I Moved to Hawaii During COVID-19!!!

Moving to the most beautiful islands in the world during a dangerous time.

I got on the airplane with my face mask, excited but also wondering what my life in Hawaii would be like?

My boyfriend, Sajal, and I had been planning to move to San Francisco for a year. He had already been working, for a year while I was planning to go after I graduated college. Everything changed when the coronavirus hit. My start date was moved from beginning July to October to back to August. Everything was crazy. My boyfriend and I wanted to start our lives and move in together. We discussed moving to San Francisco early, but it seemed pointless while everything was shutdown. Since we weren't planning on owning a car, transportation there was almost impossible. We would just spend our days stuck in a tiny, expensive apartment.

Our first thought was to get a place with an amazing view, that way even if we were quarantined inside, we wouldn't feel so trapped. But then we realized since my boyfriend's job was work from home, and mine was likely to be work from home as well, we could go anywhere until our jobs told us to come back. Since we always wanted to live on the beach, we started looking at California beach towns- Long Beach, San Diego, etc. I was insistent about getting a beachfront property! If we were stuck inside all day, I wanted to enjoy it.

However, all of the beachfront places in California were too expensive. Rent would have been more than $3,500 a month! We started looking at Texas and Florida, and randomly found ourselves looking at places in Hawaii.

Hawaii was much cheaper! We could get beachfront places for around $2,500. Even one-way flight prices - around $400 - was a drop in the bucket for many flights to Hawaii would usually cost. Hawaii had always been a place my dream travel destination. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

"Hawaii had always been dream travel destination."

The only thing we were concerned about was the 2 week quarantine. During COVID-19, Hawaii enforced much stricter laws so that it could protect Hawaiian citizens from the coronavirus. Hawaii mandated that anyone coming to Hawaii had to quarantine for 2 weeks before they could leave their premises. There had been many people who were fined and even arrested for breaking this quarantine. Travelers had to sign 2 forms to be allowed in. Airbnbs were only allowed to rent to travelers who were staying for 30 or more days.

These laws provided some complications for us. We knew we had wanted to stay in Hawaii for a month, but with 2 weeks in Quarantine, we didn't know if the trip would be worth it. In the end, we decided to stay in Hawaii for at least 2 months so that we could fully enjoy Hawaii, even with the quarantine. We knew that the beauty of Hawaii would absolutely be worth the 2 week quarantine. We only booked our airbnb for a month so that we could try out other areas and islands in the next month. We finalized the apartment, booked our flight, and packed our bags.

When we arrived in Hawaii, we checked in with an agent. She called our phones, to ensure we put down the correct number. Then she called our airbnb host to make sure that he knew that we were coming. We signed the 2 forms and then we were on our way. We had a bunch of groceries delivered to our apartment so that we could have food for the next 2 weeks. We had take out delivered twice, simply because we didn't have enough food last us. The view, which can be pictured above, never made us feel trapped. While Sajal worked all day, I read, played guitar, and learned to cook! It was a fun experience. The quarantine was absolutely worth it.

"The quarantine was absolutely worth it."

Yesterday, we were finally released from quarantine. We started our day with a hike. We hiked up a mountain right next to our airbnb, pictured above. The sights were amazing. Then we went to brunch at The Beach House by 604, which was this amazing restaurant that was right by the water. There we ordered pina coladas, pancakes, and a burger. The food was amazing!!! They had these special taro pancakes, pictured below, that I decided to try, that was delicious. I definitely recommend this place if you're staying in Waianae. Then we cooled off by jumping into the beautiful water. The waves were so big that we had an amazing time. Let's see what next weekend brings us.