Getting There

Most major U.S. and many international carriers fly to Honolulu International Airport (HNL), on Oahu. Some also offer direct flights to Kona International Airport (KOA), near Kailua-Kona on the Big Island; Kahului Airport (OGG), on Maui; and Lihue Airport (LIH), on Kauai. If you can fly directly to the island of your choice, you'll be spared a 2-hour layover in Honolulu and another plane ride. If you're heading to Molokai or Lanai, you'll have the easiest connections if you fly into Honolulu.

United Airlines offers the most frequent service from the U.S. mainland, with flights to Honolulu as well as nonstop service from Los Angeles and San Francisco to the Big Island, Maui, and Kauai. Alaska Airlines offers daily flights from Anchorage to Seattle to Maui from April to October, and twice-weekly flights on the same run from October 31 to April 25, 2009. American Airlines offers flights from Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and St. Louis to Honolulu, plus several direct flights to Maui and Kona.

Continental Airlines offers the only daily nonstop from the New York area (Newark) to Honolulu. Delta Air Lines flies nonstop from the West Coast and from Houston and Cincinnati. Hawaiian Airlines offers nonstop flights to Honolulu from several West Coast cities (including new service from San Diego), plus nonstop service from Los Angeles to Maui. Northwest Airlines has a daily nonstop from Detroit to Honolulu.

Airlines serving Hawaii from places other than the U.S. mainland include Air Canada; Air New Zealand; Qantas Airways; Japan Air Lines; All Nippon Airways (ANA); the Taiwan-based China Airlines; Air Pacific, which serves Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific; Korean Air; and Philippine Airlines. Hawaiian Airlines also flies nonstop to Sydney, Tahiti, and American Samoa.

Agricultural Screening at the Airports -- At Honolulu International and the neighbor-island airports, baggage and passengers bound for the mainland must be screened by agricultural officials. Officials will confiscate local produce like fresh avocados, bananas, and mangoes, in the name of fruit-fly control. Pineapples, coconuts, and papayas inspected and certified for export; boxed flowers; leis without seeds; and processed foods (macadamia nuts, coffee, jams, dried fruit, and the like) will pass.