We had already eaten breakfast on the morning we went, so we weren’t looking for food, although there are numerous places to eat at the market. We were there to shop, although not for anything in particular—just to look around and see what they might have to offer. We do try and pick up at least one souvenir from each new place we visit, and this was our first trip to Kona. So we walked around, checking out the various vendor stalls and wandering through the indoor warehouse-like buildings full of everything from typical Hawaiian kitsch to quality crafts to an indoor farmer’s market. If you’re looking to buy seriously large (and expensive) koa wood sculptures of sea turtles, manta rays, or marlins, for example, this is the place to come. My wife and I bought a ceramic tile with a humu humu (trigger fish) on it.

There are also some specialty items, such as musical instruments including ukuleles, guitars and Hawaiian style drums. I bought an unusual instrument called a “thumb piano,” which is a gourd with metal keys that you pluck like striking the keys of a piano. Pretty cool, and perfect for passing the time on those shuttle and plane rides. My wife checked out a lot of clothes, including some silk sarongs, but ended up not buying any.

We were probably at the market for about an hour and a half, and then we waited a few minutes for a free shuttle to take us back to Ali’i Drive in Kona, from which we could walk back to our hotel. All in all, it was a relaxing little trip which satisfied our quest for Kona-specific shopping.

The Kona International Market is open every day except for Mondays, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

We went snorkeling here. One of the interesting features of this beach is the small peninsula (looks like a tiny island from the beach) which features what looks like an ancient Hawaiian temple—it has a palm thatched roof with tiki statues in front of it. My curiosity was much too much for me and so I snorkeled over to it. I walked out of the water onto the peninsula (it’s a peninsula and not an island since it does connect to land via a narrow strip). There’s a sign posted there which explains that this was “[king] Kamehameha’s retreat, where he might meditate out of sight of others, yet have a commanding view of the approaches from the sea and his plantations on the slopes of Mt. Hualalai.” Of course! It all became clear to me then.

We took some pictures out here and then got back into the water to snorkel our way back into the beach. Along the way we saw some tropical fish—yellow tangs, unicorn fish, puffer fish, and some pencil slate sea urchins. The water here is not that clear, but is clear enough to do a short snorkel. For serious snorkeling, you should check out Kahalu’u Bay or the Captain Cook Monument. But for being a few minute’s walk from our hotel, this was pretty cool. There are many different rental operations here, so it’s a good place to find something for everyone.

After the beach, we walked right across the street to a restaurant on the second floor of a row of shops for some lunch. To sum up, this beach is fantastic if you’re staying in Kona and don’t have that much time (i.e., you have to leave for the airport in a couple hours, but want to do something fun in town, as was the case for us).

A couple of hours later, after driving some scenic roads that went up, up, up—including some impressive ocean views—we parked the car for the first time and stepped out into a primeval rain forest. The first thing we noticed was the temperature—brrrr, it’s cold up here! We could see our breath in the air through the rain that periodically fell. The second thing is the explosion of plant life—a thick canopy of trees covered a dense understory of ferns. Signs informed us that we had entered the Volcanoes National Park, and from there we stopped at the only lodge in the park for lunch before getting back in the car and taking the road into the park proper.

Our first stop after that was to see the lava tube. To get to it, we had to trek down the trail, which was overgrown with foliage. Birds twittered unseen around us. By the time we reached the lava tube, we were enveloped in a light mist. The entrance to the tube was like the opening to a large cavern, complete with hanging ferns and vines. The inside of the lava tube, however, was artificially lit. Once inside, we had to jump over many large puddles as we made our way through the natural lava formation. It was about a five-minute walk through the tube, and then we emerged out the other side, back into the rain forest.

Next it was time to drive through the park to the next major attraction—Kilauea Iki—an active volcano. (Note: there are two main volcanoes in the park: Kilauea, and Kilauea Iki, the latter of which arose from the main Kilauea). At Kilauea Iki, we parked along the side of the road, and experienced our first smell of sulfur and steam issuing from vents in the ground. The sheer size of this volcanic crater was amazing.

