Looking for the best Hawaii travel apps for planning a trip to Hawaii? Here’s a list of some of the best Hawaii travel tips I know of!
This list of the best Hawaii travel apps was written by Marcie Cheung (a Hawaii travel expert) and contains affiliate links which means if you purchase something from one of my affiliate links, I may earn a small commission that goes back into maintaining this blog.
My phone storage is a constant fight. Between podcast episodes, way too many beach photos, and my kids arguing over whose turn it is to pick the car music, something always has to go to make room for an update.
A handful of Hawaii apps never get the boot, though, no matter how full my phone gets.
I’ve downloaded, tested, and quietly deleted more Hawaii travel apps than I’d like to admit over 40+ trips.
A couple of my old standbys don’t even exist anymore. One got retired by the city. Another got swallowed by a competitor.
So this is my actual current list for 2026, built from on-the-ground Hawaii travel experience rather than a recycled roundup that nobody bothered to double-check.
Quick version, if you’re in a hurry: Shaka Guide for road trips, AllTrails for hikes, Surfline for beach and surf conditions, and Transit if you’re skipping the rental car on Oahu. Skip DaBus2 and Magic Seaweed entirely; neither one exists anymore. Keep reading for the why, plus a couple of apps I’d warn you away from.
Shaka Guide Is the One I Never Skip
I’ll just say it: this is my favorite Hawaii app, and it’s not close.
Shaka Guide is a GPS-triggered audio tour. You download the tour for your route ahead of time (do this on hotel wifi the night before, the files are big), and then it plays narrated history, local stories, and music automatically as you drive, based on exactly where your car is.
I’ve used it most on the Road to Hana and driving through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Both times, even on stretches I’d driven before, I picked up pieces of Hawaiian history I’d somehow missed on every previous trip.
My husband still brings up the lava tube story from our last Volcanoes drive.
Tours run about $20 to $30 each, with a discount if you’re buying more than one. A guided van tour easily runs you $150 or more for the day, so the math isn’t hard.
One practical tip: get a dashboard phone mount before your trip if you don’t already have one.
Shaka Guide needs to stay propped up and visible while you drive, and holding your phone in your lap the whole time isn’t great for anyone involved.
If you’re trying to figure out which paid Hawaii experiences are worth it for your specific trip, that’s a lot of what I cover in my Hawaii travel consultations.
AllTrails for Hiking, Especially This Year
This one’s newer to my phone, but it’s earned its place. AllTrails now shows permit requirements, parking fees, and trail alerts for individual trails, which matters more than it used to.
Hawaii’s added reservation systems and parking fees at a handful of trailheads and parks over the past year or two, and showing up without checking first can mean getting turned away at the gate.
The free version covers the basics. The paid Plus or Peak tiers let you download whole park maps for offline use, which matters since a lot of Hawaii’s best trails lose cell signal within the first mile.
I pay for Peak now mostly so I’m not stuck staring at a loading wheel at a trailhead.
Surfline Replaced Magic Seaweed (For Good)
If Magic Seaweed was your go-to on past trips, you’ll need something new.
It merged into Surfline back in 2023, and the standalone app just stopped working after that. I didn’t realize this until I tried opening it on a trip and got nothing.
Surfline covers the same ground now: wave height, wind direction, swell forecasts, and live beach cams, so you can see current conditions before you even leave the hotel. You don’t have to surf to find this useful.
I check it before any beach day with my kids, mostly to gauge whether it’s a calm swim day or a “stick to the shallow end” day.
The free version is enough for casual planning. Surfline+ adds longer forecasts if you’re trying to time a specific swell.
Transit Took Over for DaBus2
If you’re skipping the rental car on Oahu, pay attention to this one.
DaBus2, the app practically every Oahu visitor has used for years, was officially retired by the City and County of Honolulu on April 15, 2026. It’s just gone.
The city pushed everyone toward the Transit app instead, which now covers TheBus, the Skyline rail line, and the Biki bike-share system all in one place.
I won’t pretend the switch has been smooth. Some longtime DaBus2 users are annoyed, and a few say Transit puts certain features behind a paywall that used to be free.
But it does cover more ground now that rail and Biki are part of the same app, so it’s not a clean downgrade either. It’s just a different app, and you’ll need a few minutes to get your favorite stops bookmarked again.
If you’re staying in Waikiki without a car, get this downloaded before you land. It beats paying for Uber every time you want to leave the resort.
If you’re traveling with kids and trying to decide whether skipping the rental car even makes sense for your family, my sister site has a breakdown of getting around Oahu without a car that goes into more of the family-specific logistics.
If you do want a car for exploring beyond Waikiki, I check Discount Hawaii Car Rental first since they compare rates across the major companies on island instead of making you check each one separately.
