Traveling with Pets to O‘ahu

You’ll find a warm aloha extended to you and your service dog in O‘ahu and across the Hawaiian Islands. Thanks to the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), your guide or service dog is allowed on all forms of public transportation and common carriers including buses, trains, ferries, airplanes, and cars. Service animals are also permitted in hotels, all lodging places, all places of public amusement, resorts, accommodations, and any place where the general public is invited. This includes restaurants, libraries, museums, educational institutions, and social service centers.

Traveling to O‘ahu with your guide dog, service dog, or family pet takes planning because Hawai‘i is strict about animal travel to the state. Almost every state in the U.S. requires domesticated dogs and cats to be vaccinated against rabies except Hawai‘i because rabies does not exist here. Because Hawai‘i is rabies-free, the state takes serious precautions about pet entries. If you plan to travel with your guide dog, service dog, or family dog or cat from U.S. states where rabies exists, you’ll have to follow strict protocols.

To prevent rabies from entering Hawai‘i, the state offers three programs to pet owners. Dogs or cats must be placed under one of two quarantine options: the 120-day quarantine program or the 5-Day or Less quarantine program. There is also the Direct Release Program which enables you to leave right from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, O‘ahu with your pet. Click here for all information and guidelines.

However, guide and service dogs that meet specific criteria can enter Hawai‘i without quarantine. To learn how your guide or service dog can qualify for immediate entry, please click here.