Kalaupapa Access 2026: Tours Paused, What You Can Still See

Booking choice: The Molokai and Maui helicopter, from $404 per person. Check dates Tour details

Kalaupapa is the low peninsula under Molokai's north shore cliffs where people with Hansen's disease were forced to live in isolation. Today it is Kalaupapa National Historical Park, and a few former patients still choose to live there. Their privacy is the reason access is tightly controlled.

2026 has been a rough year for the settlement: a short-lived tour restart, then a water failure and a hurricane that emptied it for weeks. Here is what that means if you were hoping to visit.

The quick answer

Public tours of Kalaupapa are paused. The National Park Service ran its first new guided tour on 9 July 2026 and stopped the program days later after community protests. In September residents and staff were flown out after the water system failed. For now the realistic options are the Pala'au State Park overlook on topside Molokai or a helicopter tour along the north shore cliffs from Maui.

Can you visit Kalaupapa in 2026?

Not right now. Entry is only on a park-authorized guided tour, and the NPS paused those tours in July 2026.

The rules haven't changed: the National Park Service says anyone visiting Kalaupapa must book a guided tour, and Hawaii state law requires a Department of Health permit before entry. The tour booking is how you get that permit. Children under 16 are not permitted.

The NPS planned twice-weekly walking tours and ran the first one on 9 July 2026. About 30 Native Hawaiians and Molokai residents met it in protest, asking for a say in how the site is opened up, and the park paused future public tours while it reassesses visitor access. Hawaii Public Radio covered the pause. The park's alerts page is where any restart will be announced.

What happened at Kalaupapa in September and October 2026?

The water pump failed in early September, and residents were flown out on 11 September. Hurricane Nolo then knocked out power; it was restored on 2 October.

The pump on the settlement's water system started failing on 3 September. After repeat repairs, the state relocated patients, park staff and health workers by air on 11 September, as Maui Now reported. The water came back on 25 September, the day people were meant to return. Two days later Hurricane Nolo's winds brought down a power line.

Hawaiian Electric helped the NPS restore power on 2 October, and the Department of Health began coordinating the return of about 60 patients, staff and residents, Hawaii News Now reported. Visitor tours are a long way down that list.

Date (2026)	What happened
9 July	First NPS public walking tour; protest at the trailhead
Mid July	NPS pauses future public tours
3 September	Water pump starts failing
11 September	Residents and staff flown out
25 September	Water restored
27 September	Hurricane Nolo cuts power
2 October	Power restored; return of residents planned

Where can you see Kalaupapa without going down?

From the Kalaupapa Lookout in Pala'au State Park, at the end of Highway 470 on topside Molokai.

Pala'au State Park sits at the top of the cliffs, about 1,600 feet above the peninsula, and the lookout gives you the whole flat tongue of land and the settlement below. You need to be on Molokai to get there: a short flight from Kahului, then a rental car up Highway 470.

It is a quiet, respectful way to see the place.

Illustration of green fluted sea cliffs with ribbon waterfalls seen through an aircraft window — Molokai's north shore cliffs from the air. Illustration.

Do Maui air tours fly over Molokai's north shore?

Two helicopter tours on this site cross to Molokai: Maverick's tour and Air Maui's doors-off flight.

Maverick's Molokai and Maui tour names Kahiwa Falls, the north shore, Halawa Valley and the Pailolo Channel, 55 minutes from Kahului at $404 per person. Air Maui's doors-off West Maui and Molokai flight crosses to Molokai too, and its listing promises sheer vertical cliffs and waterfalls with no doors between you and the view, in 45 minutes from $452 per person (ages 10 and up). Neither listing names the Kalaupapa peninsula as a stop. The draw is the cliffs: the NPS says Molokai's sea cliffs rise to 3,000 feet, among the highest in the world.

The private planes are a different story. The 5 Island flight's stop list does not include Molokai, so if the north shore is the point of your trip, pick a helicopter. Our Molokai sea cliffs guide compares the routes in detail.

Kahiwa Falls, Halawa Valley and the Pailolo Channel in 55 minutes, all taxes and fees included.

Check dates for the Molokai and Maui helicopter

Will Kalaupapa tours reopen in 2027?

The NPS has not set a date. Watch the park's alerts page and plan your Molokai trip around the overlook and the air.

The park says it is reassessing whether and how visitors can come in, and the settlement first has to get its own residents home and its water and power stable. Any tour restart will be announced on the NPS alerts page.

If you're on Maui this winter and want Molokai in your trip, a helicopter over the north shore is the one way to see those cliffs this season without a permit. Our whale season post explains why a December to March flight across the channel can give you whales too.