Yes | No |
| Nuuanu Pali cliffs | No | Yes | Yes, the whole point of it |
| Windward coast | No | Yes | Partly |
| Doors off | Optional | Optional | Optional |
| Rating | 4.9 · 33 | 4.9 · 453 | 5.0 · 107 |
| Best for | Tightest budget, least time | Most visitors, one flight only | The green side, on a budget |
| Check dates | Book this one→ | Check dates |
TOP PICK
Oahu 60-min
$507- A full hour over the island
- Coast, city, Pali cliffs and Pearl Harbor
- Doors on or off
- 4.9 · 453 reviews
Waikiki 20-min
$380- Twenty minutes, cheapest seat
- Waikiki, Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor
- Doors on or off
- 4.9 · 33 reviews
Path to Pali 30-min
$413- Straight for the green side
- Makapuu Point and the Pali cliffs
- Rated 5.0 so far
- 5.0 · 107 reviews
Cost per minute is a useful sanity check, not a verdict. The twenty-minute flight is the cheapest seat but the most expensive minute; the hour is the other way round.
Two-minute check
Which flight fits your day?
Three things decide this on Oahu: how much you want to spend, whether the doors come off, and whether you care about the green windward side or the postcard coast. Answer three questions and we will name one flight.
How long do you want in the air?Every flight leaves from the same airport on Oahu
What do you most want to see?The island has two completely different sides
Doors on or doors off?Both are offered on every flight here
Answer the three questions above
You will get one named flight, what it costs, and the one thing about your answers worth knowing before you pay.
What travellers say
865 reviews across seven flights
Every rating and review count on this page is the operator’s live figure.
4.9
★★★★★
Based on 865
verified reviews
5 ★92%
4 ★6%
3 ★1%
2 ★1%
1 ★0%
All seven Oahu helicopter flights, rated on GetYourGuide.
Read all 865→🚁
Helicopter, doors off
From $380 · 20–65 minutes
★★★★★
The only way to see both sides of Oahu in one go
The island is two places: a dry, built-up south shore and a green windward wall that most visitors only glimpse from a car park. An hour in the air joins them into one landscape, and doors off turns the photographs from souvenirs into something worth printing.
🏖
A helicopter with a landing
Not sold on Oahu · see Kauai and Big Island
★★★★
Worth knowing before you go looking for one
Oahu helicopter tours do not land. Landing tours in Hawaii are a Kauai and Big Island product, and the day trips that include them leave Honolulu very early and get back very late. On Oahu the flight is the whole experience.
🚶
Hiking Diamond Head
About $5 entry · 1.5–2 hours
★★★★
Cheap, close, and the view everyone photographs
The trail up the inside of the crater is short, hot and busy, and the payoff is the Waikiki skyline framed by the crater rim. What it cannot show you is Diamond Head itself, which only makes sense as a shape once you are above it.
⚓
Pearl Harbor on the ground
Free entry to the memorial · half a day
★★★★★
The one thing on Oahu the air cannot do better
The Arizona memorial is about standing still in a specific place, and no flight replaces that. From above you get the scale of the harbour and the outline of the ship; on the water you get the reason people come. They are different visits, and both are worth making.
🚗
Driving the windward coast
Free · a half day with a rental car
★★★★
The honest budget answer, and it gets you a long way
The Pali Highway and the Kamehameha coast road take in Nuuanu Pali Lookout, Kaneohe Bay and the North Shore for the price of fuel. What they cannot show is the Koolau range from the seaward side, where the cliffs are vertical and the waterfalls only exist after rain.
✈
A fixed-wing island flight
From about $130 · 1 hour
★★★☆☆
Cheaper, higher, and you cannot open the door
Small planes fly similar routes for noticeably less. They also fly higher, cannot hover over a waterfall, and cannot take the doors off. If the point is closeness and photographs, the aircraft type is the decision — not the price.
What it really costs
There is no cheaper door
Several operators fly tourists over Oahu from the same airport. Each publishes one seat price and sells it at that price everywhere — their own site, the booking platforms, the desks in Waikiki hotel lobbies. What changes is whether a seat is left on the morning you want.
