I returned from a fantastic 5 night BI/4 night Maui trip a few weeks ago. We flew from Seattle to Honolulu on Hawaiian Airlines. The flight was fine. The Service and food were very good (for an airline). The seats were fine for me, but my husband is 6'5" and his legs were a little cramped when the person in front of him reclined. Hawaiian flies a Boeing 767 from Seattle. There are no individual screens on the seats - we had to stare up at large ones hanging from above. There were huge thunderstorms when we arrived in Honolulu and we had to circle for a bit in the turbulent air. Once we finally got on the ground the entire airport was a swimming pool. We ran to catch our interisland flight on Hawaiian to Kona and found out that everything was running about 3 hours behind. Luckily we flew standby on a flight that was running late, putting us in Kona about 30 minutes later than planned. Not bad, considering our original flight (and luggage) arrived 4 hours later!! The Honolulu to Kona flight was extremely bumpy and even the flight attendants remained seated the entire time (about 40 minutes). I met a couple at the Dollar Car Rental counter who flew in on a plane from Portland that was struck by lightning and had to land on the BI instead of Maui. I started to feel better about my bumpy ride to Kona after that.
We got in our standard issue Dodge Stratus and headed north to the Mauna Lani. We absolutely loved the Mauna Lani. The service was wonderful. The staff helped us with every need. The grounds are beautiful. The tropical plants are well manicured and there are orchids everywhere. There are fish ponds, sea turtle ponds, and even a shark pond. There are two white sand beaches. The main beach in front of the hotel is surrounded by black lava rock jutting from the sides. It's fairly well protected and nice for swimming. There are cabanas and hammocks all along the beach. The second beach is a short walk to the south (about 3 min.). There is a good sized sandy beach with excellent snorkeling off to the left. There is a towel and snorkel shack and a small cafe/bar.
Our first night on the BI we ate at the Gallery, which is at the Mauna Lani Golf Club. They have a shuttle that will drive you up there. By the time we had dinner it was dark, so we didn't get to enjoy the view. The restaurant has a wall of windows facing SW, so I assume the sunsets are amazing. We got a dramatic lightning show, which was just as exciting. The food at the Gallery was top notch and definitely my favorite meal of the trip. I had the pepper crusted seared ahi (best I've ever had) and the hubby had pink snapper (Opakapaka) which was excellent as well.

On our second day we decided to head into Kona. It was a very windy day. The waves were splashing up over the sea wall. There was an activities boat washed up on shore and some construction equipment from the pier pinned against the sea wall. While walking through Kona, looking for a place to eat lunch, the power went out and the wind really picked up. So, we called it a day and headed back to the Mauna Lani. That night we ate dinner at the Honu Bar - a sushi restaurant in the hotel. We had several rolls and nigiri, which were very good.

The next day we decided to check out the snorkeling at the southern beach on the Mauna Lani property. The walk was very nice, twisting through the ancient fish ponds along the shore. The water was cloudy due to the weather so we spent most of the time reading and lounging around the beach. We walked north along the beach to the Fairmont Orchid (10 minute walk). It looks like a nice place with a small beach that is well protected. There's construction going on right next to the rooms in the southern wing. New ocean front homes are being built. We ate lunch at Brown's which was good, but not amazing. The atmosphere was very nice - we sat outside overlooking the beach. That night we hopped in the car and drove a couple miles south to the Waikola area to have dinner at Roy's. The food was excellent. I had seared ahi again and my husband had the pork. The ahi with the soy mustard sauce was very very good (not as good as the Gallery, though) and the pork dish was excellent. It was slow cooked in a sweet sauce with sweet potatoes. The meat just fell apart. Very good.

On day 4 we made the drive over to the Volcano. On the way there we stopped at Akkaka falls (worst public bathroom in history, but very scenic waterfalls). At the volcano we drove around the crater rim, down the chain of craters road and hiked Thurston Lava Tube. The main crater was venting lots of steam. Unfortunately there was no surface flow at the time we were there - only sputtering at the cone, which required a 7 mile hike. The Thurston Lava Tube was very cool - a bit damp and dark, but very neat. On the way home we took the scenic route just outside of Hilo. It's an absolutely beautiful drive on a narrow two lane road. I highly recommend it and only adds another 15 minutes onto your trip. It was a beautiful day at the Volcano and Hilo, but as we headed west towards Waimea it started to rain. The rain was pretty steady the rest of the way home and it turned into crazy downpour once we reached the Kohala Coast. Just north of the Mauna Kea we ran into large rain squalls. I live in Seattle and it rains here, but I had never seen rain like this. You could barely see past the hood of your car and had to follow the yellow line on the road. There was flash flooding all along the highway and we had to drive through deep water at a couple points. Apparently they only get 6 inches of rain a year on that side of the island and I think we got 4 of the 6 in one day. Everyone at the Mauna Lani was so surprised and said they never see rain like this. Well it turns out that they closed the highway just north of the Mauna Lani about an hour after we came through there. We made dinner reservations at the Bay Terrace restaurant because I had no desire to go back out on the road after we practically had to swim back to the hotel. Good thing - with the road closed, all of the people with reservations up at the Hapuna and Mauna Kea had no where to go and ended up at the Mauna Lani. It was a mad house and some people had to wait over an hour to be seated for dinner.

