Has anyone ever taken Paradise Helicopter's "Doors off Experience" tour over the volcano crater? If so, what are your thoughts on this tour or some other offered of volcano viewing?

Thanks in advance for replying.

I haven'd done a helicopter tour, I find them prohibitively expensive. I've done a circle Island Fixed wing tour with Mokoulele Flight Service out of Kailua Kona and it was a very good trip, and about half the cost of a volcano only helicopter tour. Of course you don't hover over the vent, but the pilot did several circles and the view was fine. The day we went, the lava was flowing to the ocean and it was a spetacular sight. I was able to get some decent photos with my digital camera.

We used Mokulele, too and it was enjoyable. MUCH less expensive than the helocopters. I took a ton of pics with the digital, too!

If you've never been in a helicopter, you might consider the Paradise tour. We did a helicopter tour of the big island last year. It is a BIG island and takes quite a bit of time to cover by helicopter. I would probably opt for the "fixed wing" tour if I had it to do over.

Thanks for the responses. I have been on a helicopter over the Grand Canyon it was pretty awesome. Hubby has done a helicopter over in Maui. So, the copter ride with the doors off and only 4 passengers seems worth the $ to me. Mokoulele Flight seems kind of expensive at $188/pp for only a half hour more than the Paradise tour and you don't get as close to the action AND there are 9 passengers.

Cousin - what is "fixed wing"?

Hi:

Fixed wing means the wings are fixed, not blades on a rotor like a helicoptor, so it equals a plane.

The flight we went on with Mokulele was $150 for each of use, and it was about an hour long. There were NOT 9 passengers! It was a 6-seater Cessna plane (the smallest I've ever been in) and there were just 4 of us. We did the circle tour around the island.

I was on a standard "doors on", helicopter (Blue Hawaiian) 5 years ago. It got close enough to the volcanic activity for me, LOL. Even though there wasn't a lot at the time.

I did the Paradise doors off tour a couple of weeks ago and it was awesome. For taking digital pictures there is no alternative. We also took the single engine turboprop plane around the Big Island and that was OK, just not as exciting and the strut keeps getting into the pictures. There's also the glare from the windows, even though everyone was wearing dark shirts. We did a doors on copter ride last year on Kauai and I did get some nice pictures, although many of them did suffer from the glare and window distortion. This year I have several shots where I was directly over the lava with nothing but air between molten lava and me (when he circled and banked). Flies out of Hilo, so you get to see some nice views of waterfalls and the lava running into the sea as well.

One other worthwhile thing we did on the BI was to take the Mauna Kea summit tour to see the stars and sunset. Another worthwhile investment.

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