Swipe sideways →
| Where you book | Price | Risk | Cancellation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online in advance | $380–$507 | None — your seat is held | Free up to 24 hours |
| Waikiki hotel desk | Same price, no discount | Only what is unsold that day | Desk policy, usually stricter |
| Turning up at the airport | Same price | High — these aircraft seat four to six | None once boarded |
Costs the listing doesn't show you
- Getting to the airport. No flight here includes hotel pickup as standard. From Waikiki budget a taxi or rideshare each way.
- Doors off is not always free. On some listings it is a choice at no cost, on others an upgrade. Check before you pay rather than at check-in.
- Shared means shared. Unless the listing says private, you are flying with strangers and the seat you get is assigned by weight.
- Tips. Common in Hawaii for pilots and ground crew, but never compulsory. Ignore anyone who implies otherwise.
What is genuinely included
- Safety briefing and headsets with live pilot commentary
- Doors on or doors off, your choice on every flight here
- Small aircraft — four to six seats, and a window each
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure
- Full refund or a new slot if the operator cancels for weather
The honest answer
Is a Honolulu helicopter tour worth it?
Yes, for one reason that is specific to Oahu. From the ground the island reads as two unrelated places: the built-up south shore with Waikiki and Diamond Head, and a green wall of cliffs on the other side that most visitors see once, from a lookout car park. From the air it is a single object, and the ten minutes of flying between those two faces is what people remember.
What makes it worth it
- Diamond Head only makes sense as a crater from above
- The Koolau cliffs and their waterfalls have no road
- Pearl Harbor at a scale the memorial cannot show
- Doors off, which almost no other destination offers as standard
- Fifteen minutes from Waikiki to open ocean and green ridges
Keep in mind
- It is expensive — $380 is the cheapest seat on this page
- Waterfalls in the Koolau range depend on recent rain
- No flight from Oahu lands anywhere; landings are a Kauai product
- Doors off is cold and loud, and not for everyone
- Shared flights assign seats by weight — you cannot choose the side
How the hour runs
Waikiki to the windward side and back
Check in at the heliport
Arrive thirty minutes before the slot. Photo ID, and everything loose goes in a locker.
Safety briefing and weigh-in
Everyone is weighed — seats are assigned by weight so the aircraft balances.
Lift off, doors on or off
Four to six passengers, headsets on. The decision about doors is made here, not in the air.
Waikiki and Diamond Head
The strip of towers, then straight down into the crater. The first two minutes are the postcard.
Pearl Harbor
The harbour opens out and the Arizona memorial is a small white bar in the water below.
Over the Koolau range
The island flips from dry to green in about ninety seconds. After rain the cliffs run with waterfalls.
Back down the windward coast
Kaneohe Bay, Mokolii, then home along the shore.
Best time of day
Morning, before the trade winds build
Oahu’s trade winds and the clouds that stack against the Koolau range both build through the day. The first slots have the smoothest air and the clearest view of the cliffs. The sunset flight is the photographer’s choice instead — and the first to sell out.
On the route
What you actually see
The reef, from above
The water changes colour in hard lines that you simply cannot read from a beach.
The Koolau waterfalls
Vertical green walls with no road to them. After rain they run with thin falls all along the range.
Pearl Harbor
The scale of the harbour, and the memorial as a small white bar over the ship.
Honolulu on the way home
A city of towers pressed between a crater and a reef, with rainbows more often than you would believe.
What it's like
An hour over Oahu
The part nobody prepares you for is the doors. With them off, the first thirty seconds after lift-off are pure noise and wind, and then something switches: your eyes stop protecting themselves and start looking, and there is nothing at all between you and the island.
Waikiki goes past almost immediately. From the ground it is a wall of hotels; from eight hundred feet it is a thin strip of towers on a sandbar, with a reef running out from it in bands that go jade, turquoise, then a blue so dark it reads as black.
Diamond Head is next, and it is the moment the flight earns its money. You have seen it from the beach a hundred times as a brown hump. From above it is a bowl — a complete crater ring with a road spiralling in and a lighthouse on the seaward rim — and the shape only exists from here.
