Before You GoHawaii
Best Time to Visit Hawaii (Month by Month)
The best time to visit Hawaii is April to September, when Honolulu gets under 1 inch of rain a month. Visitor counts dip in September and October. Month table.
Hawaii
The island state in the Pacific: Oahu, Maui, the Big Island and Kauai, about five to six hours by air from the West Coast.
Honolulu gets under 1 inch of rain in every month from April to September. The windward sides get far more. Hilo, on the wet side of the Big Island, averages 120.4 inches a year, and Honolulu averages 16.4. The heaviest rains come from winter storms between October and April.
Visitor numbers are lowest from September to November. The state's preliminary 2025 count of visitors by air was 674,860 in September, against 890,010 in March. Fewer visitors does not always mean lower prices, so check a fare calendar for your dates.
Humpback whales arrive as early as September and stay as late as May. Sightings peak from January to March. The Central Pacific hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November. On Oahu, Skyline rail stops at the Honolulu airport. A 2-hour pass on Skyline or TheBus is $3.00 with a HOLO card, and cash on TheBus is $3.25. On Maui, a bus ride is $2.00.
Before You Go