It's been a while since I've posted, but this forum was so helpful in planning our anniversary trip to the Big Island and Kauai. Thought I'd let everyone know how much we enjoyed our trip (just returned on Sunday). Thanks to everyone who offered comments and suggestions on places to stay, eat and activities.

For this post, I'll focus on our first week on the Big Island.

Highlights of the Big Island:

Favorite restaurants: Merriman's and the Hualalai Grill at the Four Seasons. Amazing food with great selection and great service.

Favorite excursions: Horseback riding excursion in the Waipio Valley with Waipio Naalapa Trail Rides and snorkeling trip to Kealakekua Bay with Sea Quest. So glad we did the research ahead of time. Both were amazing experiences.

Favorite Shopping: Gallery of Great Things. We really loved poking around in some of the unique stores in Waimea, expecially local artwork. This place is packed with lots of great things.

Favorite Coffee Farm: Greenwell Farms in Kona Coffee country. Just loved the ride down this road. We stopped at the farm, had a tour of the farm and learned how coffee was made and took home a bunch of samples. Love the macadamia nut coffee.

Favorite local experience: Strolling through the town of Holualoa. Not a huge amount of shopping here, but we loved poking in all the quaint galleries in this town. The ride and view was also fabulous.

Hints for newbies: We tried to see so much during our 6 days of the Big Island. So much driving and not enough down time. If we had to do it again, we would probably pick one side of the island, maybe 2 excursions, and more time to relax.

Overview - The Four Seasons:
We spent our first 5 nights at the Four Seasons in Hualali. We had a golf view room with a lava rock shower which was amazing - the highlight of our room. The golf view rooms are set back further from the property which may be a disadvantage to some, but we loved the privacy - it was quieter and there was more of an ocean breeze.

We just loved the Four Seasons! It didn't have that huge resort feeling and was very lush and quiet. There were a lot of families with children during our stay, but we never seemed to see many people aside from dinner.

The property was absolutely beautiful, with torch lit pathways in the evening -very romantic.

Service was perfect - no complaints. Everyone was friendly and very helpful in answering all our questions. Not stuffy at all.

Highlight of our stay was a couples massage at the spa. This was a gift my husband and I gave each other for our anniversary. I had never had a massage, so didn't know what to expect. I had the Lomi Lomi and hubby had the Sports & Fitness massage. What an amazing experience - and a great way to forget about work and get rid of jet lag.

We ate most of our meals at the resort. Had a casual dinner at the Beachtree Grill, our anniversary dinner at Pahu I'a (overlooking the ocean) and our last night at the Hualali Grill. Pahu I'a was the most romantic with a candlelit table overlooking the ocean. But, the Grill has the best food! Somewhat noisy atmosphere as sound echos, but amazing food. I had the best glazed ribs I've ever had.

Waipio Valley:
We were really looking forward to this trip. The ride from Waimea to the Valley was so beautiful. However, it rained most of the way up. Lucky for us, it stopped just before our horseback riding excursion.

Waipio Naalapa Trail Rides:
So glad we picked this company. We've only been horseback riding once in Bermuda and were really looking forward to the views. The guides were amazing - giving us background on the Valley and all the plants and trees. The whole tour was about 2 hours and worth every penny. Plenty of time to sample some of the fruits from the trees, crack open a coconut for the horses, and take some pictures.

Hawi:
Well, I'd read in the blue book that the old town of Hawi was nice place to visit. My thought was to take my husband to Bamboo for lunch, but forgot that this place is closed on Mondays. Oh well. Well, it poured and was very foggy on the rather windy road from Waimea to Hawi. Unfortunately, we couldn't see much of a view. But, I'm sure the views are spectacular on a clear day.

Waimea:
Spent the balance of the day in Waimea checking out all the shops (great place!). Since Bamboo was closed, we ended our day with an early dinner at Merrimans. Wasn't sure what to expect due to some mixed reviews, but this was probably our best meal. Hubby has the special ono and I had the rack of lamb special. Everything was wonderful and service was great. We'd go back in a second. Great place for a special dinner, but I'd recommend going earlier for better service.

Trip to Kealakekua Bay:
Based on a lot of comments on this site, I knew we had to snorkel kealakekua bay. Took the advice of the blue book and booked a tour with sea quest - the rigid inflatable raft that carries 6 people. Weather was pretty bad to the first site - Place of Refuge - it poured. But, it cleared after we got there.

This trip was so much fun! The only snorkeling I ever did was putting on a mask and poking around in some shallow water, so this was amazing. We were so close to the coral and all kinds of fish. Hubby had a blast, too. He's wondering when we can go snorkeling again. Went to the Captain Cook site next which had the best snorkeling (and warmer water). The tour guide also whipped us in and out of some of the sea caves which was a lot of fun.

We ended our day with a trip to Holualoa and Coffee town. This was a lot of fun as it got us away from some of the touristy areas of Kona and into some of the local areas. Nice change of pace.

Hilo Coast:

Our last two days were spent at the Waterfalls Inn in Hilo. Loved this B&B. Very quaint and charming. Beautiful room overlooking a waterfall and geat breakfasts with tropical smoothies and fresh baked bread and orange french toast.

The trip along the Hilo coast was some of the best views we've ever seen. So beautiful. Stopped at Laupahoehoe Point. Pretty hairy road getting to the point, but worth it.