Then Pearl Harbor, wide and grey-green, with the Arizona memorial a small white bar lying across something you can still see the outline of. The pilot usually goes quiet through this part, which is the right call.
The middle of the flight is the surprise. The aircraft crosses the island and in about ninety seconds Oahu stops being a holiday and becomes a mountain range. The Koolau cliffs go up vertically, folded like curtains, green to the top. After rain there are waterfalls down every fold, and the pilot will hold position in front of one so both sides of the cabin get it.
The way back runs down the windward coast — Kaneohe Bay, Mokolii sitting in the shallows like a hat — and then the towers come back and you land, about an hour after you left, with cold hands and roughly two hundred photographs of which maybe six are good.
While you're on Oahu
The other things people book here
The flight takes between twenty minutes and just over an hour. These are what travellers most often put around it.
Before you go
Plan your flight
It is colder than you think
At eighty knots with the door off, even Hawaii is cold. Long sleeves, and nothing that flaps. Hats and loose scarves stay in the locker.
Nothing loose, ever
Phones on a wrist strap, lens caps in a zipped pocket, no selfie sticks. Operators are strict about this because anything that leaves the cabin goes into the rotor.
You choose at check-in
Every flight on this page offers both. You do not have to decide when you book, and one person can go doors on while another goes doors off.
Better photographs, worse conversation
Doors off removes the perspex and the reflections. It also makes the intercom the only way to hear anything at all.
Dark clothing helps
Light clothes reflect in whatever glass is left and end up as a ghost across your own photographs.
If in doubt, doors on
Nervous flyers and small children usually have a much better hour with the doors on, and the view through the bubble windows is still excellent.
Everyone gets weighed
Seats are assigned by weight so the aircraft balances. It takes seconds, and it is why you cannot pick your own side.
Heavier passengers
Operators here set their own limits and sometimes charge for a second seat. Ask at booking rather than at the desk.
Children
Minimum ages differ between operators and are stricter for doors-off flights. Confirm before paying.
Motion sickness
Twenty to sixty-five minutes, and helicopters are steadier than small planes. Morning air over Oahu is the smoothest of the day.
Nervous flyers
Say so when you check in. Doors on, a seat away from the opening, and a pilot who knows tends to fix most of it.
Photography
Take polarised sunglasses off before shooting through glass, and keep the strap on your wrist with the doors off.
How far ahead
These aircraft carry four to six people and Oahu is busy. In high season book a week out; the sunset flights go first.
Free cancellation
All seven flights cancel free up to 24 hours before departure. After that the seat is charged.
If they cancel
Weather cancellation by the operator means a full refund or a free reschedule. Trade winds and low cloud on the windward side are the usual causes.
Shared or private
Several of these are sold both ways. Private costs considerably more and buys you the seat you want and no strangers.
Mobile voucher
No printing needed. Save it offline before you leave the hotel wifi.
Book it early in the trip
If weather moves your flight, you want another day to move it to. Not the morning of your flight home.
Not from Waikiki
Flights leave from the airport side of Honolulu, not from the beach. From Waikiki that is roughly twenty minutes by road.
Transfers vary by operator
Some listings include hotel pickup, some do not. Read the meeting point on the listing before you book a taxi.
Arrive thirty minutes early
Check-in, the safety briefing and the weigh-in all happen before slot time, not during it.
Parking
Available at the heliports, and usually free. Ask the operator which entrance to use.
Lockers
Everything loose goes in one. Take a phone with a strap and nothing else.
The North Shore flights
A couple of the tours leave from Turtle Bay on the north side, an hour from Waikiki. Check which coast your flight starts on.
Best time
When to fly
Oahu flies all year. What changes is the wind, the cloud on the Koolau range, and whether the waterfalls exist at all.
Apr – Jun
The clear window
Light trades, dry air and long days. The best combination of smooth flying and clear cliffs.
Sep – Nov
Warm and quieter
Fewer visitors, water still warm, and the first rains start putting water back into the Koolau falls.
Dec – Mar
Green and unsettled
The wet season. The windward cliffs are at their most spectacular and also the most likely to be in cloud.
