We were on the Big Island from Sep. 16 to Sep. 23. We stayed at the Mauna Kea in a beachfront unit on the 4th floor. We loved the charm and beach at this property. We also went to view the Hapuna Prince next door and it was lovely also. These 2 hotels probably have the best beaches on the Big Island, if you like a sandy beach with no rocks or lava. They are great for swimming and boogie boarding. The downside is they are far away from Kona, Hilo and the Volcano area. We loved staying there anyway. But we did do a TON of driving. We rented a Chevy Trailblazer with 4 wheel drive from National and it used up so much gas, we were kind of sorry we had that big of a vehicle. At any rate, it was comfortable and roomy. We spent the morning at the beach and had lunch at our beachside restaurant at the Mauna Kea and it was great, just expensive. We drove around the Hawi area and Pololu Lookout that afternoon. We loved that drive up through the mountains, and we highly recommend it. We ate dinner at Café Pesto that evening and it was awesome. Our next day was spent again at the beach some, and then we drove towards Kiholo Bay and hiked around there, which is lovely and went into Kona for lunch. Being a Sunday, most everything was closed and especially for lunch time, so we shopped around and ate at a place we didn’t really like, but we did enjoy walking around Kona. We had shave ice from Scandinavian Shave Ice and it was great! We ate dinner at the hotel at the Pavilion at Manta Ray Point, which was a big disappointment. First of all, the Mauna Kea has an area they light up every night for the manta rays to come, and that whole week we were there, we never saw one at all. The food was not spectacular at this restaurant and service was even worse. I don’t know if we hit it on an off night and had a poor waitress, but we were not overly impressed.

On Monday, we rented a boat from Kona Boat Rentals, which we really enjoyed. It was not cheap, but it was awesome to have our own boat for several hours. We took it to Kealakekua Bay and I snorkeled, while my husband stayed on the boat to keep it from drifting away, and the water was wonderful and the fish abundant. We then went to the Place of Refuge. It was beautiful there. We decided to rent this boat so we could avoid the big crowds on the other boats. However, one person has to stay on the boat at Kealakekua Bay because you cannot anchor there, or tie up to the mooring. That was the drawback, but it was wonderful having our own boat to go where we wanted and jump in the water and snorkel or even fish. The boat rental place will provide snorkeling equipment and fishing gear and GPS. The boats are 21’ power boats and have a bimini top, so you have coverage from the sun. We would do this again in a heartbeat! After we returned the boat, we went to the Place of Refuge by land and walked around the area and it was so peaceful and beautiful. On the way back to Kohala, we stopped at Greenwell Farms and took a brief coffee tour and my husband sampled their coffees and bought some, too. We ate dinner at Roy’s in Waikoloa at the Kings Shops.

Tuesday, we headed to the Hilo area and went to Akaka Falls and the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens. These were both beautiful. The drive from the northern coast to Hilo is spectacular. It was a long day of driving, but so worth it. We had room service that night from the hotel.

Wednesday we went to Waipio Valley and had a mule drawn wagon ride, which was so much fun! We ended up back at our hotel to enjoy the rest of the day at the beach. That night we ended up at the Volcano, which was kind of a last minute crazy decision, but we wanted to see the lava at night, so there we were at midnight, driving around the chain of craters road and ended up hiking over the rocks to see the lava entering the ocean. We could also see other lava flowing down the hill in various places. It was all a little spooky so late at night like that and being totally alone.

Thursday, we slept in having gotten back at 330am. We went to our beach and then went to Hapuna to enjoy their beach. We ate dinner at the Grand Palace Chinese food restaurant at the Kings Shops in Waikoloa. It was a day of relaxation.

Friday, our last day, we checked out and went into Kona and basically spent the entire day there after checkout. We did last minute shopping, ate lunch at Kona Brewing Company, went to Kona Kailua Candy company and sampled candy (yum), drove further up the coast and stopped along the way to shop at various places, and then headed to the airport for our flight home.

I will be glad to answer questions. We loved the Big Island and realized there are tons of things to do there and not enough time to do it all.

i too love the big island and have done almost all the same stuff. i was just curious with all your driving- how much was gas there?

toncasmo:

Gas ranged from 3.18 to 3.47 while we were there. Seemed like we had to fill up every day!

