How To Avoid Being a Bad Tourist in Hawai’i

Hawai’i is experiencing tourism fatigue. In 2022, just over 9 million visitors spent vacations in the Aloha State, a number just near the 2019 peak.

Many visitors regard Hawai’i as a paradise—a playground for their leisure pursuits—but it’s important to remember that the state is also a community where over a million residents live and work. While tourism is a major driver in the state’s economy, tourist behavior can also have adverse impacts on the quality of life for residents, the environment, and the experience of other travelers.

Vacationers unfortunately tend to acquire tunnel vision the moment they leave home. Focused on having the best time possible, they tend to discard some social constructs they would otherwise follow at home.

In a different place, surrounded by strangers they have no affinity for, enjoying the delights of a community they have no staking in keeping healthy, travelers can often become the worst versions of themselves.

Reacting to the stress of travel and unfamiliarity, feeling driven to get their money’s worth and have the absolute best time, they often put courtesy at naught—to the chagrin of other travelers and residents.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when visiting Hawai’i.

Follow Local Cues
Residents (also called “locals”) consider themselves stewards of their communities, including the lands they live on. If a local advises you not to take a certain path, or that land is private, or that the surf is too dangerous for swimming, heed their advice. Their advice is almost always borne of genuine concern or compassion—whether for the environment, wildlife, personal safety, or cultural sensitivity. Even if their motives are in doubt, remember, you’re in their space.

Abandon Entitlement
Everybody understands a trip to Hawai’i isn’t a small undertaking. It’s expensive. It’s a long flight. It takes planning. But resist the urge to view the state as a gigantic mega-resort where everyone is similarly invested in your experience. Locals are there for their own purposes. They have their own days to get through, and their every day is often similarly as mundane or frustrating as people living anywhere else.

Your vacation fantasy is someone else’s reality—and Hawai’i’s realities can be harsh. Sky-high housing costs have driven some Native Hawaiians to leave Hawai’i for the Mainland. Grocery stores dedicate aisles to souvenir candy and boogie boards instead of breakfast cereal and to premium meat cuts demanded by tourist vacation budgets instead of hamburgers.

Resist the urge to complain about high prices. They know. Don’t say insensitive things like “I’d sleep on the beach if I could live here” because there’s a significant unhoused population in Hawai’i that can be arrested for doing exactly that. Don’t complain about the traffic—tourism is a big part of the traffic.

Don’t Leave Offerings
When visiting heiau (temples) or other sacred or revered places (known in Hawaiian as wahi pana), some well-meaning visitors have stacked rocks or wrapped items in ti leaves to leave as an offering.

It’s worth noting that Hawaiian religious practices before European contact were complex. Kahuna, or priests were highly trained artisans who oversaw religious protocols, and activities outside the boundaries of the protocols was considered an affront.

For visitors to give offerings without fully understanding Hawaiian practices is a desecration of the place, and the offering is just meaningless garbage for local authorities to dispose of, so admire the place, but don’t leave anything behind.

Be Smart About Sunscreen
Certain ingredients historically used in sunscreens can cause harm to sea life. In particular, the additives oxybenzone and octinoxate are linked to coral bleaching, so the sale of sunscreens containing them is banned in Hawai’i. They’ve also mostly disappeared from other sunscreens sold outside the state but be sure to check sunscreen ingredients before packing it.

The best option is to buy reef-safe sunscreens in Hawai’i as some sunscreen ingredients that are not yet banned can still be harmful to aquatic environments.

When applying sunscreen, minimize wide sprays to keep the chemicals off beach sand and plants, and don’t apply close to or in the ocean. Instead, spray into a palm and apply by hand. Another way to minimize the amount of sunscreen that goes into the ocean is to favor a rash guard with an SPF factor instead of sunscreen on bare skin.

Keep Distance from Wildlife
Federal and State laws prohibit certain activities with some sea life in Hawai’i. For humpback whales, boats and swimmers must remain 100 yards away. For the endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal, it’s 50 feet—nursing mothers and pups require 150 feet of distance because stressed seals can abandon their pups. Spinner dolphins have a 50-yard perimeter.

Visitors should not pursue, harass, or attempt to feed or pet wildlife in Hawai’i. Visitors can call the NOAA Marine Wildlife hotline at 1-888-256-9840 if they encounter distressed sea life on Hawai’i’s beaches.

Don’t Take Unnecessary Risks
Many visitors come to Hawai’i for hiking or ocean activities, but they’re not experts in the local terrain or conditions. Each year, hikers and swimmers find themselves in trouble and require rescue by local emergency services.

It’s worth remembering that the local terrain is unfamiliar to most visitors, and they should take greater precautions than they do at home. Always check to make sure the trails are open for visitors (some require access permits), that current conditions are safe and favorable, and take plenty of water and sunscreen. Feeling overheated or tired? Turn around.

The same goes for ocean activities. Many of the state’s most famous, picturesque beaches are hazardous to swimmers of all skill levels because of rip currents and strong undertow. Others vary with conditions or by season.

Visitors should keep to beaches with lifeguards, during the service hours of the lifeguard station. Locals who grew up in these waters can accurately assess risks on their own. Visitors—even very frequent visitors—aren’t as equipped to judge the conditions and should exercise an abundance of caution.

When visitors require rescue on Hawai’i’s trails or beaches, it’s costly to state taxpayers and depletes local emergency resources. Emergency personnel rescuing foolhardy vacationers aren’t available to respond to local kupuna (elders) with chest pains or educate schoolchildren on first aid.

It ultimately doesn’t take much to minimize your footprint as a visitor to Hawai’i. Locals are taught it is their kuleana (responsibility) to malama (care for) their communities, land and ocean to preserve it for future generations. It’s quite simply pono (righteous) for visitors to demonstrate the same regard.

The author recognizes the importance of Hawaiian language diacritical marks such as the kahako (macron), but some of these may have been omitted for web browser compatibility.