Jul – Aug
Busy and breezy
Strong trades build early in the day and the island is full. Take the first slot of the morning.
Worth knowing
Six things that aren't in the listing
01
The waterfalls depend on rain. The Koolau falls are spectacular after a wet spell and largely absent after a dry one. Nobody can promise them.
02
No Oahu flight lands. Landing tours in Hawaii are a Kauai and Big Island product. On Oahu the flight is the whole thing.
03
You cannot choose your side. Seats are assigned by weight. On a shared flight, ask nicely and accept the answer.
04
Doors off is a decision at check-in, not at booking. Every flight here offers both, and you can change your mind.
05
Morning air is smoother. Trade winds and cloud on the cliffs both build through the day.
06
Flights leave from the airport, not the beach. Twenty minutes by road from Waikiki, and some tours start on the North Shore instead.
Round out the trip
Booked alongside
Go deeper
More on flying over Oahu
Common questions
Honolulu helicopter tours, answered
How much is a helicopter tour in Honolulu?
The cheapest seat is $380 for the twenty-minute Waikiki flight. Thirty minutes over the Pali cliffs is $413, forty-five minutes is $460, and a full hour over the island is $507. The sixty-five-minute island circuit is $495. Prices are per person and doors on or off is your choice on every one.
Can you do a doors-off helicopter tour on Oahu?
Yes, and it is the norm here rather than an exotic extra: every flight on this page offers doors on or doors off, and you can decide at check-in rather than when you book. Doors off is colder and much louder, and everything loose has to go in a locker — but it removes the perspex between you and the island, which is the whole reason people pay for it.
Do Oahu helicopter tours land anywhere?
No. Landing tours in Hawaii are a Kauai and Big Island product. From Oahu the flight itself is the entire experience, which is why the flights are shorter and cheaper than the landing tours you may have seen advertised for other islands.
Which Honolulu helicopter tour is best?
For most visitors the sixty-minute Oahu flight at $507. It is the only length that comfortably covers both faces of the island — Waikiki, Diamond Head and Pearl Harbor on one side, the Koolau cliffs and the windward coast on the other — and with 453 reviews at 4.9 it is by far the most booked flight here.
Will I see waterfalls?
It depends entirely on recent rain. The Koolau range runs with thin waterfalls after a wet spell and has almost none after a dry one, and no operator can promise them. What is there year-round is the range itself — vertical green cliffs with no road to them, which is remarkable in any weather.
Where do Honolulu helicopter tours depart from?
From the airport side of Honolulu rather than from Waikiki itself — roughly twenty minutes by road. Two of the tours on this page start from Turtle Bay on the North Shore instead, about an hour away, so check the meeting point on the listing before booking a taxi.
What happens if the flight is cancelled for weather?
You get a full refund or a free reschedule. On Oahu the usual cause is strong trade winds or low cloud sitting against the Koolau range, which is why the flight belongs early in your trip rather than on the last morning.
Free · no account needed
Oahu in three days — the plan we'd follow
One PDF with a three-day schedule that puts the flight where the weather is best and the crowds are thinnest. Same sources as this page.
- Three days planned around the trade winds and the morning air
- What to book ahead, and how far ahead, month by month
- The real cost of a week on Oahu, including what nobody lists
- Which lookouts are worth the drive and which are car parks
Check your inbox
The plan is on its way. If it isn't there in a minute, look in Promotions.
Why trust this page
How we put this together
Checked, not guessed
Every price, duration, rating and review count was read off the live GetYourGuide listing, and is re-checked each quarter.
How we pick
We list every helicopter tour sold over Oahu, not a shortlist. Nobody pays to be featured here.
Written for one decision
This page exists to answer one question: which flight to book. If a section did not help with that, we cut it.
What we will not claim
We do not promise waterfalls, and we say so wherever the subject comes up. They depend on rain, not on what you paid.
The answer
One hour, doors off
The only length that covers both faces of Oahu — Waikiki, Diamond Head and Pearl Harbor on one side, the Koolau cliffs and the windward coast on the other. It is also the most booked flight here, by a wide margin.
Check dates and availability→ Free cancellation up to 24 hours · Reserve now, pay later