Ginger, we will be visiting the BI in 10 days. We are going to drive to the Volcano but are going to try and do a very early morning trip to get there before sunrise while it is still dark. We are hoping traffic will be light and the area less crowded. Were you able to see any lava flowing without hiking in the dark? We will have our 3 year old son and would prefer to not hike with him.

showmetravel,

We were only there at night, so I couldn't say if you could see the lava during the day or not. I have heard sunrise is a great time to go and view it, though, so I would imagine you would be able to see it at that time. Even though it was far away, we could see it a long way off. I think they have the area blocked off closer to the lava since they had a bench collapse recently. The rocks are kind of hard to walk on, though, once you get off the pavement, so you are wise not to try and hike with a 3 yr old. I hope you enjoy it!

Really enjoyed your trip report. All these years and I still haven't been to Big Island or Molokai, just hasn't worked out yet...no worries...you have again inspired me to work at getting to BI.

Mahalo for the trip report Ginger! My DH would love the idea of renting our own boat on the BI. I've never heard about anyone doing this in Hawaii before. We've been to the BI once for only a week and didn't do half of what we would've like to. Food for thought!! Mahalo again!

Does Mauna Kea still have those little 13" TV's? We usually have a full day of activities and sightseeing, then like to crash in the room and read (me)or watch TV (husband). Presently we are booked at the Hapuna instead of the Mauna Kea for our February trip. I like the looks of the beach at Mauna Kea better, but I think my husband would complain about a tiny television.

makai1,
We had never heard of anyone renting their own boat before, either, but we were so glad to have found out about it. The boats are in great shape, are very new, and have all the features you would need to find your way around and make it back safely. They are very easy to operate. You should try it if you go back.

Barbara5353,
the tvs are very small at Mauna Kea, and we also like to crash at night in front of the tv. But we found it to be not that big of a deal. It had remote control so that helped! Hapuna does have much bigger tvs, or at least, they did in a room we saw. The beach situation at Mauna Kea is so nice, that we opted for that feature as our number one priority. Hapuna's beach is awesome, but it's a little further walk from the rooms to the beach there, and at Mauna Kea, there's palm trees around the beach area, plus, there's a beachside bar and grill, right off the beach. It's all very convenient to the rooms, and we found we liked that alot. The rooms at Hapuna are nicer and newer and bigger, but there's just something quaint about Mauna Kea. It is something we struggled over for a long time, but we're happy with our decision, even after seeing the rooms at Hapuna and using the beach there. I think you will really like Hapuna. It is a beautiful hotel and beach.

"...driving around the chain of craters road and ended up hiking over the rocks to see the lava entering the ocean. We could also see other lava flowing down the hill in various places. It was all a little spooky so late at night like that and being totally alone."

Hi Ginger, I'll be at the Volcano Nat Park on October 19th (arriving around 2pm - departing the next day around noon). I would like to do what you did. I'm interested in knowing how long it took to drive down the crater road and the hiking to the point you saw lava. How long is the drive from the Nat. park to Kona?

Thanks!

Monica

Monica,
It probably took us an hour to get from the entrance of the park to the bottom of chain of craters road. Maybe a little less and that was with no stops at all since it was dark and we couldn't see anything but the steam rising up from the ground. That was very eerie and the moon was almost full that night, so it was a neat sight. The first road you go down is about 6 miles and the second road (the chain of craters)is about 22 miles or so long and you're going downhill the whole way. I think you go down from 4000 feet or so to sea level. While you're driving down the chain of craters road, you can see lava flowing in the hills. Then as you get closer to the bottom, you can see the ocean and the plume rising up in the sky and it's all lit up pinkish color from the lava flowing into the ocean. When you get to the end of that road, then, you park and hike about 1/2 mile or if you want to get closer, there is a longer hike that is marked, too. Some of the hiking is over pavement and is very easy walking, then when the pavement ends, you are hiking over lava rocks and it's more treacherous. We did the shorter hike. Drive time from the Kona area is about 2 hours. Hope that helps. Driving back up the chain of craters road is faster than going down, too.

Thanks Ginger for the information. I look forward to this adventure!

Monica

PS: Do you know if the park rents out flashlights or do we need to bring our own?

