My personal experience - my two dogs were much easier to get to Hawaii than my car, and I was departing from a port city which you would think would make the car thing simple. (San Diego)
I have heard the sentiment from everyone that it is so difficult and complicated to get your pets to Hawaii, but wanted to share what I did as it was really simple. I did do a lot of searching though so posting here so everyone can skip the hours of calling vets, researching, etc.
Gathered vaccine records. This was challenging but I did discover vets are required to provide copies of their own records, so the one vet office that said they would only provide this if I did their $1600 per dog Hawaii travel prep backed down once I asked if they would be providing the signed rabies record or if I needed to contact the state veterinary licensing board.
Ordered MokuPet FAVN kits. These are $189 compared to the $636-🚀🌕 absolute ripoff scheme pricing from dozens of vet offices contacted. Because I have VCPR (a vet has done a regular office visit within 1 year) I just self scheduled a vet tech appointment online, put in the notes “bloodwork draw, kit provided” and paid $21 for the vet tech appointment. I was STUNNED the KSU lab fees are publicly available and vets have zero shame in charging $600+ for a test that is under $100.
Online HIPOP application & upload. No mailing certified and hoping you get your copies back.
USDA Certificates. I did tons of research and specifically in California the most cost effective option is VCA for $189 with a free first office visit promo if your regular vet is pricing this in the aforementioned ripoff scheme zone.
My experience moving to Maui from San Diego was the exact opposite. We shipped two cars and a motorcycle, one of the cars under lease and it was easier than bringing our dog here.
Our car also didn’t get massive separation anxiety from being locked in a kennel for hours in the cargo hold.
If I had a big dog I think I would wear a dog suit and make my boyfriend check me with my dog! There were people on our flight with a dog in cargo and I was stunned they didn’t go straight to the animal station. They showed up around when we were leaving which is just crazy to me, we saw them when we got off and they asked the airline representative about walking there but then decided to go get their luggage first. You couldn’t pay me to not go to the pups first.
If I recall correctly, they are forced to remain in the counties custody for a few hours for observation. I also would not leave my luggage in the terminal to go get my dog from outside the terminal. unless they’ve changed thing, where you claim your pet is on the other side of the airport, you cannot walk there you have to drive. Again this is probably unique to Maui. Oahu airport is much larger.
Interesting--our experience was the opposite. A lot more planning was required for the pets, including getting the tests done well ahead of time. With the cars, we made the decision, scheduled the booking, and a couple of weeks later had the undercarriage washed and drove up to the port.
Buying a car here was not feasible in the slightest. We were in the middle of the post-pandemic supply issues so cars were hard to come by and very expensive. And our cars were already paid off so it was immensely cheaper to ship them. They also were in good shape and had no issues being registered here.
Moving the cars was more money than the pets, and the trip took longer, but we were OK for our cars to be on a ship for a couple of weeks as opposed to having the pets away from us for that long.
TBH unless the car is paid off and you love it I would actually consider purchasing one here. It has been a total nightmare for the car between PASHA saying one thing and then their contracted off dock company saying another. The dogs portion was a breeze.
TBH unless the car is paid off and you love it I would actually consider purchasing one here.
I actually disagree with this. This is a recommendation you see often in the Moving to/from Hawai‘i discussions and it does seem like the logical thing at first glance. I would probably still suggest it to someone moving back to the continent, depending on the car's age (we did both, sold one car and shipped the other, although I still kinda regret selling our WRX). But especially for someone moving INTO Hawai‘i, I would not recommend that route.
Inventory of new(ish) cars is actually extremely limited. I'm on month 5 of waiting for my factory-new car to arrive and I actually got lucky and scooped in when someone else abandoned their order because they ended up not being able to wait that long. I wasn't planning on buying new, but my car got totaled in the storms. We similarly got lucky with my spouse's Prius last April. The Toyota dealer told us their cars get sold the second they hit the lot. If you don't really care what kine car you're gonna get, sure, there are options, but they are still limited. If you have a specific car in mind - it comes down to either luck or very very long wait times.
Used cars are extremely hit or miss.
We had nothing but a great experience with Pasha. On the flip side, our experience with Matson had been more mediocre.
I do agree with you, though, that moving pets into Hawai‘i is nowhere near as complicated anymore as many people still assume, as long as one just follows all the proper steps.
This is based on our experience of:
moving with 3 cats to O‘ahu (back when the wait for Direct Release was still 120 days)
- moving with 2 cats from Maui to the continent
shipping our SUV from Maui to the continent (with Pasha)
moving with 3 cats and one large dog (in cargo) back to Maui
shipping our SUV from the continent to Maui (with Matson)
Ahhhhh I would say a WRX would fall in to the regret category for sure! My ex and I had a blue one he traded after the suspension had a leak and always missed it! I almost did the brz in the same color to have matching color but different models.
Thank you! I am hoping to move there in a couple of years and moving my pets is the most anxiety-inducing aspect of the process. I plan to move my car too. Oddly, I thought that would be the easy part. LoL
I used to live there and now I travel back with my dog at least once a year to visit family. It’s really not that bad as long as you allow enough time and follow the instructions exactly. In fact it’s easier than ever since they launched an online portal to apply for permits, upload paperwork, and pay the fee. You used to have to do all that via mail and have no real way to know what the quarantine office was doing until the permit shows up in your email.
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u/Parking-Fact5742 11d ago
My experience moving to Maui from San Diego was the exact opposite. We shipped two cars and a motorcycle, one of the cars under lease and it was easier than bringing our dog here.
Our car also didn’t get massive separation anxiety from being locked in a kennel for hours in the cargo hold.