HoloHolo Guide
The short version: two operators actually fly doors off
Ask for a doors off helicopter tour on the Big Island and the market narrows fast. Only about 3 percent of Big Island visitors take a helicopter or airplane tour at all per Love Big Island, and of the four helicopter companies flying the island, just three sell a doors off seat you can book on Viator. Rainbow Helicopters flies doors off from Kona on every route at no extra charge. Paradise Helicopters flies the original doors off lava tour from Hilo. Mauna Loa Helicopters adds doors off to its private flights from Kona for a fee. Blue Hawaiian Helicopters and Safari Helicopters, the two other names in most roundups, fly doors on only, which is why they appear here as the contrast rather than the picks.
Route decides the rest. A Kona departure buys you the Kohala Coast, Waipio Valley and its 2,000 foot cliffs, and the Hamakua waterfalls, then reaches the volcano if the flight is long enough. A Hilo departure is over Kilauea within minutes, which is why the Hilo doors off flight costs roughly half the Kona volcano flight. Pick your departure first and your flight length second. If your trip is built around the park on the ground as well, pair this with our best Hawaii Volcanoes National Park tours from Kona and fly on a different day.
Head to head
| Tour | Price per adult | Duration | Departs | Doors | Rating and reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow Helicopters Kohala Coast Volcano Waterfalls | About $895 | 90 minutes | Kona | Off or on, free | 4.8, 11 reviews |
| Rainbow Helicopters Kilauea Volcano Eruption | About $1,180 | 105 minutes | Kona | Off or on, free | 4.0 on Viator |
| Rainbow Helicopters Kona Coast Hualalai Volcano | About $640 | 60 minutes | Kona | Off or on, free | 4.8, recommended by 90 percent of travelers |
| Paradise Helicopters Doors Off Lava and Rainforests | About $449 | About 60 minutes | Hilo | Off | 4.0, 164 reviews |
| Mauna Loa Helicopters Private Magical Waterfall Tour | About $451 | About 75 minutes | Kona | Off for a fee | 5.0, 15 reviews |
| Blue Hawaiian Helicopters Big Island Spectacular | About $883 | About 1 hour 45 minutes | Waikoloa and Hilo | On only | 4.8, 131 reviews |
Prices, ratings, and review counts reflect Viator listings and operator pages checked in October 2026 and move with demand, so confirm at booking. Every Rainbow Helicopters and Paradise Helicopters tour here carries free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead on its Viator listing.
The bookable picks
Rainbow Helicopters Kohala Coast Volcano Waterfalls
The most complete single flight from Kona. In 90 minutes you cross Kailua Bay, pass Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world per the Viator listing, then Kaupulehu Crater and Hualalai, look up at the Mauna Kea summit at 13,796 feet above sea level, and finish along the Kohala Coast through the Pololu and Waimanu Valleys to the Laupahoehoe Nui and Waiilikahi waterfalls and the black sand beach at Waipio Valley. It holds a 4.8 rating across 11 reviews on Viator, lists at about $895 per person, and the doors off choice is free at checkout, which no other Kona operator matches. Check in is at the Big Island Jet Center, 73 4370 Paoo Street in Kailua Kona, one hour before departure. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Check Rainbow Helicopters availability on Viator →Rainbow Helicopters Kilauea Volcano Eruption
The focused volcano flight, and the priciest seat in this guide at about $1,180 per person for 105 minutes. The route flies from Kona straight to Halemaumau Crater inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Kilauea is the youngest of the five volcanoes on the island, formed 300,000 to 600,000 years ago per the tour listing, its summit sits at 4,091 feet above sea level, and it has erupted more than 30 times in the past six decades. Rainbow Helicopters notes the current eruption has produced episodic lava fountaining since December 2024, so what you see depends on the week you fly. Know the honest catch before you pay the premium, roughly a third of this flight is the transit across the island from Kona, per Love Big Island. If you are staying near Hilo, the Paradise Helicopters flight below covers the same crater for far less. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Check Rainbow Helicopters availability on Viator →Rainbow Helicopters Kona Coast Hualalai Volcano
The entry doors off flight from Kona, 60 minutes at about $640 per person, with a 4.8 rating and a Badge of Excellence on Viator, recommended by 90 percent of travelers on the listing. The route stays on the west side, Kaloko Fish Ponds and Kailua Bay, Magic Sands Beach, the Kona coffee farms, Kealakekua Bay and the Captain Cook Monument, the Place of Refuge, then up to Kaupulehu Crater and Hualalai Volcano and the Puu Waawaa Forest Reserve. You give up Kilauea and the Kohala waterfalls and keep the price and the morning. Doors off and doors on cost the same, and departures run through the day from the Big Island Jet Center. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Check Rainbow Helicopters availability on Viator →Paradise Helicopters Doors Off Lava and Rainforests from Hilo
The cheapest true doors off flight on the island and the one with the longest track record in this format. Paradise Helicopters calls its Hilo flight the only doors off lava tour in Hawaii, flown in a four passenger Hughes MD500, the Magnum P.I. helicopter, for about 60 minutes at about $449 per person on Viator, with a rating of 4.0 across 164 reviews. From Hilo International Airport you are over Kilauea and the old Puu Oo vent quickly, then across the Puna rainforest to Rainbow Falls, called Waianuenue, where morning sun puts rainbows in the mist. Hilo is the wettest city in the United States per the tour listing, which is why this side of the island is so green and why morning departures matter here. Guests over 269 pounds buy an extra seat and get a guaranteed window seat, and children must be 12 or older to sit beside an open door. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Check Paradise Helicopters availability on Viator →Mauna Loa Helicopters Private Magical Waterfall Tour
