Private Big Island Experience: 3 Of 4 Window Seats

this tour was just amazing, the experience of a lifetime. seeing a live volcano was the objective but what made this tour truly spectacular was our pilot who took us to see some unreal 'out of this world" waterfalls, heavenly scenery and natural vistas that looked like out of a movie - the whole adventure was mesmerizing.

Weather didn’t allow us to do what was originally planned in our tour, but we were still able to have the full 2 hours and saw more of the waterfalls and cliffs. We were given the option of rescheduling, cancelling or moving forward and so glad we just did it! Unbelievably beautiful!

Christian was the pilot. Knowledgable and friendly. Clear communication and knowledge of helicopter and area. Cloud cover precluded seeing active volcano but trip along north of island and into canyons made for an unforgettable trip. Highly recommended.

This was a lifetime experience on my Birthday/Bucket List tour! Our pilot was the best!! He was very informative and courteous and did an awesome job flying!! We had so much fun on the tour!! I would highly recommend Mauna Loa Helicopters if you are looking for a lifetime experience!!! Very professional!!

We had an incredible experience on our private helicopter tour! Our pilot, Christopher, was outstanding from start to finish. He had a fabulous music playlist perfectly synced to the scenery—each song seemed to match exactly what we were flying over, which made the whole experience even more memorable. We flew over some of the volcanos and Christopher also gave an excellent recommendation encouraging us to visit Manawaiopuna “Jurassic” Falls and the breathtaking cliffs along the northeast coastline. Both views were absolutely stunning and ended up being some of our favorite moments of the entire tour. One member of our group was a bit worried about motion sickness, but Christopher’s smooth flying skills and calm, confident approach made it a complete non-issue. We all felt safe, comfortable, and fully able to enjoy the ride. Highly recommend this tour—and if you can, ask for Christopher!

Our tour was 10 out of 5. Pilot Jessie was AMAZING! Absolutely worth the money & time. Way better than other Helicopters tours in the big island. I definitely want to do this tour again in the future with the same company and same pilot.

Our pilot was knowledgeable and friendly. He included history in his narration and made sure we were comfortable. Highly recommend this company!

Oscar was great, we had an amazing trip and loved every minute. The Big Island offers such diversity to see, highly recommend going.

This was a fantastic way to open our Big Island vacation experience. We got a great overview of the Muriel’s climates of the island and what we want to explore more. Thanks!

We had an amazing time seeing the Mauna Loa Volcano, Kohala forest Reserve Waterfalls, and the Kohala Coast down to Kona. Our pilot Alex was full of interesting information and kept us entertained the whole trip. Would highly recommend this tour!

Fabulous tour! Jasmine was our pilot, and she did an amazing job of showing us the Big Island. We toured the lava fields, the waterfalls, beautiful, lush mountainous areas and the coast. We even saw several whales playing in the ocean. The music soundtrack matched what we were seeing and helped boost the joyful emotions that we were feeling as we soared above the Island. The staff were incredibly helpful with the reservations. It was a perfectly wonderful experience! We highly recommend!

Amazing but was accidentally over charged. We hope to work it out. The doors off experience was definitely worth the extra money! Lovely experience!

We have driven the big island before and have loved the sights from ground level. Seeing it from the sky was truly breathtaking. The colors of the island coupled with the knowledge given about the areas we were seeing from our incredible pilot, Jasmine, gave us a whole new appreciation for the Big Island. Jasmine’s excitement for what we were seeing and expert flying made it all that much more special. We had a beautiful weather day allowing us to see the entire island and the joy of spotting a school of dolphins and a pair of whales in the ocean. We would highly recommend this private tour.

We had a wonderful experience. Jasmin was an excellent pilot & was very knowledgeable about the island. She showed us some awesome places you could not see from the ground. We highly recommend the tour. It was worth the money!!

The history and overview was spectacular! Going in the canyon and turning around on a dime was amazing! Jasmin was so professional and fun at the same time. We would do it again!!! Our favorite excursion!!!