Monica

Monica,
We brought our own flashlights. There were no park rangers anywhere to be found at that hour, so you should definitely have your own stuff. Another thing to remember is to have a full tank of gas. Have fun!

Thanks again Ginger. Will have the car filled. We're staying the night at the Kilauea Military Camp, which has a gas station. Hopefully they'll have good prices!

Monica

I have a question about the beachfront catagory room at Mauna Kea. I've seen two different types of rooms on various websites. One is rather small, with just 2 wicker chairs. The other appears larger, and has a small sofa and chair,plus what appears to be a built-in unit with refrigerator, coffee maker, etc. I THINK the latter is a description of the rooms in the beachfront wing. Can you confirm? If we change our reservation from the Hapuna Prince, this is the floorplan I want. I also want to be able to roll out of bed and walk just a short distance to the beach or pool. Sounds like this describes the Mauna Kea better than the Hapuna!

Barbara5353,
The room that we had at Mauna Kea was in building 2, which is not the main building where the lobby is. It's the first side building to the main building and there's only 4 floors in this wing. Our room was considered a beachfront room, and it had a king size bed with 2 nightstands, a sofa with 2 end tables, 2 chairs, a desk and chair, a small tv on a stand with remote control and it had a built in area that had a small coffee maker with packets of coffee and a small refrigerator. They filled up the ice bucket every day and left 2 bottles of water every day. They also provided turn down service every evening, but Hapuna does that, too. Our bathroom had 2 sinks with 2 closets, a safe, 2 bathrobes, flip flops, all sorts of other toiletry items, and a separate toilet and shower/tub area. We were on the 4th floor, and had a lanai that had a table and 2 chairs and a chaise lounge with a side table. We could go down our stairs or elevator and walk across a grassy area and be in the sand. We loved this location. It was quiet and there were lots of palm trees providing shade in the grassy area, and then the beach was just right there. At Hapuna, we visted that beach a couple of times via the shuttle between resorts and we felt that the beach was a much further walk from the rooms. There is a big difference in the rooms at the resorts. The Mauna Kea has an old Hawaiian feel with terrazo tile on the floors, and dark louvered shutters over the sliding glass doors. All the furniture is dark wood, and the furnishings are not what you would call contemporary. The Hapuna is much more contemporary with light woods and shutters. It was just a matter of the beach accessibility that determined where we wanted to stay. If you want any more information, just let me know. I hope this helps. It was a very difficult decision!

Hi Ginger! You may be the just the person to help me. My husband and I will be on the Big Island for 3 nights in November. I have booked our reservation in Keauhou for all 3 nights...but am having second thoughts as to where we should stay. The main reason we are ending out trip on the BI is to see the Volcanoes during the day and at night. Right now the plan is to arrive in Kona...take a heli trip over the island...checkin at the hotel...spend one night...get up next day and drive to the park...now here is where I don't know what to do...do we stay at Arnott's and do their tour Lava Tour or at Volcano House? How did you see the volcano? We'd overnight there and then head back to Keauhou for the last night...is that way too much driving? Please help...I really don't know what to do! Thanks...Barb

Barb,
Seems like a lot of changing hotels to me for such a small amount of time on the island. It is a lot of driving for sure, no matter what you do unless you fly into Hilo instead of Kona. I don't know if that's an option for you, as it wasn't for us, but Hilo is much closer to the Volcano area. I think that IMO I would not want to change hotels that many times. We stayed on the Kohala Coast the whole time and never switched hotels, so we just drove there and back to see the Volcano. Since we did it differently, you might do a search on the sight to see if there are other reports on the Volcano House or Arnott's. I would hate to steer you in the wrong direction by giving you advice on something we didn't even do ourselves. I wish I could help you more, but there's so many others on this site with a wealth of knowledge who could help you better. You might even post your own question and see if any others will respond. I know we've always received great advice from everyone on this board. Good luck and I'm sure you'll have a great time no matter what!

If I had three days on the Big Island, kiwikoala, and my main reason for being there was to see the Volcano, I'd stay at Kilauea Lodge (kilauealodge.com) at VNP, after flying into the Hilo airport (if you can); you'd have about a 40 minute drive then to VNP. You could take a drive up the Northern route one day, seeing as much as you can ... In a three day span, I wouldn't want to change hotels if I could avoid it. Whatever you do, have a great visit!