We are staying at the Fairmont Orchid and hear that the drive to the Volcano is extremely long. Can anyone recommend a good
tour company that will do the driving for us ? What woudl be the most luxurious tour ?

Also - any input on the restaurants at the Orcid ?? Haven't found much about that.
Thank you.

I personally found the drive to the volcano very scenic 2.5 to 3 hours from Kohala coast, even some waterfalls you can check out, however in response to your query; roberts hawaii does tours throughout the hawaiian islands, website:http://www.robertshawaii.com/roberts...39#description
If you don't mind the risk, Blue Hawaiian also does helicopter volcano tours which you can probably hook up with through your hotel.

I stayed at the Mauna LAni a few years back and took an all day (8 hour) tour of the Big Island, inlcuding the Volcano. I beleive it was with Roberts Hawaii as the previous poster mentioned. It was a great tour. It's nice to let someone else do the driving so that you can enjoy the scenery.

Thanks - I will look into Roberts Tours.

you want to make sure you get in a night view. A lot of tour companies leave shortly after sunset. You really want to see the night glow of the lava flow. During the day it is just a lot of steam against with sun pounding down on you.

I would recommend Hawaii Forest and Trail (www.hawaii-forest.com). I took them on a trip to the Volcano National Park in January and they were excellent. They have small groups and drive through the road that takes you across the Big Island to Hilo (the one the rental car agencies don't want you to use). The guide was very knowledgeable and explained things well. He took the group right up to the new laval flows.

Question for nyc: I assume you are referring to Saddle road to get to Hilo, did you see anything notable on this road, e.g. waterfalls etc?

Sorry for the delay in responding, John D. Had some computer problems and then had to re-register.
There were no specific sights like a waterfall, but the benefit of the drive is the elevation. You get some pretty spectacular vistas of the various volcanoes and the coastline.

Mahalo nyc1, if I am so fortunate as to make it to the BI again I may check it out.

Topping for Azirose