This company did a fantastic job, taking care of my family. They communicated with us before the flight to make sure the number and weight of passengers would work on the flight (helicopters have weight limits). When our taxi screwed up on the morning of the flight and went to the wrong place to pick us up, making us late for our scheduled flight, the company was patient with us and adjusted to the new time when we could arrive. The office staff were gracious and did a good job, and the pilot was friendly and excellent. The views of the island are awe-inspiring, and a helicopter tour is the best way to see it all.

The pilot was friendly and knowledgeable. We took beautiful pictures that will remind us of this wonderful experience for years to come! Highly recommend this tour!!

Luca was our pilot. He is smooth and professional (I'm former USAF -- I'd know!). Plus he is entertainingly knowledgeable about the Big Island. We began our flight by going along the coast and seeing Captain Cook's memorial. Then we swung inward up to Mauna Loa. (The South end of the island was -- as usual for our stay -- stormy). Luca told us about the volcanic activity, and we followed the former rivers of lava down the mountain. Then he swung south to Keahou Volcano which had many cone vents and rivulets. It wos impressive yet, for the most part, never mentioned in discussions on Hawaii volcanoes or tours! Next we cruised North past Mauna Kea to Kamuela-Honokane cliffs. These totally forested, steep (think 80 degrees -- not quite straight up), ridges were running with 1500 ft waterfalls! So many waterfalls, we could not count them! Seriously. This is where the original Jurassic Park movie was shot! Coming back along the coast to Kona International, we saw flood damage that washed out a chunk of the best beach on the island. My wife is not a flier, but she LOVED this! Helicopters rule!

This was a great helicopter tour for my wife and me and our teenage grandchildren. We did it with the doors off, which was particularly fun. Our pilot, Julien, was very nice and informative about what we were seeing. We flew to the north of Mauna Loa summit and then headed south to Kilauea, then proceeded up the Hamakua coast and past Waipo and Pololu valleys. We then flew past Hapuna Beach where we were staying, which was also fun. The tour took about two hours. If you want to do the tour with the doors off, I recommend (as does the tour company) that you dress warmly if you're prone to getting cold.

We had a great experience from the time we arrived at the heliport. The staff was welcoming on the ground and our pilot was very informative and even though there were areas that were cloud covered he was able to maneuver around to provide us a wonderful view of the island.

Very enjoyable! We just missed the actual eruption of Mauna Loa, but were able to see the lava that was still cooling, and of course the smoke. Amazing to be able to fly over volcanoes in a helicopter--a very unique experience! Due to the weather, we weren't able to access the entire island, but they were very flexible in changing the plans to our liking, and ultimately we agreed to a partial refund, which they did with no fuss, and made it very easy! If Mauna Loa decides to erupt again, we'll definitely be back with these guys!

I rarely write reviews, but everyone at Mauna Loa Helicopters really deserves my time. The helicopter looked very new and in good operating condition. Everyone was extremely friendly and helpful. We had an incredibly wonderful time. Kylie who checked us in was so sweet and informative. Mike our pilot was enthusiastic and basically fantastic! His narration of the trip was the perfect amount of talking. Not too much and not too little. We felt very safe flying with him. We were able to ask questions as we flew along which was cool. We couldn’t stop saying “Wow!” during the flight. It was so amazing and beautiful! We have traveled a fair amount in Hawaii and the world, but this really was a trip of a lifetime.

This is a fabulous way to see the whole island. You get to see Dow in the volcanos. Our pilot was knowledgeable and super fun!!!

I was a great experience to see the whole island. We saw the Kilauea creator rim with the lava flows, several waterfalls, Hilo town, Kona coastline. Our pilot was very good and he explained all the areas of interest that we flew over. It was very interesting to see and it was 2 hours in duration. If you want to see the whole island and get some great pictures this is the best way to do it. I would suggest taking gravel before it though because we were nauseated. Overall I would recommend it as the best way to see all the sites of the big island by taking Mauna Loa Helicopters private experience and knowing they have an excellent safety record gives you some peace of mind.

