Paradise Helicopters Reviews

Amazing way to see the island in a short period time and you see things that are not reachable by land.

Very professional outfit, and safety was a top priority! It was an awesome experience to see the island from the air. The highlight of the flight for me, was when we flew along the North end of the island along the sea cliffs/valleys, but it was all beautiful. We did the fly/zip/dip package, and highly recommend this adventure.

This is a stunning, not-to-be missed experience. It is the only way to see the craters and waterfalls of the big island as they are not accessible by either road or by hiking. Our pilot Ryan was skillful and knowledgeable and his enthusiasm for his island was wonderful. Thanks to all the staff at Paradise for this spectacular two hour flight.

Amazing experience. So much we would have missed out on had we not done this helicopter tour; 2,000'+ drop waterfalls, lava geysers and flow out to ocean. Did the big island excursion package from Kona. Rented a car in Hilo. A day in Hilo was great to see Akaka falls park and some sites around town.

Our family flew with Paradise after our pre-arranged tour with Blue Hawaiian was cancelled due to weather (there were other issues, but I'll save that for their review). We ended up flying out of Kona instead of Hilo and paid more because of it, but we were happy it all worked out this way because the experience with Paradise was top-notch. We stayed in their shaded waiting area until our pilot, Daniel, finished his previous flight. He came in and gave us an overview of the flight plan on a relief map and then we were off. No waiting on a hot tarmac with 30 other people.

Once in the air, the experience was amazing. Daniel made sure to point out all the sights and answered all our questions. He also gave us plenty of time with the highlights: volcano and waterfalls, making sure both sides of the helicopter got great views. None of us had flown in a helicopter before, but the ride was buttery smooth. He even coordinated a soundtrack to match the tour. We would easily recommend Paradise Helicopters and our pilot, Daniel to anyone who visits Hawaii.

Colin (pilot) was a great as a tour guide and enabled us to really savor all that there was to see.

Just finished the sunset flight around the
Island with 5 people....totally awesome! Staff and pilot super helpful, friendly and casual. Perfect vacation excursion. Thank you! The Bolgers.

Was a great experience! The pilot (Japanese guy, Koji I think his name was) was great, totally experienced and great in customer service. If you're going to do a helicopter flight in Hawaii choose these guys to avoid any worries. Everything went great and we had a blast

Beyond expectations. Booking, ground crew, pilot were outstanding. GO!

Paradise Helicopters Tour was awesome!! Thank you to Pilot Matt, Shane, and the rest of the crew that made this memorable! We had an amazing time and Matt was very knowledgable as our tour guide and very smooth as our pilot. We saw a lot of really cool sites: snow on the mountains, science labs, fresh lava, grand waterfalls, crashed bomber, and many other unforgettable views. Thank you very much for making this experience well worth everything.

We did the circle-island tour out of Kona, and I cannot say enough about how great it was. A once in a lifetime experience, for sure! Our pilot was knowledgeable about the entire island - he knew every town, and lots of island history. If you can, I highly recommend this tour, and the company.

locally owned and operated family business. can't say enough good things about this place.

We did he Lava and Rainforest tour. Our tour guide was quiet, didn t tell much info. Being from Oahu we were hoping to learn a bit.

The crew... very strict on everything hand in a strap policy... they took our phones in a very mean was and attempt to take our go pro (which had a ridiculous strong body clip and strap) they were saying the strap wasn t good enough and I argued with them. They tried to manipulate my argument but I refused to allow them to take it for it had a secure strap just as their policy stated. Then the crewmemeber decided to check our jean pockets and told my boyfriend he couldn t keep his wallet in his very deep pocket (long style wallet), didn t even show outside his pocket. Boyfriend argued there was no possible way it would fall out at all. They continued to belittle us and accuse us of things we were not doing. I got teary and they finally left us alone. They gave us our headphones and said we would need a live vest for we were going over the ocean (yeah, no, we didn t whatsoever)...

We got to Lava and there wasn t much flowing that you could tell during the day. I felt bad for the professional photographer Mr on our doors off flight because when we reached the top, the pilot tilted the heli and circled the crater the opposite way of him when the pilot finally went the other way so the photographer could get a view the pilot went much much higher and there was nothing to see not that we were even close to begin with. Very dispappointing. I did not enjoy the tour at all and it was not worth the money. Pilot did not know the names of the falls we were going over, was very monotoned and boring. We were sooo high up from the falls they were merely specs. You do not feel the heat of the lava whatsoever, you don t even get close to it whatsoever.