After viewing Kilauea Iki, which was impressive enough, we made the short drive over to the main Kilauea volcano. Kilauea is many times larger than Kilauea Iki! While we were there, we marveled at the amount of gases wafting from the ground. There was no actual lava flowing while we were there, but so much gas! As it turns out, only a couple of weeks after we visited, we saw on the news that Kilauea experienced a major lava eruption.

After viewing Kilauea, we made the drive back into Kona town. On our way back, we even found time to stop at the black sand beach before returning to our hotel.

Tips & Info:

-Caution to scuba divers: due to the sudden increase in elevation required to visit the park, it is not recommended to visit Volcanoes within 24 hours after diving (just like flying)
-Bring a camera/camcorder for spectacular moonscapes and scenery!
-Dress warm, in layers with good walking/hiking shoes (it’s tropical and warm at the start of this trip, and cold, wet, and windy at the volcanoes, then warm again at the return, plus while you’re in the car or bus)
-Official link: http://www.nps.gov/havo/

The main attraction here is snorkeling. It reminded me a little of Hanauma Bay on Oahu, except without the big hike down the cliff. We arrived at around 11:00 A.M., and the place was already packed with snorkelers—mostly families with kids staying in nearby hotels. We found an empty patch of sand on the beach, put on our snorkeling gear, and entered the water.

It’s a very easy entrance into the ocean at Kahalu’u Bay, making this a great spot for beginners. We simply walked into the shallow water, with a firm, hard basalt bottom which is easy to walk on, which gradually became waist deep. Then we started swimming out into the bay. As soon as we stuck our heads underwater, bright splashes of yellow caught our attention: butterflyfish! We continued out into deeper water, seeing many types of tropical reef fish along the way: surgeonfish, unicorn fish, tangs, raccoon butterflys, and puffer fish! It was like swimming through an aquarium.

The bottom was covered with corals—yellow lobe corals, pinkish cauliflower corals, and a few other types I don’t know the names of. Other bottom-dwelling creatures include two or three varieties of sea-urchins, sponges, crabs and shrimp. We even saw a moray eel with an attendant cleaner shrimp!

There were many interesting things to see, and the water was clear and warm. One of the coolest things we saw had to be the green sea turtle. We were swimming along when all of a sudden my wife says, “Look over here!” We look, and a gigantic turtle is lazily grazing seaweed from the ocean floor, in only about four feet of water. We took some pictures and video of the turtle, and let him (or her?) go on his way.

There is a line of rocks at the outer edge of the bay that forms kind of a breakwall, protecting the bay’s calm waters from the waves and currents of the open ocean. Just before these rocks is the deepest part of the bay. It is highly recommended not to venture beyond the rocks.
After checking out the bay for close to an hour and a half, we made our way back to the beach and dried off up on the picnic tables. Then we enjoyed a simple lunch of cheeseburgers and fish and chips at the restaurant. We all had a great time at Kahalu’u Bay.

Tips & info:

-Parking is limited—if you’re staying at a nearby hotel, a cab or walking is recommended
-There are lockers available for a small fee to keep your valuables in when you are in the water—highly recommended!
-Apply sunscreen 15 minutes before entering water so that it absorbs into your skin and doesn’t cover the reef
-Bring an underwater camera!
-Do not touch or chase the turtles or any other sea life!
-No standing on the corals! Watch your fin kicks.

We swam out through the shallows and then descended. We cruised through some coral formations which soon leveled out at the 35-foot level. Our maximum depth was about forty-five feet. The dive was great! The water was clear and warm, and we saw much sea life: tropical reef fishes such as humu humu’s, tangs, wrasses and butterflyfish, invertebrates like sea cucumbers, crabs and sponges, and a whole gang of sea turtles (we stopped counting after we saw a dozen). Both my wife and I took some cool pictures and video on this dive.

