Tips on how to make Hanauma Bay reservations FAST! How I bought my Hanauma Bay ticket by 7:01am!

ALOHA!

I’ll let you know below what it was like for me to buy Hanauma Bay tickets online in June 2025. The reservation website has changed since then, but overall the process is still the same.

I got an email at 7:01am Hawaii time confirming my online reservation for Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve!

This is 1 minute after the 7am time in which new online tickets go on sale. I’ll show you what the order process looks like so you can be quick too.

The actual page you need to go to at 7am Hawaii time 2 days before you want to go to Hanauma Bay is: https://web5.hnl.info/pros-ticketing/event/hbay-online-reservation

For example, I wanted to go to Hanauma Bay on Friday, so my ticket-buying day was Wednesday.

 

👆 I got an email confirmation for my Hanauma Bay reservation 1 minute after tickets went on sale! The email came from the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation.

 

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There are partner websites included in this post. I may earn a commission.

 

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I had read reports online that say to speed things along, create an account. But I found it pointless to be logged in to my account before buying a ticket. It did not work for me. I had an account with info in my account profile ahead of time, but it turns out it didn’t take any of that information and automatically fill it out, so I had to manually type my full name and e-mail address anyway.

I actually realized with like less than a minute before 7am that I wasn’t signed in to my account, and signed in at that point. So by the time I signed in, it was 7am. This means I was definitely signed in.

 

Things to do to speed things up when it’s time to book the Hanauma Bay tickets:

• Make sure you will be ready at 7am Hawaii time! (And it is HAWAII time!)
• Know the day and what time slot you want to go for… along with alternatives just in case.
• Type out your email address elsewhere so all you need to do is copy and paste, and not spend time typing it out.
• Have your credit card ready and/or type out your credit card number and copy it so all you need to do is paste. Know your card expiration date and security code.

I suppose the second copy and paste is easier at a computer, which I was.

 

You used to be able to go to the reservation website to see how quickly the tickets are selling out.

I checked the day before I wanted to buy tickets to see the latest time tickets were sold out to determine if I really did need to try to be quick. I decided I needed to be quick.

 

👆 You used to be able to actually see on the Hanauma Bay reservations website that tickets did indeed sell out quickly.

 

See my list of what to bring to Hanauma Bay!

 

Walk-in tickets on the day-of

There are also a limited number of walk-in tickets available each day, and you can read up on that on the same page you go to in order to make online reservations.

 

 

 

Hanauma Bay tours

The Hanauma Bay shuttle from Waikiki gives you round-trip transportation only (no ticket), and it will take you to Hanauma Bay where you will need to buy walk-in tickets. Read the Hanauma Bay shuttle reviews and check current availability.

For another way of guaranteed entry, you can also do a guided Hanauma Bay snorkeling tour (this includes transportation) to make sure you go to the best spots when you’re there!

 

 

 

The process of making online reservations

So right before 7am, you’ll want to load this page: https://web5.hnl.info/pros-ticketing/event/hbay-online-reservation

This is the page you will reload profusely when you see it’s seconds before 7am! 😂

I also had https://time.is/HAST up on my computer so I could see the time until 7am down to the seconds. 😂

 

👆 You can buy your Hanauma Bay tickets online starting at 7am Hawaii time, 2 days before you want to go.

 

Once it’s 7am, refresh the Hanauma Bay reservations page, and a new date will show up (aka the day you want to go). Click on your date. Click on your time slot.

The required info once you choose your day and time is first name, last name, and e-mail address (twice – second time for confirmation). So maybe if you want to save a few seconds, have your e-mail address copied ahead of time so all you need to do is paste it twice. There is a spot to add your phone number (which I did), but it wasn’t required.

Once you continue, you then need to choose how many tickets you want to buy. There’s adult non-resident ticket, child ticket 0-12 years old, and adult active duty military ticket to choose from. You also need to check to agree.

 

👆 After you pick your date and time, you need to fill out your name and email address. NEXT!

 

👆 Next you will choose which tickets and how many you want, along with checking to agree with their policy. PLACE ORDER!

 

Then comes the payment part. When I did this on desktop, it said I had 10 minutes to complete my payment info. There was a clock at the top with a countdown. I don’t know if that meant that my ticket was secure at that point, so I still tried to hurry along. I had my credit card number typed out elsewhere so I just copied and pasted that. I made sure I knew my expiration date and security code. I needed to fill out billing address. PAY!

Despite doing everything manually, I received an email confirmation about my Hanauma Bay reservation at 7:01am Hawaii time!

 

Don’t give up if you check at 7:05am and it shows no availability!

If the payment countdown represents that your ticket is secure for that amount of time, then it could also be that more tickets could show up as available after 7:10am, as there may be people who don’t complete payment during that time.

So if at 7:05 it shows no available tickets, refresh the page after 7:10 for example.

I also saw where at first it showed that all tickets were sold out in 7 minutes, but when I checked again later, it showed the last ticket was sold out in 24 minutes.

So I wonder if that has to do with the hold on tickets for payment, and then it’s released after no payment was made.

So I would keep trying if you’re in the first 30 minutes or so and it shows no available tickets.

There could also be people “testing” the system to see what it’s like that are blocking tickets from showing as available.

 

GOOD LUCK!

 

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