Is Jack Harter the best helicopter tour in Kauai? — featuring SK Travel Guide (Jack Harter Helicopters)

0:05 Aloha and welcome as we take you on an epic ride with Jack Harter helicopters on the island of kwaii we love helicopter tours and have done some pretty epic flights in our time Soaring Over the Las Vegas Strip sunset at the Grand Canyon doors off over New York City at night and exploring the Lost

0:23 worlds of aahu we just love getting up in the air and seeing some of the best sites in America so when we headed to kaai as part of of our epic month in Hawaii we just knew we had to get up in the air little did we know this would turn out to be one of our favorite helicopter flights ever let's talk you

0:38 through the various options on planning and booking a kawaii helicopter trip while we get in the air with Jack Harter there are a lot of options for helicopter tours on kaii and most of them fly out of the Loui airport and this was the most obvious location for us as we were staying in Poipu blue

0:54 Hawaiian also flies out of the tiny Princeville airport as well as Louie but the vast majority depart only from leoie these tours fall into two categories the mass Market tourist tours who use the popular touring helicopters such as the eostar and the AAR from Eurocopter these are all amazing aircraft that offer a

1:10 safe and reliable way of seeing the island these are enclosed aircraft though which means any photographs must be shot through glass which is often dirty and scratched and always reflective we hate shooting through windows and that's why we prefer the more exciting option doors off these

1:25 tours use smaller more Nimble aircraft that have had the doors removed meaning you are exposed to the the elements these kind of Tours are really thrilling as you saw across the landscape and you can't help but feel you are in a Vietnam War film there are some obvious advantages to this such as the

1:39 excitement and the fact that your views are not obscured by scratched reflective glass but a couple of drawbacks too not everyone wants this level of frill these are pretty intense Adventures for those people the more sedate tourist Focus tours such as blue Hawaiian and Island helicopters are better suited especially

1:56 the latter that actually lands at the Jurassic Park Falls giving you a really unique experience the lack of doors can also make the ride pretty uncomfortable the wind really batters you and any Wind and Rain can really blast you while you're riding shotgun the aircraft are also a

2:12 lot more basic the rides can be a little rough and overall the experiences a little rough and ready but the upsides far out weigh these negatives for us so the doors off options are always our go-to there are a few doors off options in Kawaii Safari helicopters monolo tors and a few others but for us Jack Harter

2:29 really St out they use the Fantastic md500 helicopter of Magnum PI Fame rather than the smaller rieter r55s favored by the other companies which are also cheaper they also fly longer and further than any other company giving you more of the island and more time at each site this all adds up to an obvious

2:48 choice and we happily went with Jack and at no point regretted the decision for full transparency we paid for this tour entirely by ourselves and we are not sponsored in any way by Jack Harter they were just a tour company we decided was the best option for for us on this trip jackart only offers one tour and

3:05 this costs $380 per person with some pretty strict rules regarding weight due to the weights and balance restrictions on the aircraft most of the other tour operators offer pretty much the same route which is mandated by the FAA but most other tour companies complete their tours a little bit faster as Jack

3:20 hearted takes their time the only exception here is Island helicopters this flies the same route except it lands at manowa Puna Falls commonly known as Jurassic Falls this is where the helicopter first lands in the original Jurassic Park movie and you get to recreate this this is a very

3:36 tempting offer but the landing does not quite outweigh the thrill of the doors off for us so Jack Harter it is we arrived at Jack's HQ and we checked in and paired up with our flight groups here the ground staff were excellent and gave us a fantastic intro as to what we could expect for the day

3:52 they really looked after us after this we headed over to the heliport to meet the pilot and get an extensive safety briefing and life jacket assignment seating assignment is done at the aircraft as some people are disappointed with their seating assignments in the md500 there are only five seats one for

4:08 the pilot and four for passengers two in the front two in the back we got the back seats which can be disappointing but they are still not bad seats just not quite as good as sitting up front but also one of the persons sitting up front is not assigned a window seat and has to sit between the pilot and the

4:23 passenger which is also less than ideal by being in the back both me and Kate were assigned a window or more accurately a hole seat and this gave us the best views out of the side of the aircraft we then bordered the aircraft and headed on our way as the chopper left the heliport the first section of

