Sunshine Helicopters

My husband and our best friend loved every minute of this helicopter tour! So glad we decided to take this tour. Best way to see the island. Breathtaking views!!! Our pilot John was fantastic. The staff was very friendly!!!

We had a great time, the staff were all super professional and informative. The helicopters are new and top notch. This was definitely a treat and we’d recommend it to anyone visiting Kauai. There is nothing quite like the birds eye view that you get flying over the waterfalls, canyon and Napali coast.
Mahalo!

Phenomenal ride across the island. The pilot was knowledgeable, the aircraft seemed new and the island is beautiful. I recommend paying for the front seats and doing the tour early in your trip to Kauai. Seeing the island from above will get you revved up to experience it from the ground. The pilot had a great soundtrack playing during the ride. This was a very cool experience and I would highly recommend when staying in Princeville.

Trevor really rocked my socks! What a pilot, what a stud! Yum yum fun fun! The views were almost as amazing as the pilot! Better than I could have ever expected, I haven’t had that much fun since college. It’s a must do on your trip to Kauai!

I had never been on a helicopter before and was a little freaked out at the possibility, but my family talked me into it and I didn’t want to miss the beautiful scenery. This was a breathtaking experience, and our pilot Jedreck was amazingly skilled. We saw so many things that you simply cannot see by car or by foot. I was on the backseat left behind the pilot and had just as amazing of an experience as did my husband and daughter who were in the front. The ride was smooth, masterfully flown, gently taken off and landed, and the pilot did a fantastic job talking about the sights and the island. The ground crew was calming and helpful. And from the air the island is even more magical than I imagined it would be. We even saw a baby humpback whale playing off the Na Pali coast with her mother. This was hands down the best thing we did all week.

Our party of 3 went on the 4pm helicopter tour out of Princeville. We were very hesitant to do a helicopter tour due to the high cost, but having read a Kauai guide book and speaking to other tourists, we decided to spend the money for a «once in a lifetime» experience.
Sunshine Helicopters was recommended to us by some friends we met on Ke’e beach. They raved about the pilot taking time at each viewpoint, turning the helicopter so all in the vehicle could see and assuring us there wasn’t a bad seat in the aircraft. When we called to make our reservation, we were told the flight would be at least 55 minutes. We arrived excited for our fun trip! Sadly our disappointment far outweighed our excitement.
First off, our tour only lasted 45 minutes, not «at least 55 minutes» as explained prior to our reservation.
Second, one member of our party sitting on the left side of the aircraft behind the pilot missed most of the great view points, especially on Na Pali coast, as she wasn’t on the side of the helicopter the pilot favored in showing destinations. He never did rotate the helicopter at each destination as we had expected.
Third, the whole tour felt very rushed, perhaps because our tour was at the end of the day. We went by each destination quickly, so much so that we felt we barely got a glance. Our whole party was most excited to see Na Pali coast and felt we rushed past it.
Fourth, we couldn’t hear most of what the pilot was saying during the tour and there was no way to communicate back with him.
Fifth, any who were sitting in the middle seats had difficulty seeing as they were constantly working to see beyond other people in the helicopter or past doors, etc.
All in all, we had serious buyers remorse and wished we had spent a bit more to go with a company who offered a better experience overall. When spending that much money, we expected to be blown away. It was a HUGE disappointment.
Additionally, when we called to share our experience with Sunshine Helicopters, the manager we spoke with was confrontational and told us that we did in fact have a good ride and that the majority of our party could see Na Pali just fine, even if one got the shaft, so there wasn’t much to discuss. Poor customer service. Even more disappointing that they didn’t try to make this right in any way.
We wish we had gone with the «Ultimate Guide Book to Kauai» recommendations for a helicopter tour!

Great helicopter tour, good service, very convenient if you are North shore.
During raining season, it seems that tours in the afternoon tend to have a slighter better chance of clear view. However, we did ours in a cloudy day and it was definitely worth it.
We order the movie of our flight: don’t be surprised that your recorded filing is the inside copter and then the outside is a recording of a past journey (with awesome weather conditions).

Far better than expected. The only way to see the islands waterfalls and scenery. Took the first flight of day… a little misty at first, but no big deal. Very professional staff.

Spectacular view! We’ve seen the falls where they filmed Jurassic park, and the beach where they filmed King Kong, and pirates of the Caribbean… Our pilot’s name is Bogart. tip: take Meds before the flight if you have motion sickness due to
Turbulence…

Great experience and was the best part of our trip. Very close to the St Regis and the Westin. You have many options and this is a solid one.

