- Fellow explorers, the concept of resort bubbles
has been brewing for quite a while
during the current pandemic,
but it's now officially real.
The Hawaiian Island of Kauai launched this week
their Enhanced Movement Quarantine program
which makes resort bubbles a reality.
In this video,
I'm going to tell you
everything you need to know
about Kauai's new resort bubble program
but first a little bit of background.
Let me just introduce myself in case you're new here.
I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions.
I do travel guides that are fun, informed, entertaining.
This video is part of my series on Hawaii.
You'll find a whole bunch more Hawaiian videos
in the links in the description below
or at the end this video.
So now onto the background.
A few months ago to limit the spread of COVID-19,
the Hawaiian islands decided to enforce quarantines
on incoming travelers.
When it first started,
they were 14 days
now the quarantine is 10 days.
The State of Hawaii in order to reboot tourism
introduced the Safe Travels program
where people could essentially take a COVID-19 test,
get a negative test and test out of quarantine.
Well, Kauai opted out of this program.
So travelers to Kauai
have still had the quarantine currently
for 10 days upon arrival in the islands.
Well effective this week,
the Island of Kauai is giving travelers
two new options as part of this new program
that I'm going to share with you today.
The first new option is the resort bubble.
So, the Island of Kauai is allowing visitors
to come to the island
and stay in one of currently six resort bubble hotels.
I'll put the full list on the screen here,
but the Hilton Garden Inn and the Marriott
are two of these six.
And travelers can stay one of these six hotels.
And during their first three days on the island,
they'll have to quarantine themselves
within the resort bubble.
Meaning that they can go to their room.
They can go to the pool.
They can go anywhere on the resort grounds.
They just can't leave the resort grounds.
Then at the end of 72 hours of being in that hotel,
they can get a COVID-19 test on premise at the resort.
Assuming they get a negative test at the resort,
then the resort staff will enter that information
into the Kauai COVID-19 database
which will release the traveler from quarantine.
So, this is a way to say,
"Hey, if you're coming to Kauai
you don't have to spend 10 days
just holed up in your room,
but you can start to enjoy
at least a part of the island,
which is one of the resorts."
Now, in addition to this COVID-19 test after three days,
you still have to take a COVID-19 test
three days before you fly to Kauai.
It does not have to be one of the testing providers
that's on the state program
because Kauai is doing this separately.
They are accepting any COVID-19 type of test
that's approved by the FDA,
not just one of the State's approved labs.
So that makes it a little easier
for your pre-departure test.
Now, a couple of things I should point out
is that the price of those COVID-19 tests
that is all on the traveler.
Also, you'll have to wear a monitoring bracelet if you go,
and you have to pay for the monitoring bracelet.
It's somewhere between 80 to $100.
It depends on which hotel you're staying at.
The monitoring bracelets are sold by the hotels.
And when you're going to the hotel from the airport
you will not be able to take a rental car.
You will have to either take a taxi, Uber
or a hotel-provided transportation
so you go direct to the hotel.
If you want to rent a rental car
when you're on the island,
you can,
but you have to do it once you've tested out of quarantine
and you are out of the resort bubble.
Now the Enhanced Movement Quarantine program
outlines a second option for travelers
who want to visit Kauai.
This is for people who want to visit Kauai
as part of a multi island journey.
So, let's say first you want to go
to another island like Oahu and Maui
and then go to Kauai.
Well, what they're allowing people to do
is go to one of those sister islands.
After being on the sister island for three days,
at least 72 hours,
then travelers can take a COVID-19 test
on one of those islands.
And assuming that they get a negative COVID-19 result
on that,
then they can travel to Kauai
within 72 hours of that test.
So, if you do it that way
then you don't have to quarantine in a resort.
You can essentially quarantine on one of the other islands
and then take your test there
and then go to Kauai.
So, who's for what, what's the better one?
I mean, if you really have your sights set on Kauai
and you don't mind hanging out in a resort for three days
wearing a monitoring bracelet,
then go for it,
because at least that secondary COVID-19 test
is at the hotel,
which I think is kind of nice.
But if you don't just want to hang out
at a hotel for three days,
well then you might be interested in the other option
which is to go hang out on another island,
explore that island and then head over
and make your way to Kauai.
Well, if you enjoyed this video
you might enjoy some of my other videos on Hawaii.
You'll find links on the screen
or in the description below.
As usual I won't say goodbye
because I'll see you all in the next video.