On our fifth day we took a snorkel trip to Kealakekua Bay on the Fairwind II. The weather had been unstable the last few days, so I was a bit worried about ocean conditions and visibility for snorkeling. It turned out to be a wonderful trip. The visibility was very good and there were lots of fish and corals right where we anchored. During lunch a pod of spinner dolphins put on quite a show - swimming all across the bay, jumping and spinning out of the water. Lunch was good - hamburgers and veggie burgers with pasta salad, fruit and chips. We had plenty of time to snorkel before and after lunch. On the trip back we saw a couple whales splashing around. Overall it was a great trip, with comfortable amenities and friendly staff. The boat had close to 90 people, but never felt crowded. Being our last night on the Big Island we decided to have dinner at Canoe House (at the Mauna Lani). The food was delicious and the service was excellent. The best part about the dinner is the setting. We had a table on the outdoor terrace which was very pleasant. The restaurant is set right on the beach near the shark and fish ponds. They have the beach and ocean in front of the Canoe House illuminated so that even after sunset you still have a lovely view of the water. The sound of the ocean is soothing and it really was one of our top dinners of the trip.

The next day we departed for Maui. I was really sad to leave the Big Island, but at least we weren't headed home! We took an interisland on Hawaiian Airlines with no incident. It was an extremely short flight (20 min) so the flight attendants never left their seats. It was a little cloudy when we first arrived at the airport in Kahului but still warm. A few days prior some man had driven his flaming SUV into the ticket counters at the airport. So, I expected to see some evidence of that, but it was mostly cleaned up. Lines were a little longer due to some damaged screening equipment, but other than that, no problems. We got our standard Dodge Stratus rental car and headed to the Kaanapali Beach Hotel. When we arrived at our hotel we were surprised to find out that our upgrade promotion would not be honored, so we were stuck in a garden view room in the back of the Molakai Wing. We had also requested one of the new remodeled wings, but with it being high season it wasn't possible. We had booked our trip in August and at the time there was availability of our requested accommodations (including the promotional upgrade). Our travel agent says that was confirmed. We've stayed at the KBH before so we weren't expecting anything fancy, but we were expecting to be in a partial ocean view in the remodeled wing. So, when we ended up in a dark, musty, garden view room, we were disappointed. I only booked at KBH because of the upgrade promotion. At the time of booking the Sheraton next door was only a few dollars more for a garden room. So, we called our travel agent to see what could be done. He said he'd work it out with Happy Vacations and we headed for a yummy lunch down the beach at Hula's. After our late lunch we talked with our travel agent who informed us that we had a room reserved over at the Sheraton, but we might have to pay a cancellation fee to get out of our KBH reservation. The manager on duty at the KBH came by our room to chat about the situation. He was very sympathetic to our situation, but said they were 100% booked, so we couldn't be moved to another room. Although we felt KBH was not honoring our reservation and was possibly in an oversold situation, they did redeem themselves by letting us walk with no cancellation fee. Our travel agent and Happy Vacations busted their butts to get us in over at the Sheraton - it was 4:00 pm on a Friday night - so I think all parties involved did a wonderful job. Our room at the Sheraton was very nice. It was in the back of the building, but had a partial ocean view of northern Kaanapali Beach (towards the El Dorado, etc.) - I think officially it's considered a Mountain View room. The room was very light and bright and extremely clean. The beds were not as soft as I would have liked, but there was a letter in our room stating that over the next year they're upgrading the beds in most of their rooms. The service was very friendly - from the valet, bellhop, and front desk to housekeeping, restaurant and pool staff. The Sheraton grounds were well manicured and made for a relaxing setting. We ended up having dinner at the Tekka'a Terrace in the Sheraton. They serve large portions and the mean comes with a trip to the salad bar and dessert bar. I had the Opakapaka, which was nice and the hubby had the mahi mahi which was tasty.