This was an experience of a lifetime!! It was our big splurge for our trip and well worth it. I still visualize our tour as I'm falling asleep at night! The company is incredible, from the service we get as we're making the reservation, to the service during the flight to afterwards when he called me up to say I had forgotten something on the helicopter. Mike was an incredible pilot and guide. The tour itself was amazing, I'm not sure if my favorite part was gong over the caldera, or in the waterfall area. We could see the lava very clearly, as well as the piece of road that had fallen about 500 feet. Then, in the waterfall area, we went up into Waimea canyon, saw the tallest waterfall in Hawaii, then up and over back to Kona over areas you cannot see any other way.

This was a great experience- we are Big Island veterans- we’ve seen a lot of the sights from the ground but seeing them from up above made for a breathtaking experience. Our Pilot, Mike Piatt made us feel safe and comfortable and although he didn’t tell us anything new about the history of the island or the volcanoes, it was still pretty cool to hear his perspective and see it from the sky. We got to see Kilauea in all its glory and then some pretty cool waterfalls in Waip’io and Waimanu valleys. On the way back, we got to see all the great coral reefs on the kona coast .. it was well worth yhe price!

Absolutely amazing experience and extremely professional staff and communication from beginning to end! Our pilot, James, even texted to see if we wanted to tour the island early due to some weather, which we are glad we did. The tour itself was breathtaking, but I wanted to give a huge acknowledgment of some quick thinking that really showed how much they care. It was myself, my wife, and my 7-year-old daughter. About 30-40 minutes in, our daughter got air-sick and then threw up. While they have "aloha" bags available, it wasn't enough for our daughter's event. He was able to radio in and even get an unplanned "detour" and landed us at Hilo so she could clean up. Something I am sure he didn't have to do but did! Talk about going an extra mile! 2nd half of trip, she was much better and James had her counting how many waterfalls she saw. She counted 220! I'm sure there are even more! Anyway, I cannot state enough how awesome of experience this was and how professional of company this is. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! I don't always give 5-stars but this was absolutely a 5-star experience/company.

Very safe flight, pilot very professional and knowledgeable giving the tour. Was probably our bad for doing this on last day of trip, we had already seen just about everything in person. North side of island with steep cliffs and many waterfalls was amazing, and inaccessible any other way. The rest was sort of meh. Other companies' copters we saw during flight were much closer to the action, as in much lower to Kilauea crater and cliff walls than we were. Perhaps a function of our smaller copter, Idk but was disappointed by that. For the three of us, $1600 for a birds eye view of mostly farmland, trees, lava rock, was not worth it. We were mostly bored and took one pic the entire flight (a small orange dot of Kilauea lava).

James was fantastic! He was very knowledgeable and, in addition to the beautiful scenery, provided the geological and historical context of the various sites. He even gave us tips on places to visit. The entire family enjoyed our first ever helicopter ride. Thank you!

We were immediately greeted by a charming, personable young lady. Our knowledgeable, expert pilot Ben had a sparkling clean helicopter. Seeing the island and volcano from a different perspective was spectacular and the remote valley we were lucky to see due to ideal weather was the highlight.

It was a very cool experience. Our pilot was very kind and knowledgeable. He gave us a ton of interesting facts, especially about lava. He also gave us some food recommendations that we followed that night and it was on point. We got to see the volcano and my favorite part was seeing the coast line. We were slightly disappointed we couldn’t see the valleys and waterfalls but it was no one’s fault as we can’t control the weather. Overall it was a great experience.

Seeing the beautiful green cannon with a waterfall that seemed to go on forever! Flying over a volcano while it was erupting!

Sorry but our flight tour got cancelled because of weather so I cannot review this tour for you I’m sure it would have been a great experience

I can’t explain how amazing and attentive the crew was during the entire adventure. They make sure you are safe an comfortable every step of the way. They go out of their way to insure you understand what you just signed up for and will enjoy. Kriti- what can I say about her??? Only one Word comes to mind and that would be AMAZING!! Space she was so funny and knowledgeable and told us everything about every single area you could possibly know which made the tour very interactive and we all had a ton of fun. if you have the opportunity to ask for a specific pilot, please ask for her because you will definitely be an awe. Overall view very clean very safe very aware of your safety they take great measure to ensure you’re comfortable. And I would highly recommend doing the “doors off” versus the doors on it enhances the experience

We loved the canyon with the waterfalls, the Kilauea viewing and the Maunas. The different climates were amazing and our pilot made it very interesting.