Volcano National Park:
Went to the Park in the evening. Biggest disappiontment was the rain. It poured both days we were in Hilo. We took the short hike out to see the lava (distant view and not much lava). We did see the smoke puring into the ocean and the ranger had a telescope set up to view a site of active lava. Not a spectacular lava sighting, but the lava rocks and park were pretty cool.

Akaka Falls:
Well, the rain kind of ruined this one. We went to the overlook, but it was so foggy, we could hardly see the falls.

Botanical Gardens:
Well, we saw this in the pouring rain, but it was still amazing. I really love gardening and hubby enjoyed seeing all the exotic plants - especially the wild ginger and heliconia (looks like huge lobster claws). It was really like walking through a huge rainforest. Glad we did it.

Finished our trip with a nice dinner at the Kiluaea Lodge. Had a nice table in front of the fireplace. Very nice dinner.

Well, that's about it. Loved the diversity of all the different parts of the Big Island, but maybe a bit too much rain. Thanks for taking the time to read this long post.

I'll post another report for our 6 days in Kauai soon.

Please feel free to ask any questions. Again thanks for all your help.

Great post. Mahalo for sharing. Looking forward to hearing about Kaua`i too.
-Bill

My family is going horseback riding in Waimea and thinking about eating at Merriman's for lunch afterwards. Will we be ok wearing our horseback riding clothes in this restaurant?

When were you on the Big Island? We also stayed at the Waterfalls Inn in Hilo on 6/19 through 6/22. What a wonderful place! I can't wait to go back to Hawaii!

Hi Longtail,thanks for the report I noticed you wrote that there were a lot of families, how were the pools? Did the resort enforce the "adults only" pool? We'll be there in Sept for a 2nd time, but when we stayed there previously there was no kids club and am a wee bit concerned. Was the hotel fully booked and how were the crowds?

Ashley: Merriman's is a nice place. Think white linen, potted palms etc. I've never seen anyone turned away because of how they were dressed, but you might want to make sure you don't smell like a rodeo when you go.

Nice alternatives for lunch would be Cafe Pesto, another 15-20 minutes west of Merriman's, in Kawaihae. It's more casual and the food is nearly as good (and *much* less expensive), or Merriman's Market Cafe at Kings' Shops (not sure if this would be on your way back from Waipio or not).

fdecarlo,
I had a feeling that it probably wouldn't be the best choice...We were planning originally on another restaurant in Waimea but it closed recently according to the updated section of the "Blue Bible" website. Anyway, we will try Cafe Pesto. By the way, we will be making our way toward Volcano Village from Keauhou.

Ashley:
We had been horseback riding in the morning and shopping in the afternoon in the rain, so we weren't exactly dressed in our "dinner" clothes. The restaurant does look more formal, but dress is casual. Riding clothes would we perfectly appropriate. If you're concerned, I would bring a change of shirt. I think you'll find everything where dress attire is concerned. Some people wore sundresses and others wore shorts. Enjoy!

We were at the Waterfalls Inn from June 23-24th, so it looks like we just missed each other. We picked this place based on reviews from tripadvisor. You don't see a lot written about this place in the guide books, but it's a special place.

As far as the Four Seasons, the place was fully booked and it was family season. However, I was really impressed with how there were areas set up for adults and kids. Families and kids tended to hang out at the Seashell pool (infinity pool) and adults would hang out at the more formal olympic style pool. It was quiet there. Nice place to read a book and they do enforce the quiet there. I didn't see anyone at the small adult pool despite the crowds. Get to the olympic pool by mid morning to get a good spot, because this is a popular place. They also have beverage service and carried around a plate of fruit scewers which was a nice treat.

The Four Seasons was not noisy and did not seem crowded even though it was fully booked. The only problem we had with crowds was in the town of Kapa'a. Advice to all newbies. If you're staying on the north shore and heading to dinner on the south shore at rush hour (4PM-6PM), give yourself extra time. We ran into a huge traffic jam getting through Kapa'a, and if you hit it at the wrong time, you could be waiting for 45 minutes to get through this area. I'd advise leaving earlier (around 3)instead.

Thanks Longtail

Ignore my comment about Kapa'a. That was meant for my Kauai report - still catching up on sleep.

Mahalo.

thanks for your report longtail. We've been wanting to see the BI and will be trying to go next summer about this same time. Hopefully we'll get to try some of the neat things you described.

General question if anyone knows..is it common to have so much "pouring rain" at this time of year there?

Thanks!

ggrtist: I remember seeing a monthly average rainfall chart for the Big Island, and June/July/August were among the lowest totals for the whole year. But the only predictable thing about Hawaii's weather is that it's unpredictable. We've been going for 15 years now, usually from late October to mid November and have rarely run into bad weather for more than a day or two. This last trip we went in late January/early Feb. and it was the first time we had bad luck with the weather.

The weather on the Kona side of the Big Island is typically beautiful - mid 80s and partly cloudy. For some reason, there was a cloud mass hovering over the Big Island during the week we were there. It didn't affect our ability to do things, though. Weather on the Hilo side is another story - typically rainy, so we expected it.

Thanks for the weather info. fdecarlo, regardless of the island...seems that phrase is a applicable. Regardless, in Hawaii...rain never seems to dampen the aloha spirit. Pun corny, but intended