Nancy H.
Yelp
We did the DOORS OFF tour, which I highly recommend whether you are trying a helicopter tour for the first time or you are a seasoned helicopter tour-taker.
As a first-time helicopter rider, I had some concerns. Maybe you have the same concerns, so let's see if I can allay them!
- Too expensive: Well, doing a helicopter tour is more expensive than not doing one. But I think this company had the best prices of all the ones we browsed for Maui. We initially looked on Groupon for tickets, but the prices were actually cheaper direct from the company's website.
- Too scary: I was scared of plummeting to my death or falling out of the helicopter. However, the ride felt so steady and slow that it was the least scary thing on my entire Maui trip (driving Road to Hana was 1000x scarier). Four of us were in the back (2 large men and 2 small/medium women), another couple plus pilot in the front. It was a perfectly fine amount of space, even with all the typical manspreading that was occuring.
- Better to try closed door instead of open doors: Surprisingly, the open
doors tour was minimally more expensive than the closed door, so I don't know why anyone would not try the open doors . My partner (who has done closed door helicopter tours before) said the open doors experience was much more novel and fun, with way better views. We both got to use our own cell phones, and we recorded tons of great videos from our seats
-They're gonna try and upsell me: They did no such thing. At the end, they offered a venmo code that we could scan if we wanted to tip our helicopter driver (who was very nice, informative and competent). They ran the video they themselves recorded on the screen, in case we wanted to buy the video/photo package, but there was zero sales pitch. And not sure what was going on with the other Yelp reviewer, but the price that was displayed to me on the website was the price charged to my credit card, so I saw no price dishonesty
On your way into the parking lot, stop by the machine to pay $5 for 2 hrs of parking. Then drive all the way to the end to park closest to Air Maui. The office has very clean bathrooms. LADIES, braid your hair thoroughly including your bangs. I did a casual braid, and by the end of the 45min tour, 50% of my hair had escaped and was whipped by the wind during the flight into a giant knotted halo around the vicinity of my right ear.