Most memorable? Hard to choose. Certainly circling Kilauea Iki deep, steaming crater and towering waterfalls in sheer-walled "Keyhole" canyon. Dramatic, informative, best helo flight ever taken. Spectacular even without flowing lava.

Valley is most beautiful and volcano ‘S destruction is most mother-natures creation. No matter how much money man can have still can’t achieve Mother Nature’s creation. Enjoyed the ride

The helicopter ride was a wonderful experience. Our pilot Conner was very informative about the island. He made us feel safe throughout our ride. I would highly recommend going at the beginning of your stay so you can appreciate the beauty of the island. Seeing it from air is a wonderful experience.

What a magical experience. Our pilot, Page, was a superb guide and the weather was perfect. We fly 'round the Kilauea crater, saw perfect views of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, and most spectacularly nearly kissed the 2000 foot waterfalls in an otherwise inaccessible east coast valley. A 2+ hour circling of the magnificent Big Island is the best of the many fun things we have done.

We phoned in the morning and were booked that day. Communication was great with instructions and address texted to us. We met with Kriti who gave us our safety orientation and then were immediately in the helicopter. We booked the 2 hour tour going across the center on the island, down the east coast and back north to the valleys, around the north coast, then down the west coast back to the airport. Kriti was so enthusiastic when explaining the different formations and Hawaiian folklore, extremely knowledgeable. She also gave tour advice for the best beaches to visit which was very helpful, glad we took the helicopter tour at the beginning of our vacation. We got to fly close to the low clouds while traversing the island - awesome, see steaming calderas, go through the valley and whale watch. We saw a pod of 6 humpback whales and numerous single whales. Well worth the price.

This was a great way to see the whole island in a short amount of time. Brittany went out of her way to communicate with us at each stage. The weather in the days leading up to our tour was rainy and cloudy so we weren't sure we would be able to do the full tour. Luckily the weather cooperated and we had a beautiful morning. Kriti did a great job of giving us the history of the island and pointing out many of the interesting features around the island. The flight was very smooth and we saw everything we wanted to see.

My wife and I did not take a helicopter tour on our visit in 2003 and swore we'd take one next time. Sixteen years later, we made it back on a cruise. Looking at cruise line offerings, we found them marked way up. We did the math and found Mauna Loa did a longer, comprehensive flight and was just a bit more expensive, but we'd have the helicopter to ourselves. Booking and payment were straightforward. My wife over-prepares for things and they were responsive when we called to confirm. The taxi ride was about 10 minutes from the Kailua waterfront. There were no issues finding their buildings. Our pilot/guide went over safety procedures and showed us on a map where we'd be going. He asked if we had anything specific we wanted to see and besides the volcanoes (which were already on the itinerary) we left it to him. He was personable, professional, and laid-back in the island style. He was also a native and life-long resident of Hawai'i, so he knew the island. His enthusiasm was actually palpable; he said the weather was great and he was excited to fly on such a great day. I was slightly hesitant about the equipment - a Robinson R44, which I'd say is like a Corolla, compared to the flashy Cadillacs flown by other outfits. However, it did the job just fine and any reservations I had were forgotten once we left the ground. The aircraft gave us plenty of room; I'm 6'5" and found the front seat roomy enough for my legs. My wife is 5'9" and said she had knee room in the back. Our flight went "over the Saddle" between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, over Hawaii Volcanoes NP and its assorted craters (no lava to be seen this day), to the south of Hilo, up the NE coast to the Kohala Coast, up one of the massive valleys to see amazing waterfalls, then around the west end of the island, and back down the Waikoloa coast to the airport. A request to fly back over Kilauea so we could both look down I to the crater was met with quick agreement. Hands-down, this tour was the highlight of our visit to Hawaii. If you're on the fence about booking, let me assure you you'll be satisfied. Chartering a helicopter is not cheap, but if you can afford it, I doubt you'd be disappointed. Don't let the small size of the outfit put you off. They're not as widely-known, their equipment isn't as flashy as Blue Hawaiian, et al, but the benefit is a personalized experience. I would not hesitate to recommend Mauna Loa Helicopters to anyone.

