---
title: "States That Border Hawaii: None, and the Closest Is Debated"
url: https://33travels.com/states-that-border-hawaii/
author: "Tomas Herrera"
published: 2026-11-10
updated: 2026-11-10
place: "Hawaii"
---

# States That Border Hawaii: None, and the Closest Is Debated

## TLDR

- No state borders Hawaii. It’s an island chain with no land border of any kind.
- The only thing touching Hawaii is the Pacific Ocean.
- The closest state depends on where you measure. From the far northwestern islands it’s Alaska, about 1,573 miles away. From Maui it’s California, about 2,286 miles away.
- Hawaii and Alaska are the only two states that border no other state.

## Does Hawaii border any state?

Zero states border Hawaii. The state is a chain of volcanic islands in the middle of the Pacific, and a land border needs land on both sides. Hawaii has none to share.

That answer trips people up because the question assumes something that isn’t there. Some maps of the Western US put Hawaii in an inset box beside California, and the mind fills in the rest. It also doesn’t help that a few location pages online list Arizona, Nevada, and Utah as Hawaii’s “neighbors.” They aren’t. Those states are about 2,500 miles of open water away.

## Land borders, maritime neighbors, and the closest state

Three different questions get mashed into one when people search for states that border Hawaii. Pull them apart and the confusion goes away.

**Land borders:** none. Not with a state, not with a country.

**Maritime neighbors:** the legal edges of Hawaii’s waters. Under the [UN Convention on the Law of the Sea](https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf), a coastal nation claims a territorial sea out to 12 nautical miles. Beyond that, it controls a 200-nautical-mile [exclusive economic zone](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/eez.html) for fishing, drilling, and other resources. Hawaii’s zone stretches across the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as well, which makes it enormous. It meets no other state’s waters. The nearest overlap is with other countries’ zones far to the south and west.

**The closest state:** a distance question, not a border one. That’s where it gets interesting.

## Which state is closest to Hawaii?

Alaska and California both win, depending on your ruler.

Hawaii’s chain runs about 1,500 miles from the Big Island up to Kure Atoll, the northwestern end of the state. Measure from Kure to the Aleutian Islands and Alaska is the closest state, at roughly 1,573 miles. Measure from Maui to Point Arena, California, and you get about 2,286 miles.

Which one you pick comes down to whether you count the uninhabited atolls. Most of the people, hotels, and airports sit on the southeastern end of the chain, and from there California is the nearer state by a wide margin. Honolulu to Anchorage is over 2,700 miles. Honolulu to San Francisco is about 2,400.

So the short, defensible answer: Alaska is closest by the shortest straight line, California is closest for anyone who actually lives in or flies to Hawaii. State which one you mean and nobody can argue.

![Stunning California coast with crashing waves and rugged rocks under clear blue skies.](https://33travels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/pacific-ocean.jpeg)

## How far Hawaii is from its nearest neighbors

Here’s a rough comparison. The distances use different starting points, so treat them as approximate rather than exact.

| Neighbor | Approx. distance | Measured from |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kiribati | 1,200 miles | Big Island south tip to Kiritimati |
| Alaska | 1,573 miles | Kure Atoll to the Aleutians |
| California | 2,286 miles | Maui to Point Arena |
| Marshall Islands | 2,300 miles | Honolulu to Majuro |
| Mexico | 3,400 miles | Honolulu to Cabo San Lucas |
| Japan | 3,850 miles | Honolulu to Tokyo |

Look at the top row. The closest neighbor of any kind isn’t a state at all. Kiribati’s Kiritimati (Christmas Island) sits south of the Big Island, closer than any US state. That’s why you’ll sometimes see a page call California the “nearest landmass” while its own table says otherwise.

## Why Hawaii borders only the ocean

Hawaii’s one true border is the Pacific, and it’s a long one. The state’s waters include the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, which covers the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and ranks among the largest marine protected areas on Earth. [NOAA and its partners manage it](https://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/) as a single reserve of reefs, atolls, and open ocean, roughly 583,000 square miles in all.

This also explains why Hawaii lands on a short list. [Alaska](https://33travels.com/states-that-border-alaska/) touches Canada but no other state, and Hawaii touches nothing. They’re the only two states with no state neighbors. Every other state in the Union shares a border with at least one other.

## Quick answers

**Does Hawaii border any state?** No.

**What is Hawaii’s border?** The Pacific Ocean. Hawaii has no land boundary and no shared maritime line with another US state.

**What state is closest to Hawaii?** Alaska by the shortest measurement (Kure Atoll to the Aleutians). California if you start from the main islands.

**How far is Hawaii from California?** About 2,300 to 2,400 miles, depending on which island and which stretch of coast you pick. Flights from Honolulu to the West Coast run roughly five to six hours.

**Does Hawaii border Mexico or Japan?** No. Both are thousands of miles away across open water. Kiribati and the Marshall Islands are the nearest countries.

So when someone asks which states border Hawaii, the right reply is a map of the Pacific and a shrug. The answer is nobody, and that isolation is the reason the islands exist as they do.