I was so upset after our tour... I ve used Paradise on Oahu and Kauai and never had issues, they were great. But as one of the woman on the crew said we are Kona and have our own rules, I don t care how your other tours have been ... I will never recommend this company on Kona or for Big Island.

Aloha! Paradise Helicopters were super nice and professional. My friend and I did the doors off helicopter ride around the volcano. We had an amazing time, everyone was super nice and organized. Will definitely check them out again when I visit another Island. - Rachael Raghunandan

We flew Paradise Helicopters out of Kona today for 2 hours and had a fantastic time! Our pilot Koji (spelling?) was very funny, knowledgeable, and took us to beautiful scenery. We were lucky with perfect weather and got to see a heavy lava flow that started 2 days ago (last big flow was 5 years ago) so I'm sure that factors into my review. But this was the third helicopter tour we've done and definitely the best (others on Kauai and at Niagara Falls). Booking was easy, facilities nice and clean, and friendly staff. You get what you pay for! This company is highly recommended!

Once in a lifetime experiance. Booked thru expedia/concierge on Oahu. Everything was great from booking confirmation, transport to and from airport at Kona. Staff were friendly, helpful with motion sickness prevention. Pilot was great. Loved the soundtrack playing in the headphones. It really was perfect.

Fantastic! Ryan, Top gun, mofo! The whole staff took great care of all our special needs. Mahalo, ya'll.

Great experience. Staff was super friendly and personable. Marco was our pilot--he was very knowledgeable and funny! Would definitely recommend.

I cannot say enough good about Paradise Helicopters and our pilot Bryan. He said born and raised on the island and had a lot of good information to share. The flight was smooth and the visuals were stunning. If you want to see the parts of the island that few see.... The valleys, rugged coast and the volcano, book a helicopter flight with Paradise!

Ryan the pilot was outstanding Juliet who checked us in was outstanding everything about the experience the whole flight was incredible thank you Paradise

Great tour, well run outfit. Best way to see the volcanoes. Beats the hell out of driving across the other side from Kona

Many thanks to our pilot Kogy! The flight over the Big Island is an unforgettable experience for us. Kogy steered the helicopter safely and shot several times at each attraction, so that every passenger could take great photos. The comments were great. The flight was worth every dollar!

Great helicopter tours of the Big Island in Hawaii. Must see waterfalls and lava flows. Best way to see the entire island.

Absolutely amazing helicopter tour. We saw lots of rava!!!!!!

Fantastic tour, the pilot was very knowledgeable and extremely pleasant

We signed up for the Circle Island Sunset Tour. Prior to the purchase, Waynette was a great resource for information. I'm not an intrepid flyer so her info regarding the skill level and safety record of their pilots was a big help in feeling comfortable about my choice. Once at the airport, the company's commitment to customer safety and comfort was evident. We had a thorough pre-flight briefing with both a member of ground crew and then with the pilot. They even supplied us with ginger chews to help settle a queasy stomach (though with our pilots smooth flying they were unnecessary.)
Our pilot was Koji. He was friendly, informative and checked frequently on our comfort. During our flight he took note of our comments and seemed to spend extra time at locations in which our group expressed particular interest. At each point of interest he always flew so both sides of the helicopter got the best view and photo opp. I particularly enjoyed the valley with 2000 ft tall waterfalls and of course the amazing lava flows in Volcano National Park. This tour is the highlight of my trip so far and I recommend it highly.

Wonderful experience with a 2 hour ride. Got to see the eruption and red lava flowing out of the earth ! Once in a lifetime experience. Our pilot Keith was also very informative and kept us entertained with good commentary. It gets a bit queasy when the copter takes some tight turns to have multiple passes over the eruption and also at the tall waterfalls. So better eat light !

Had the most wonderful time flying with Marco ! thank you so much for the experience of a lifetime.
Roger & Linda

Excellent staff, pilot did an extra ordinary job. Would highly recommend.

