One Day Itinerary for Volcano National Park
 

Please help me with a one day itinerary for VNP. We will be flying in from Maui to Hilo. We would like to do the day ourselves without a tour group. I am looking at flights now. I am thinking we'll be there like from 10-6. I would also like an idea for a later lunch stop - somewhere where we could have a nice lunch, glass of wine and a view if possible.
What should we do at the park? We are not super adventurous - we just want to see the sights.

plenty of time to do the basics, it's a little less than an hour from Hilo airport to the park. Start off at the visitor center and watch the video, then go either way around crater rim drive, stopping along the way at the museum, Thurston Lava Tube and some of the more interesting stops. when done, go to the Volcano House (it's across from the visitor center. You can get a sandwich and a glass of wine (nothing fancy) and enjoy the view of the crater from there. stop off at Akatsuka Orchids on the way back to Hilo to see some beautiful flowers.

Thank you, we appreciate it!

You will have time to drive down to the coast to see the steam that results from the lava hitting the ocean. You won't have time to walk to the lava unless you don't do anything else or if the lava is in a new place now. Here are some photos of the area and my notes on our trip.
http://www.waterbottleweekends.com/hawaii.htm

We picked up a box lunch from O'Keefe's Bakery in Hilo, started at the visitor's center, did the crater rim drive with the stops, then drove down the Chain of Craters to the ocean and saw the steam. Didn't hike over the lava at night.

If you like hiking, don't miss the Kilauea Iki hike. It's four miles long and takes you across the bottom of a crater. The scenery is unbelievable. It took my husband and I just around 90 minutes to do the counter-clockwise loop -- taking our time, stopping for a million pictures. It's pretty close to the Thurston Lava Tube.

We picked up food to go at Cafe Pesto in Hilo. They have really high-quality food - their wood-fired pizza was one of the best we've ever had, and you can customize it with all kinds of great local ingredients, shrimp, artichoke hearts - good stuff. They also have nice salads, calzones, sandwiches, etc. There's Thai Thai restaurant in Volcano that everyone raves about it, but it wouldn't offer you a view.

If you change your mind and decide to stay near the volcano for a night, Kilauea Lodge is very charming, and they have a very nice restaurant with a big stone fireplace. We were tired after touring the park all day, so it was great to have someplace so close to stay for a night. We didn't have to rush to see the park and got to see the volcano at night, which is an unforgettable experience.

We found the park to be pretty well marked and the people in the visitor center very helpful - if you do Crater Rim Drive, you'll hit the highpoints - the lava tube is really neat, so be sure to get out and walk through it. Have a wonderful trip!