The next day we took the $1 shuttle into Lahaina. We walked around a bit and ate lunch at Kimo's. I had a burger and hubby had a delicious fresh ohno taco. It had pineapple salsa and was wrapped in a tomato tortilla. It was delicious and I was a bit jealous. That night we had dinner at Leilani's which is in Whaler's Village on Kaanapali Beach. We really hadn't had a good sunset yet due to the weather, but things were looking promising, so we made reservations for a table with a view. We were seated right at the edge of the railing in the upstairs dining room and witnessed the most beautiful sunset of the trip. The sky turned ruby red - it was amazing. The food was great. I had Monchong and hubby had the red snapper (Onaga). Both were delicious.

The last two full days we spent in true vacation mode. We Snorkeled Black Rock and lounged by the pool. I was a bit worried about visibility out at Black Rock due to the storms earlier in the week, but it turned out to be the best I had seen it in a long time. There was a fairly good variety of corals (for Hawaii), but the main attraction was the number of fish, especially out at the point. We saw eels, triggers, tangs, wrasses, hawk fish, and blow fish. We didn't see sea turtles this time, but when we put our heads underwater we could actually hear whales singing. We enjoyed another delightful lunch at Hulas where we watched an excellent show put on by whales in the distance. We also went to Sansei for dinner one night. The sashimi was so fresh and delicious. I had the maguro, opakapaka, and yellow fin. We also tried some special rolls that were quite creative and good. I highly recommend reservations - there was a line waiting for the place to open.

It was a fabulous trip and I'm already counting the days until our trip next year...

Thanks! Any other restaurants suggestions for the BI?

To me, these trip reports are the best part of this website. Thanks so much for sharing the details of your wonderful vacation!

I was just there a few days before you. I flew Kona --> Maui the day the storms rolled in. I got to spend many many windy hours in the Kona airport while our flight was delayed. The rain was INSANE in Maui also. Just unreal. I'd never seen anything like it either.
When we drove around Maui the water right at the coast looked like chocolate milk from Kaanapali on down south (Kihei and Wailea looked fine). I guess it cleared up pretty quickly, I can't imagine snorkeling in that!

Steph-Sea

We will be staying at the Sheraton on the black rock in Sept. Tell me more about the Hula and Leilani's. Which did you enjoy the most? Thanks for all the the great details of your trip. They are very helpful to us planning trips.

Thank you soooo much for the great details. we are heading to the BI in 7 weeks (and one day, not that I'm counting). We're going to stay at the Mauna Lani Villages which are brand-new townhomes right at the entrance to Mauna Lani (don't know if you happened to notice them, but if you did, I'd love any feed-back).

I really appreciate the information on the restaurant reviews (we're planning our 10th anniversary dinner at Canoe) and the volcano trip. This is our 5th trip back to the BI and it is our absolute favorite island.

We just returned as well from a week on the Big Island. The dinner highlight of our trip was the Saturday night buffet at the Four Season's Beach Tree Bar& Grill. There was family style seating at large tables on the beach, where the buffet was set up. We chose a table for two on the deck area. The selection was outstanding with the prime rib, grilled lobster, and chocolate souffles being our favorites. At 8:00 they bring out a telescope for star gazing. Not inexpensive ($59pp) but a truly memorable way to watch the sunset.

I'm glad you all enjoyed the trip report...

jacketwatch - with the stormy weather, we ended up spending a lot of time at the Mauna Lani and ate many meals at the hotel restaurants (which were great, so I can't complain). I can't remember any other restaurants, other than what I put in my report.

Nancy03 - Hula's has a beach front bar/grill right in the sand and then a nicer restaurant behind the bar/grill. We only ate lunch at the bar/grill area, so I can't speak to the restaurant, but I think it has a different menu (at least at dinner, I believe). Leilani's has a nicer dining room upstairs with beautiful views of the ocean. There is also a more casual outdoor patio on the lower level. We had dinner at the upstairs dining area and lunch down on the patio. Both were great, but the dinner is nicer with lots of seafood entrees, whereas the patio area had sandwhiches, fish tacos, etc. for lunch.

SoCalGal - I did see the turn off for the Mauna Lani Villages on our way to the hotel, but I didn't get a chance to check them out. I assure you, it's probably impossible to go wrong at any of the Mauna Lani properties. It's a beautiful resort with plenty to do. Enjoy!

Aloha Steph, thanks for the wonderful TR! Reading about your watching the whale show and hearing them singing gave me goosebumps.

We just flew home yesterday from O'ahu... just Friday was enjoying a mezmerizing show from our lanai on the north shore... an adult was slapping his, or her , tail back forth... I swear 2/3 of it's body was out of the water just making a ruckus... we were able to watch a pod of them gather & move and then a baby (or kid, or whatever you call them) started breaching... 3 or 4 times, and off they went...

It seriously took my breath away... what a treasure the HI waters have!

Very much enjoyed your lovely report.
Mahalo!