The private option. Mauna Loa Helicopters flies only private tours, so your group has the Robinson R66 to itself for about 75 minutes over the seven windward valleys of Kohala, including Waipio and Waimanu, from about $451 per person on Viator with a 5.0 rating across 15 reviews. Doors off is available for an extra fee on this tour, the minimum age is 7 for doors on and 12 for doors off, and the limits are 275 pounds per passenger and 700 pounds for the group. The same company flies a private full island tour of about 2 hours from about $639 per person, rated 5.0 across 93 Viator reviews per Love Big Island, if you want the volcano and the valleys in one private flight. Check in is 30 to 40 minutes before departure at Kona International Airport. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Check Mauna Loa Helicopters availability on Viator →Doors off seats are the first to go on the small Kona aircraft, and the Kohala flight is the one that sells the volcano, the valleys and the waterfalls in a single morning. Book it early in your trip so a cloudy day still leaves room to rebook:
Check Rainbow Helicopters Kohala Coast Volcano Waterfalls availability on ViatorFree cancellation up to 24 hours ahead · Prices confirmed at booking
Doors off vs doors on, honestly
Doors off earns its premium in exactly one place, your photos. No glass means no glare, no reflections of your shirt in the window, and a clear shot straight down into Halemaumau Crater or across the Waimanu Valley waterfalls. You also feel the flight, wind, engine noise through the headset, and the temperature drop as you climb, which half of reviewers call the thrill and the other half call the reason they would book doors on next time.
Doors on is the right call for a first flight with kids under 12, for anyone nervous about heights, and in winter when the air over the summit is cold. The strongest doors on product here is the Blue Hawaiian Helicopters Big Island Spectacular, about $883 per person for about 1 hour 45 minutes in an Airbus EcoStar with theater style seating and Bose noise cancelling headsets, rated 4.8 across 131 reviews, departing Waikoloa and Hilo. Blue Hawaiian flies no doors off option at any price. At the budget end, Safari Helicopters has flown from Hilo since 1987 per Love Big Island, the longest run on the island, with a standard volcano tour at about $349, doors on only and a stricter 48 hour cancellation window.
One warning that decides real bookings. On a shared doors off flight your seat is assigned by weight and balance, and your seat may or may not sit beside the open door, per the Rainbow Helicopters listing terms. If an open door seat is the whole point, book the private Mauna Loa Helicopters flight or the four passenger Paradise Helicopters aircraft, where every seat is a window seat.
Kona vs Hilo, the price gap explained
The same volcano costs about $449 from Hilo and $1,180 from Kona with the doors off, and the gap is geography, not quality. Hilo International Airport sits a few miles from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, so a 60 minute Hilo flight spends most of its hour over volcanic terrain and waterfalls. Kona International Airport sits on the far west side, so a Kona volcano flight spends roughly a third of its time crossing the island before it reaches anything volcanic, per Love Big Island.
What Kona buys you instead is the north of the island. The Kohala Coast, Waipio Valley and the Hamakua waterfall corridor are reachable on a normal flight from Kona and out of range for a standard Hilo tour. So the rule is simple. Staying in Kona or Waikoloa and want the full sweep, book the Kohala flight. Staying in Hilo or Volcano, or making a day trip to the east side, book the Paradise Helicopters flight and keep the change. Driving between the two sides takes about 90 minutes via Saddle Road per Rainbow Helicopters, so do not book a Hilo flight for a Kona morning unless you mean to make the drive.
Know before you go
Book the flight early in your trip, never on your last day. Helicopter tours are weather dependent, low cloud over the summit is the common cancellation, and you want a spare morning to rebook. Morning flights offer the clearest visibility and the calmest air on the Big Island per Rainbow Helicopters, because trade winds build through the afternoon, and morning light shows the crater glow most strongly before full daylight.
The rules are strict and they are enforced at check in. Rainbow Helicopters asks guests to arrive one hour before departure at the Big Island Jet Center for the safety briefing. Everyone is weighed, and Rainbow charges a weight and balance fee of 50 percent of the seat price at 250 to 274 pounds and 100 percent at 275 pounds or more, with a maximum of 300 pounds per passenger. No scuba diving within 24 hours of a flight. For doors off, wear closed toe shoes and a jacket, tie long hair back, and leave hats, scarves and loose items on the ground. Phones and cameras fly only on the strap the operator provides, which Rainbow and Mauna Loa both include.
Lava expectations need one honest sentence. Kilauea erupts in episodes, the United States Geological Survey posts the current activity, and no operator controls it or refunds a flight just because the crater is quiet on your day. Pay for the route and the doors, and treat visible lava as a bonus.
Where this fits in your Big Island week
A helicopter flight takes half a day door to door and pairs naturally with the ground version of the same island. Fly early in the week, then see the park at ground level on our best Hawaii Volcanoes National Park tours from Kona, spend a morning on the coast the Kona Coast flight passes over with the best Kona coffee farm tour and the Kealakekua Bay snorkel tour for the Captain Cook monument, and keep your evenings for the best manta ray night snorkel in Kona. Our Big Island guide and the perfect 7 day Hawaii itinerary show where a flight morning slots into the week. Headed to Kauai next, the same doors off question is settled there in our best Kauai helicopter tour for the Na Pali Coast.
