Big Island, HI

My wife and I made a visit to the Big Island and stayed overnight in the town of Hilo, on the island’s east coast. Hilo has the distinction of being the town with the most rainfall in the United States, so be sure to bring an umbrella if you visit. It did rain while we were there, but never for more than five or ten minutes at a time. We stayed at the simple but inexpensive Hilo Seaside Hotel, which is only about a five minute drive from historic downtown Hilo.

This is a sleepy little town (“Europeanesque,” to quote my wife) where a lot of shops and businesses close early. On Sundays there is a farmer’s market, but it was starting to shut down around 1:00 PM. The main drag is called Keawe Street, and there are a number of restaurants here. There are also several small boutiques and artist shops selling local crafts and artwork. A large beach park fronts the center of town, and while we were there a rock band was performing on a stage there, next to a huge banyan tree. In the way of historic landmarks is a clock that is still set at 1:05, the exact time of the tidal wave of 1946, which occurred on April Fool’s Day.

The weather here is warm and humid. Occasionally there is “vog” from the volcanoes, which is a sort of geothermally produced smog/fog that can hang over the island and bother people who have asthma. When the air is clear, there is an impressive view of massive Mauna Kea in the distance, and in the winter months it will be snow-capped.

In short, this is not a town if you are looking for a partying, night club atmosphere (Kona, on the island’s sunny, drier west coast, is better suited for that), but there are some restaurant/bars that stay open fairly late, and taxi service is available from nearby hotels. The port of Hilo is a cruise ship stop, and on days when the cruise ships call there will be larger crowds, but there was a cruise ship in while we were there, and Hilo still was nowhere near crowded. This is probably because many of the cruise ship passengers head immediately for the volcano tours and even to Kona, instead of going to Hilo.

We were looking for a smaller town with a slower pace from which to see the east side of the big island, where we could sleep early and get up early without hearing a lot of noise, and Hilo certainly delivered. This is a very “local” Hawaiian town. In fact, the only noise we heard at night was from the coqui frogs, which are somewhat of a pest around Hilo because there are thousands of them and together their croaking makes quite a racket. But for the short time we were there, we found them to be pleasant enough.

When we were ready to return to our home base in Honolulu, we took a cab to the Hilo Airport, which is not far away from downtown.

Tips & info:
-Major activities from Hilo: Volcano tours, helicopter tours
-beach, harbor and water sports
-shopping
-drive time to Kona (other side of the island): about 3 hours
-From Honolulu can fly direct to Hilo Airport
-Hilo is a cruise ship port of call
-An odd combination, but bring an umbrella AND sunscreen