Hawaii News Now Weather for the Microclimates
Hawaii’s weather makes no sense sometimes, and I mean that literally. You can have full sun in Waikiki and a downpour in Manoa Valley ten minutes away, at the same time.
The Hawaii News Now Weather app is built around exactly that kind of patchwork forecast, with radar you can watch move across the island in real time. I pull this up before any hike or beach day.
Why trust a forecast for “Honolulu” when your actual plans are three valleys over and the weather there has nothing to do with it?
Revealed Travel Guides (Formerly Hawaii Revealed): Use It, But Carefully
This app has a loyal following, and I get why. It’s built on the long-running Hawaii Revealed guidebooks, has offline maps, and goes deep on restaurants, beaches, and lesser-known spots.
It rebranded recently as Revealed Travel Guides and moved to an annual subscription.
There’s a real downside, though. Some locals have started calling it “Maui Reviled,” because it’s sent visitors toward private property or restricted areas without flagging that clearly.
If you use it, treat any “kapu” or “no trespassing” sign you see in person as the final word, no matter what the app is telling you to do next.
It can lead you to some great finds. It can also lead you somewhere you shouldn’t be standing, and it won’t necessarily warn you which is which.
Skip the Hawaiian Translation Apps, Try This Instead
Learning a little Hawaiian before your trip matters, and it’s one of the more meaningful things you can do as a visitor. “Mahalo,” “kokua,” and “keiki” go a long way.
The old standby Hawaiian Words app is still around, but I’d steer you toward Wehewehe Wikiwiki instead.
It’s a free dictionary built by the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and it’s far more accurate than most commercial translation apps, which routinely drop the okina and kahako marks that change a word’s actual meaning and pronunciation.
My mom, who’s been on Kauai for years now, still corrects me on this one regularly.
Two Apps That Don’t Make the List Anymore
DaBus2 is gone for good as of April 2026. Use Transit.
Magic Seaweed doesn’t exist as a standalone app anymore. Use Surfline.
Sunrise Companion is off my list too. It’s not a bad app. I just stopped opening it once I realized I was checking the weather app two minutes later anyway for the same info.
My Favorite Hawaii Guidebook Hasn’t Gone Anywhere, But There’s a Catch
DK Eyewitness Hawaii remains my favorite printed guidebook, and it’s still in print. The catch is that the most recent edition dates back to 2017.
That makes it great for historical and cultural context, maps, and getting a feel for each island before you go, but you can’t trust it for current hotel prices or restaurant picks.
Pair it with something current, like my Oahu travel guide or Maui travel guide, rather than relying on the book alone for anything that changes year to year.
Hawaii Travel Apps FAQ
Is DaBus2 still around?
No. The City and County of Honolulu retired it on April 15, 2026. Download Transit instead. It now covers TheBus, the Skyline rail line, and Biki bike share in one app, though some riders say a few features that were free on DaBus2 now sit behind a Transit subscription.
What happened to Magic Seaweed?
It merged with Surfline back in 2023, and the standalone app simply stopped functioning after that. If you still have it on your phone from an old trip, delete it. Surfline now handles all the same surf and beach forecasting.
Is Shaka Guide worth paying for?
For a road trip like Hana or Volcanoes National Park, yes. At $20 to $30 per tour, it costs a fraction of a guided van tour, works completely offline once downloaded, and gets you Hawaiian history you’d otherwise drive right past without knowing it was there.
Does the Hawaii Revealed app really send people onto private property?
Some locals say yes. Often enough, in fact, that the app picked up the nickname “Maui Reviled” in certain circles. Bottom line: if a posted sign says kapu or no trespassing, that sign wins, no matter what the app tells you to do next.
Do I need a hiking app for Hawaii in 2026?
More than you used to. Several trailheads now require reservations or charge for parking, and AllTrails lists that information for individual trails so you’re not finding out the hard way at a locked gate.
Apps Help You Plan. They’re Not the Point of the Trip.
Every app on this list earns its spot because it solves something specific: getting lost, missing a bus, paddling out on a bad swell day, or driving past a waterfall without knowing it was there.
That’s it. None of them are the reason you flew out here.
Plan with them, then put the phone down at some point and look at the volcano or the water in front of you.
If you’d rather have a real person sort through your itinerary and tell you which of this stuff matters for your trip, that’s exactly what I do in my Hawaii travel consultations.
It’s a big part of how I approach Hawaii itinerary planning with clients: figure out what’s going to matter for your specific trip, skip the rest, and stop spending money on tools or experiences you don’t need.
If you’re earlier in the process and still deciding how to choose a Hawaii island in the first place, my island hopping guide is a good next stop.
And if you like this kind of breakdown in audio form, I cover trip planning topics like this on my podcast, Hawaii Travel Made Easy.
