2 Best Sights in Kailua-Kona, Big Island

Site of the first Christian church in the Hawaiian Islands, this solid lava-rock structure, completed in 1837, is mortared with burned lime, coral, and kukui (candlenut) oil and topped by an impressive 112-foot steeple. The ceiling and interior were crafted of timbers harvested from a forest on Hualalai and are held together with wooden pegs, not nails. Inside, behind a panel of gleaming koa wood, rests a model of the brig Thaddeus as well as a koa-wood table crafted by Henry Boshard, pastor for 43 years. The sanctuary is still undergoing renovations, but if you attend Sunday services, they are glad to give you a tour.

This tiny oceanfront Roman Catholic chapel by Kahaluu Beach Park, with its crisp white-and-blue trim and old-fashioned steeple, sits next to the site of an ancient heiau (temple), now marked by a dry-stack rock wall. This is not the church's original location, however. In 1912, it was dismantled and carried here piece by piece from a site across from Magic Sands Beach. Masses are not currently being held here, and the chapel is not open to the public, although you may certainly take photographs of the exterior.