I too agree that if possible one should wait for a clear day. Great service at Princeville and our pilot did a nice job. A nice job but not great and that’s why I took off a star. This is an expensive outing for a family and it seemed obvious that the pilot has made this trip a million times. Speech memorized and no communication with pilot to ask questions. We took a helicopter tour with another company here a couple of years ago and the music was synced with the flight. That was really cool. It was not on this flight.
Otherwise a nice way to see the entire island in an hour.
If you are plagued with motion sickness this is not a trip for you. Ask my wife. I had to sleep with one eye open that night.

I was excited to to take this tour (especially with the overall «good reviews» on Unilocal) The ground staff were friendly and professional and made you feel welcome as soon as you arrived. That was a plus! My flight was nice, but I have two big complaints. First, the pilot John sounded very knowledgeable about the island, but I could not hear him. he spoke so softly, that I could not hear half of what was being said. This is not my first «ride» but my first with this company. The sound system was not clear in the least. The second complaint is that the ride itself was right on the dot at 45 minutes. For the amount of money that you are paying it would of been nice to have it run a little over the exact «bare minimal time.» I understand that they have a schedule to keep, but I felt like were were on the clock, instead of the «timeless» experiences that I have had in the past.

This is the best way to see the island. I took my husband for his birthday in March 2015 and paid extra for front seats, which was well worth it. When we return we will definitely do this again. Top notch staff. Thank you for a great experience.

This is our second time doing a helicopter ride but its our first time with Sunshine Helicopter tour. Our original time was at 8am but was cancelled due to raining and too much foggy. so they put us at 11am schedule. The staff (Rebecca and Nolu) they are AMAZING, very friendly to my kids too.
Our tour was about 50 minutes total and we got to see a lot of spectacular view, falls, Waimea canyon, the wettest spot on earth and lovely ocean.
The price was very reasonable too less than $ 200.00 for the 3 of us. I have a lap child with me and he was very comfortable and fell asleep while we are doing the tour. Our Pilot John was very knowledgeable and told us a lot of stories.
Love Love Love this

Knowing this helicopter tour would be more expensive compared to Lihue based tours my group of 5 decided to take this tour since it was closer to our hotel pros: 1. helicopter/​pilot safe 2. Beautiful views of island Cons: 1 no discounts for toddlers
2. Girls working the camera & boarding are not nice nor friendly they treated us as we were beneath them– certainly not as safety first –3 very disappointing on a $ 1500spend
Take the drive to Lihue– you’ll be treated respectfully for a lower price with the same views

A very professional company and the only way to see the island of Kauai.
What really impressed me was this company’s integrity and customer service. On the day of my helicopter tour we had poor visibility due to weather conditions, however the company acted above and beyond professional and made us whole and complete afterwards even though the issue was beyond on their control. For this reason I would recommend and return to this company again.

I was a bit surprised my tour took off in the moderate rain. It turned out only 20% of the tour was obstructed (visibility less than 100 yards) so it was still worthwhile, but considering the cost I’d recommend waiting for a perfectly clear forecast. Obvious advice but worth reinforcing. They said they would cancel for «weather» but I’m not sure what that line is considering it was raining at the heliport and we still took off.
The flight was smooth and the views were fantastic when they were there. The pilot was surprisingly insightful and narrated the tour very well. Not to say he looked bad in any way, I just wasn’t expecting that kind of quality curation from him. He even circled around some whales we spotted along our route which felt very personalized. I’d easily recommend on a clear forecast and would consider going again.

Very nice experience touring Kauai by helicopter. Staff were very detailed and professional explaining all the safety measures. Each tour starts right on time.
Our pilot, Brandon, was awesome! He was well spoken and did an excellent job of talking about the island history and topography.
Overall, this tour far exceeded my expectations. Much better than my last helicopter ride a few years back while in Maui. A complete joy and value for money. I would love to do this again on my next visit to Kauai.

We took this yesterday. It was incredible! Even if you don’t think you’ll like it, I’d strongly recommend it.
This tour gives you a view of Kauai that you literally can’t get any other way. Not only do you go high, but they take you very close to all the plants and rock formations. You see an incredible feast for your eyes – the Na Pali coast, the Grand Canyon of Kauai, everything. We even went over a peak, and looked downwards upon the clouds below us.
The only thing that they could have done better, was to have given us a scale so we could know how large the objects were (something like, the waterfalls are 15 feet across at the top, or the trees along that peak are 10 – 15 feet tall). But this is a very minor nit to pick. I loved this.
ADVISORY: If your ears are sensitive to pressure changes when you go up and down in an airplane, I’d recommend some gun or hard candy. My ears did hurt a bit, and so did my kids’.

Price was good and staff very helpful. Pilot was funny but flight was short. supposed to be 50 to 60 minutes. we flew for 40. tried to discuss with the company via email but they were unresponsive. I think there are better companies for the money.