Loved every minute of this helicopter ride. I did the doors off valley and waterfall tour and it was absolutely spectacular. I am a photographer and wanted to take photos without the glass in between - but I think that having the doors off would make for a unique experience even for non-photographers. Joel was our pilot and offered great commentary and I felt very safe in his hands. The sights were unbelievable and you get to see things that you'd never see otherwise - things that are inaccessible by car or any day hike. We also saw 6 humpback whales! Thank you to Joel and to the staff at Paradise Helicopters!

A friend and I had the privilege, yes privilege, of touring the Big Island on a Paradise Helicopter tour last week. All staff were very professional as well as informative. Koji was our pilot - not only was he skilled in flying the helicopter, he provided historical details and information related to the inhabitants and topography. We both felt very honored to be flying with someone of his caliber. It was a fantastic experience. I would recommend them to anyone!

We did the island circle and highly recommend it. You see the volcano and lava (we we're lucky enough to see lava explosions in one of the craters and a flow as well) but even better than that were the valleys on the North side of the island.

The valleys were absolutely amazing, they were very steep and so dramatic. There were many gorgeous and waterfalls plummeting to the depths of the valley floors.

The staff were all nice and i highly recommend this tour company.

Our group had the most incredible time taking a Paradise Helicopter tour while on our vacation in Kona. Our pilot, Koji, was the best and took us on an amazing tour over the entire island. We were able to see multiple volcanic craters, incredible coastline, and, the best part, travelling through the canyons to view the incredible waterfalls.

Taking a ride on Paradise Helicopters is the absolute BEST way to see the island and I highly recommend that anyone visiting the islands takes a trip with Paradise. You will NOT be disappointed! : )

Paradise Helicopters in Kona was okay. We did a longer three hour tour with one landing. I've been on several helicopter rides before and would give the company a 3/5 rating.
Our pilot (a Japanese man) was very good. It was extremely windy the day we flew and I had no idea how windy it was until we got out of the helicopter during our landing. It was super windy and I cannot believe our pilot did such a fantastic job with the landing or even landed period....because he did say if the winds were too strong he would not do the landing. Two people in the back of our helicopter were sick from motion sickness due to the choppy winds.
The drawback; the price we paid per person was quite high compared to what other companies paid. I had the requested front seat that my boyfriend kindly requested in advance. Unfortunately my boyfriend was in the back with two other couples (five people in the back) and on our other company helicopter tours, for similar prices we always had a private helicopter with just a pilot and two of us. So just be warned that they pack in the helicopters and the staff DID NOT inform us in advance how many people would be in the helicopter; the staff should be very clear about this and do a better job with that. So two stars off there

Great experience!! We got to see a perspective of the island that we'd never get while driving. I highly recommend doing this at least once in a lifetime. It's worth the money. Our pilot Keith was a great host and was very knowledgeable

Please do not tell people when booking that it is limousine style seating. Limousine style seating is not squeezed in with people's feet on top of one another. My husband and I sat with a mom and her two teens and it was so tight I could not imagine 5 average sized adults. There should only be 4 in the back or at the very least warn people as to how tight the seating will actually be. Our pilot Ryan was great and we enjoyed the 2 hour trip otherwise.

We did the Volcano Kohala Landing tour and it was not as advertised! We specifically chose this helicopter company because they advertise landing on the volcano "unlike any other air adventure" and all of the photos on their site insinuate that you will be closer to the active sites however you do not actually land on the volcano but you land on the plush jungle side near the ocean. On top of that, a couple that was also on the tour with us had their lunches packed for them specifically to picnic at the landing. We were unaware of the option of having our lunches packed at all (either through the company or that we could bring our own). When we landed, they had a nice picnic spread and we were just standing there, watching and waiting for them to finish. The pilot even said, "that's not for y'all"!! Furthermore, we paid extra for window seating but were not notified that they would be backwards! I DO NOT recommend this tour nor this tour company. Go with Blue Helicopters that cost less, has the same tour without the landing, have larger windows for viewing and have no riders that ride backwards! We used that company last time on a different island and we will continue to use Blue Helicopters in the future, NOT Paradise Copters!

Great tour and Ryan was an awesome Piolet and guide!

Although it was cloudy and rainy, we changed the flight route and went up to the northern district and down through the beautiful valleys. Instead of the entire island tour. It was most beautiful and exciting.

Fantastic ride - hard to know how else to see all of the island. The staff were very nice, and the pilot had a good sense of humor, improving the ride across the big island.