PST to HST

The flight from the West Coast to Honolulu takes about five and a half to six hours, but you land only about two and a half hours after you left by the clock in summer. Leave San Francisco at 8:00 AM in July and you arrive around 10:30 AM in Honolulu; in January the same flight lands around 11:30 AM. Hotel check-in is usually mid-afternoon, so morning flights leave a few hours on the beach before the room is ready.

Phones switch to Hawaii time automatically on landing, but cameras, fitness trackers and car clocks may not. If you are coordinating dinner reservations or tours from California before the trip, write both times on the booking.

Because Hawaii never changes its clocks, every mainland event moves by an hour in Hawaii twice a year. The New York Stock Exchange opens at 9:30 AM Eastern, which is 4:30 AM in Honolulu in winter and 3:30 AM in summer; traders in Hawaii work very early mornings. National TV events also run early on the islands.

Election Night shows the effect clearly. US elections fall in early November, after the clocks change, so Hawaii is two hours behind California that night: polls close at 7:00 PM in Hawaii, which is 9:00 PM Pacific and midnight Eastern, among the last poll closings in the country. The Hawaii to Pacific page gives the same conversion starting from island time.