Initial blog for Elua701!

Aloha everyone!  Welcome to the just-launched Elua701 website, and my very first Blog post!  This is my first try at both (running a website and a Blog), so be gentle, OK? LOL!  Elua701 is our condo on the sunny south shore of Maui in the amazing Waliea Elua Village resort, and this Blog will be dedicated to all things Elua701! This will include updates/improvements we make to the condo, happenings at Wailea Elua Village as well as in South Maui overall, new local restaurants and activities we’ve discovered, travel advice relative to the current COVID-19 situation, photos from our early morning snorkel outings, Maui real estate… who knows what other topics will present themselves?

We will be heading over to Maui soon for a quick trip, so our first topic will be travel related… namely, what do you have do to in order to arrive on Maui and not be subject to the 14-day quarantine requirement? Well, here we go…

The State of Hawaii “pre-travel testing” program finally started-up on October 15th, and the program to avoid the 14-day quarantine is up and running. Here are some important links which describe the program and the process you need to go through to not have to quarantine…

A flowchart describing the overall process travelers need to go through:  https://hawaiicovid19.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Flying-Into-Hawaii.pdf

The State of Hawaii COVID-19 website which provides a very complete overview of the test and travel program outlined in the flowchart above:  https://hawaiicovid19.com/travel/

The State of Hawaii “Safe Travels” website, where every traveler need to go to “register” for the program:  https://travel.hawaii.gov/#/

This is a list of the state’s current “Trusted Travel and Testing Partners” (i.e. the places you can go to and get “the approved” test 72 hours before departure):  https://hawaiicovid19.com/travel-partners/

One thing to keep in mind, when they kicked the program off on October 15th, the first couple of days a bunch of travelers showed up with negative COVID-19 results from tests taken within the 72-hour window, but the tests were from “non-approved” clinics or labs. The state made an exception and accepted the non-approved test results through the first weekend, due to the newness of the program and initial confusion with the process. However, beginning Monday October 19th, test results from non-approved labs were no longer accepted, and those travelers had to quarantine.

So, make sure you get your test done within 72 hours of your departure to Maui, and make sure the test is conducted by one of Hawaii’s “Trusted Travel and Testing Partners”.

That’s all for Blog post #1! Take care, and be safe.

Mahalo nui loa for tuning in,

Randy