Blue Hawaiian Helicopters — Attraction in Maui

I'm happy with my decision to fly with Blue Hawaiian for a second time now. I felt safe and the choppers certainly look modern. My first pilot was Eric, a former military pilot. My second pilot was Matt. Both really cool guys, very knowledgeable in the topography and Maui's cultural history. This amplified the entire experience. I flew (and recommend) the Maui Spectacular with the landing on the slopes of Haleakalā. The view at the landing spot overlooks Molokini. It left me speechless and I marveled at how quiet and serene it was. Second flight was West Maui and Moloka'i.

Pros & cons (leading to only 4/5 stars): PROS: --Coffee and water bottles before departure. --Very friendly staff. --Modern and technologically advanced aircraft. --Could easily see and identity whales.

CONS: --First flight: One of the rules outlined on the ticket was "dark colored clothing." I wish they enforced this as the front right passenger wore a bright red dress which reflected brilliantly in both the front and side windows. --Front seats are certainly best followed by rear left as the chopper primarily circles the island counterclockwise. For the first flight I was assigned rear right meaning I spent most of the flight looking across the cabin and out the opposite side window. My neck was sore by the end from craning so much. The pilot did make sure to spin around at the best waterfalls as well as the Haleakalā summit so I could have an unobstructed view but it was tricky catching most of the smaller falls. Second flight I had the front right seat. Much better viewing experience since you could see out the front --Second flight was 4 months after the Lahaina fires. I was hoping with the West Maui flight pattern I would be able to see the town and pay my respects. We did not fly the coastline in that area. --Pay to park. I mean, c'mon. Really? There's a dirt field right next to it that appears to be the employee lot. No pay parking there. --$85 for the video of your flight....

What an experience.

This was a bucketlist expel me for me and the guys at Blue Hawaiian Maui helped me tick it off the list.

We originally had booked with their big island office and were really looking forward to it. Sadly our 2 hour tour was canceled due to some weather and we were offered a 1 hour tour on the same day instead which we took. Sadly 10 minutes into the trip it was canceled due to weather again and we returned back to base. They were happy to refund us but sadly we didn’t have the option to move a credit to another islands office as we still wanted to do a heli tour.

We booked a new trip with the Maui office and hoped for the best. We got a call canceling our first trip due to the helicopter having mechanical issues and were rebooked for another trip later in the week.

So on our 4th attempt we actually got up into the air and did a tour. It was an amazing way to see the island and we had some great info from our guide/ pilot Matthew. We sadly couldn’t do our planned landing as there was cattle on the landing area which prevented this.

At the end of it we got a slight refund for the landing not being possible. Over all it’s a great experience but not being able to transfer credit between offices is a little frustrating and we had 3k AUD in holding with one office and had to pay another 2.5k AUD to another for the new booking and this did stress me out a little as I don’t have unlimited funds...

Awesome tour today! We bought the "first class" front seats and it was spectacular. What a view! I think the back window seats were probably good too since this aircraft has big windows, but back middle would be much different.

There was a bit of a weather problem (Haleakala /Hana area) as could be expected on a tropical island, so our pilot suggested week take a different tour out to Molokai. I'll admit I was hesitant at first, but I should have just trusted because it was so beautiful and it gave us an excellent tour of not only western Maui, but the sea cliffs we would not have seen otherwise.

Chris was our pilot and he gets 5 stars (great pilot, informative, friendly) as do the people I spoke to during the reservation process.

The only reason four stars instead of five is because of the frump who checked us in. For $1,200+ I expect for the person at the front desk to at least try and be friendly and helpful. Treated me like I was an idiot because I didn't see the QR code for the parking, and was just generally unpleasant and unengaging. Started the morning off poorly.

Parking was $8 for 2 hours plus a $2 service charge of some sort. Yet another company that charges you to pay them money. Same with Blue Hawaiian; $79 booking fee - and that was calling direct. Weird.

Blue Hawaiian had been recommended by a local friend and overall they did not disappoint. Very professional, really cool helicopter,...