4:38 the flight is pretty dull that's a pretty rough assessment as you fly out over the green and verdant Countryside surrounding the airport it's pretty stunning really but lacks a focal point and is just farm and scrub land for the first few minutes the first real point of interest is Jurassic Falls and the

4:54 fly past is pretty brief but the pilot makes sure everyone gets a good look at the Falls

5:23 and the T skirts off passing several of us stunning waterfalls on the way to we mayor Canyon

6:24 often called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific why mayor Canyon is actually much smaller but it is still seriously stunning with Incredible colors and stunning geographic features here the aircraft pulled off some pretty intense Maneuvers that were really exciting and we took in the stunning Canyon from

6:47 above to be honest it's a good job the canyon is smaller as this makes it much more accessible the actual Grand Canyon is so massive you can't really see all of it from the air as it's just too big why mayor Canyon is far more compact and the tour takes in most of the canyon in just a few

7:15 minutes at the end of the canyon sits the incredible W poo Falls cascading down into the canyon this stunning waterfall really showcases the unique and stunning geography of w Maya Canyon soaring out of the canyon the T then heads over the mountain Toops and out over the mind-blowing napali coastline

8:04 [Music] the Nepali Coast is really the headline attraction in kwaii and it's not hard to see why the Hawaiian Islands are a stunning location laced with beautiful mountains valleys and coastlines but the jewel in its Crown is the Nepali Coast on kwaii it's one of those sites that is

8:31 really hard to believe is real when you put the viewfinder up to your eye and you could scarcely believe the image you're seeing is not doctored we saw over these Majestic Cliffs for several minutes which are almost inaccessible and completely undeveloped apart from a few ruins left

8:49 by the ancient Hawaiian taking a few passes into the valleys and peering down into the open top sea caves before heading a little out to sea to get an overview look of the coast the tour Then followed along the coast up to the stunning remote coastal town of hanal

10:00 [Music]

11:29 oh [Music]

12:14 [Music] [Music] Rumor Has It this is where Puff the Magic Dragon frolicked in the Autumn Mist but not everyone agrees with this translation but what is pretty widely agreed upon is how stunning this coastline is and from the air it's even

12:40 more magical you could certainly Imagine Dragons roaming this land we took in the spectacle from above before heading Inland once more [Music]

13:22 [Music] this part of the route was stunning but again lacked real focal points there were lashings of waterfalls to the point

13:48 where maybe we could say we'd had enough waterfalls but not much else really it was just beautiful empty Wilderness and jungle

14:17 the final feature presentation was the sunken Crater of Mount W this is the Island's highest mountain and is one of the wetest places on Earth all this water falls in the highlands and drains out daily this is carvs the stunning valleys and canyons and Powers the endless waterfalls this is most apparent

14:34 in the W Crater where a wall of Tears floods down the crater walls the helicopter flies right into the crater making some sharp Bank turns in a very thrilling fashion how often are you going to fly into a real volcano in your life a really surreal and magical part of the tour

15:24 from here it's back to the airport and in comparison to what you've just witnessed this part of the trip is pretty boring it's back to just ranchland and Jungle which would be beautiful but you've just flown over some of the most magical scenery imaginable so this is pretty basic in comparison back at the

15:41 airport you get the chance to get a few snaps with the helicopters and then back on the mini buses back to the HQ to depart it kind of leads you a bit shellshocked going from soaring over the island to just back at the car stuck back on terma this tour really was the highlight of our entire trip we did so much on

15:59 this Hawaiian Odyssey that it's hard to pick the best parts but this tour was so stunning it elevates itself to one of the best helicopter tours we have ever done if we were heading back to kaii and only had time for one thing this would be it it was easily worth the money and showcases the island like nothing else

16:17 could so much of kwaii is inaccessible and a helicopter is the only way to get to see most of it and Jack Harter is easily our top pick for getting out and seeing the parts of the island you just can't get too by like land so make sure a helicopter tour is part of your kwaii itinerary we have links in the

16:40 description to Jack Carter and some of the other helicopter tours available moalo for watching and remember to like And subscribe to see more of what we did in Hawaii on this trip and to follow along with our upcoming Adventures