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→ On the route
What you see from a helicopter over Oahu
The island in the order the flight shows it to you: Waikiki, Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor, the Koolau range and the windward coast. What is on every route, what needs an hour, and what depends on the weather.
What do you see on an Oahu helicopter tour?
Every flight covers Waikiki, Diamond Head and the reef. Most add Pearl Harbor. Thirty minutes gets you a look at the Pali cliffs; an hour crosses the Koolau range and comes back down the windward coast past Kaneohe Bay and Mokolii. Waterfalls in the range depend entirely on recent rain and are never guaranteed.
What is on which route
- Waikiki skyline
- Every flightThe first ninety seconds
- Diamond Head
- Every flightThe crater bowl from directly above
- The reef
- Every flightColour bands that only read from the air
- Pearl Harbor
- Most routesHarbour scale and the Arizona outline
- Makapuu Point
- 30 minutes and upThe south-east corner and its lighthouse
- Koolau cliffs
- 30 minutes and upVertical green walls with no road
- Waterfalls
- Only after rainSeasonal; no operator promises them
- Windward coast
- An hour and upKaneohe Bay, the sandbar, Mokolii
What you see
The south shore, in the first five minutes
Waikiki reads completely differently from above. On the ground it is a wall of hotels; from eight hundred feet it is a narrow strip of towers on a sandbar, with a reef fanning out in bands — jade close in, turquoise over sand, then a hard line where the shelf drops and the water goes almost black.
Diamond Head is the shot people book for. From the beach it is a brown hump. From above it is a complete crater: a ring of rim, a bowl of dry scrub, a road spiralling in, and a lighthouse on the seaward edge. The shape simply does not exist at ground level.
West of the city the coast turns industrial and Pearl Harbor opens out, wide and grey-green, with the Arizona memorial lying across the darker shape of the ship.
What you see
The crossing, and why an hour is a different flight
About halfway through a sixty-minute flight the aircraft turns inland and the island changes character in roughly ninety seconds. The dry, built-up south gives way to the Koolau range: a wall of green that goes up vertically, folded like heavy curtains, with no road, no houses and no way in on foot.
After a wet spell there are waterfalls down every fold — thin, high, and often several in one view. After a dry month there are almost none. This is the single most weather-dependent thing on any Oahu itinerary, and it is why no honest page promises it.
Over the ridge the windward side opens up: Kaneohe Bay with its sandbar, Mokolii sitting in the shallows, and a coastline of small bays that looks nothing like the Hawaii of the brochures.
Every tour, current fare
How much of the island each flight covers
The step from thirty to sixty minutes is the one that crosses the range.
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| Tour | Price | Door to door | Landings | Per minute | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oahu 60-Minute, Doors Off | $507 | 60 min | None | $8.45 | 4.9 · 453 |
| 45-Minute, Doors On or Off | $460 | 45 min | None | $10.22 | 4.9 · 236 |
| Path to Pali, 30 Minutes | $413 | 30 min | None | $13.77 | 5.0 · 107 |
| Waikiki 20-Minute | $380 | 20 min | None | $19.00 | 4.9 · 33 |
| Blue Skies of Oahu, 50 Minutes | $412 | 50 min | None | $8.24 | 4.9 · 26 |
| Complete Oahu Island, 65 Minutes | $495 | 65 min | None | $7.62 | 4.8 · 9 |
| Waikiki Sunset, 50 Minutes | $483 | 50 min | None | $9.66 | 5.0 · 1 |
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Book a flight over Oahu
Prices are per person, doors on or doors off.
60 min
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→ 
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→ 
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→ 
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→ 
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→ 
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→ Common questions
What you see from an Oahu helicopter, answered
What do you see on a Honolulu helicopter tour?
Waikiki, Diamond Head and the reef on every flight, Pearl Harbor on most, and on flights of thirty minutes or more the Koolau cliffs. An hour crosses the range and returns down the windward coast.
Will I see waterfalls?
Only after rain. The Koolau range runs with thin waterfalls following a wet spell and has almost none after a dry one. No operator can promise them, and any that does is overselling.
Do you fly over Diamond Head?
Yes, on every flight sold here. It is usually the second thing you see, and from above it resolves into a complete crater ring rather than the brown hump you see from the beach.
Which flight covers the windward side?
Sixty minutes or more. The twenty and thirty-minute flights stay on the south shore or only look in at the Pali; the hour crosses the range properly.
Can you see the North Shore?
On the sixty-five-minute island circuit, and on the tours that depart from Turtle Bay. The standard south-shore flights do not reach it.
Is the view better doors off?
The view is identical; the photographs are much better. Curved perspex plus bright light produces reflections across every frame, and with the door off that problem disappears.
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