Day Trips: Volcano Tours from Oahu

Great way to see a lot in 1 day! We flew over from Oahu to Big Island and spent the entire day learning about Volcanoes National Park. Akaka Falls was gorgeous too!

We did the land tour and helicopter combo. Unfortun... moreately, the helicopter tour cancelled because of weather. We joined the rest of the group who was doing the land-only option and saw a few really cool spots including Liliuokalani Gardens and other parts of Hilo town. I wore comfortable shoes (running shoes) and am glad I did because we did quite a bit of walking.

Dexter's bus tour was EXCELLENT. He was extremely knowledgeable and made you feel like family. The flights connecting Ohau & The Big Island were GOOD. The terminal was obviously familiar with this tour & things went smoo... morethly. Our helicopter pilot RENEGED with taking us to the volcano rim to see the lava like the OTHER PILOT DID only minutes apart. No one offered to RETURN all or a portion of our MONEY for this was no more than an AWFUL expensive helicopter ride that showed us LESS than Dexter's most EXCELLENT bus tour. If you pay for only the flight & bus tour it will be worth your time & money.

We had the very best time. I was a little nervous about the price but I would do it all over again.

What a complete joke!! The flights from Oahu to Hilo that were booked for us were due to land AFTER the bus tour pick-up time. I (not the tour company) noticed this the day before and had to get this company to book us o... moren an earlier flight.
The Bus Tour was great and Dexter (driver/guide) was so chilled and knowledgeable - this was truly memorable.
We were then dropped off at Blue Hawaiian Helicopters for our Volcano Helicopter flight to be told that it had been cancelled the day before and no other flights were available that day!!
The whole reason I booked this trip was for the helicopter flight.
The tour company had NOT notified me that they flights were cancelled as I would have cancelled the whole trip with a full refund versus waking up at 4am spending $100 on taxis to and from HNL airport and being stranded for 4 hours in the middle of nowhere.
To say I am disappointed is an understatement as this was 3yrs in the waiting/planning and when you spend c$1000 each the customer service was shocking.

Everything was amazing. The employees were knowledgeable and kind.

We were a family of 4 adults and our trip from Oahu to Hilo and heli tour of the volcano was ok but not super smooth.
Flight to Hilo was fine and transport on arrival was waiting but according to our printed itinerary w... moree were not sure if it would be.( tried to find this out the night before but could not get an answer ) so a bit of anxiety over that. The trip around Hilo and Volcano Craters Park was fine but perhaps a little on the repetitive side. It is the Big Island so lots of travelling with not too much to see however our guide Dexter was very knowledgeable. We were dropped off at Blue Hawaii Helicopters for our volcano flight at 2.30 ( and we were booked to go back to Oahu at 5.30 ) . We did not get on our helicopter until 4.15 ( 45 min flight ) so even though the flight was fantastic and the pilot did manage to get us to see the crater ( absolutely terrific ) , the whole time we were wondering if we would make the flight back to Oahu. On landing we had to grab our backpacks and sprint back to the airport and just made the flight! The heli trip was all recorded and we would definitely have liked to view and probably purchase the recording but had no time at all to waste.
We loved the day but it was all too poorly time managed which really took the gloss off the experience.