Had a very good experience with this company in Kauai Island so didn't look elsewhere for this tour. The tour happens right after another helicopter crash in Kauai in Dec 2019 (not by this company, of course) so we were worried about the safety in general a little. Turns out they has been a flight school and some pilots are professional trainers as well. We can hear the tower communications during the tour and understand the safety is good hands here! Our guide Page (Or Paige?) was a great guy! Due to the weather we can not see the volcano itself but to make up the time we flew around some other good places including the newest beach on earth (formed in 2018 eruption). He flew well and it was a smooth 2 hour ride as well. It was definitely time well spent!

We did a private tour over the Big Island in November with our pilot Jai (Pronounced Ky ). Our plan was to focus on the Volcano, but after a chat with Jai regarding the weather we changed our route and flew to the north end of the Island. We flew over one volcano, beside another, and then flew into the secluded valleys of the north, then back along the coast, past Kona-Kailua and then back to the airport. Seeing the size of the volcanoes, and the different age lava flows from the air really put things in perspective. We flew with the doors off which added to the experience. make sure you take a warm jacket if flying doors-off as it gets cold at high altitude. Jai's enthusiasm for the island and knowledge of the landscape and history really added to the experience. Brittany's assistance in booking us on a flight that fitted into our schedule was also appreciated. Highly recommended.

Great tour around the valleys and waterfalls of the Big Island. This was my wife's first time in a helicopter and she had some reservations at first as I had booked the doors off tour. Kai (spelling) our pilot took the time to go over safety with us and to make sure she was comfortable with what we were doing. We ended up leaving one door off and the other on and it was perfect. During the tour, Kai provided excellent commentary, while providing a safe flight. We could tell he really enjoys what he's doing. Would highly recommend the doors off tour.

We loved our flight around the island, through the valleys and over the volcanoes. Kai our pilot was easy going, friendly and quietly confident which made us feel safe and comfortable. He has a great knowledge of the island's history and culture. We would highly recommend this tour for families or couples of all ages.

We had an awesome time flying over Kaua'i. The staff was all professional and friendly. Julian, our pilot was very fun and told us all about the island. But, the best thing was just being up there, no doors, and looking down over the beautiful landscape. Totally worth the $$. Make sure to bring a light jacket.

The pilot was great (Australian guy said "happy days" a lot :)) - very funny and gave facts about the island. Very skilled at navigating in and out of canyons. We did the doors off and man I'm glad we did! Feeling the air definitely added to the experience. You get to see parts of the island on accessible via air and the beauty is to die for!! We went the day after a huge rain so the waterfalls were out in excess. It was truly an experience we will never forget and I'm so glad we splurged for this tour.

My husband and I booked a private, 2 hour tour with Mauna Loa. Helen and Eric were terrific. Because there was some cloud cover over by the volcanoes, they suggested that if we waited a little while, we might have better views. During that time, Helen told us all about the islands, her family, stories about various Hawaiian deities and lots about Pele and various eruptions. We could have listened to Helen all day long. Then Eric flew us over to 3 of the volcanoes and over various lava/burn areas. The cloud cover lifted, and the views were spectacular. He also took us out over the sea where we looked for dolphins and whales. He flew us through valleys and up into enormous waterfalls. He showed us evidence of different, older eruptions and we explored different lava areas. He talked about lots of different things--he was a great pilot--smooth and safe and he was also a great guide. We could not have been more pleased. On top of all of that, we were on a cruise ship and only had the one day in port. Mauna Loa Helicopter was flexible when our ship was delayed and made sure we were finished in loads of time, even though our ship left at 3.