After about an hour we followed our guide back to shore, seeing more interesting things along the way, such as massive formations of lobe corals surrounded by schools of damselfish. We also saw a few giant pufferfish!

We swam underwater toward shore until we reached the wave swept tidepools, and, in about five feet of water, we surfaced. Then we climbed carefully back up onto the rocks and helped one another out of the water.

Another exciting dive! Overall, we couldn’t believe how much more life there was just off the beach when compared to our home base in Waikiki. Back in our hotel room in Hilo, we set our dive gear out on the lanai to dry and went down to the hotel bar to have some drinks and log our dives.

Tips & info:

-My wife wore a short wetsuit and I just wore board shorts and a lycra top—some might prefer full wetsuits for abrasion protection
-Caution for Big Island divers: do not plan to visit the volcanoes within 24 hours of diving—they are high altitude, so you should treat it just as if flying after diving
-This shore dive requires a little more work than jumping off a boat—you should be in reasonably good physical condition
-If you dive from your own private vehicle or rental car: do not leave any valuables in the car

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

Volcano Village is just a stone’s throw away from Volcanoes National Park, which showcases the magnificent volcanoes of Mauna Loa and Kilauea. That’s a whole experience in itself and I’d recommend a couple of days to tour the park. It’s perfect, therefore, to stay somewhere nearby, and that’s where Volcano Village comes into the picture! There are several bed and breakfast facilities to choose from as well as a few hotels. We picked a nice B&B called Volcano Hale and were totally pleased with the charming accommodations in the middle of the rain forest, yet at an elevation of more than 3000 feet on the rim of Kilauea’s caldera. It was absolutely unbelievable! Just to THINK that we were going to spend the night sleeping on a volcano was mind-blowing!

The temperature change was a bit of a shock up there. The further up we climbed (and it’s a gradual climb, you don’t even realize you’re on the side of Mauna Loa) the colder it got. By the time we’d reached Volcano Village, the temp was in the low 50’s, a startling change from the 80’s we’d had in Hilo! We also were stunned to see how much it rained up there. I’m not sure if it was just our bad luck, but the two days we were there, it always rained or drizzled in Volcano. But the rain is what keeps all the vegetation looking so glorious, so we had to just accept and appreciate that! I also think the rain helps keep the smell of sulfur at bay. But we learned for the next time – be prepared in the warm clothing department, or…suffer! Dress in layers because I suspect you never know what the weather in Volcano is going to be like. I’d recommend long pants, warm socks, sneakers or other closed shoes, and sweatshirts over short-sleeved shirts. A rain jacket of some sort is a good idea, too. We showed up in sundresses (for cute photo ops, of course!) and no long-sleeved sweatshirts. The only thing we did right was to bring sneakers, so at least our feet didn’t get soaked! Luckily, the B&B had warm beds and we snuggled in them that night.

It was very exciting to sleep there, knowing we were on a volcano! Warm and cozy in our beds, with the pitter-patter of rain on the roof, we were thrilled, knowing that we were doing something that not everyone gets to do in life.

You can get to Volcano easily from either Kona in the west or Hilo in the east by taking Highway 11. There are signs everywhere along the way – you can’t miss it! But most importantly, you don’t WANT to miss this if you’re on the Big Island!

It turns out it was worth the wait. We did our dive with Kona Honu Divers, although there are plenty of other shops to choose from, and, if you’re lucky enough to know someone on the big island with their own boat, or you wanted to rent a boat, you could go to the manta dive site on your own.

We arrived on the dive site—off a deserted lava rock coast—about an hour before dusk. First we did a dive while it was still light out to familiarize ourselves with the dive site. The boat was anchored in about thirty feet of water. We dropped down to the rocky bottom, marveling at the crystal clear water. Then we swam out toward the open sea, where the coral-covered bottom sloped down to a deep, sandy seafloor that is home to a community of garden eels. We didn’t see any mantas on this first dive. Then it was back topside to prepare for the night dive.

After a pre-dive safety briefing and some words about what to expect, the darkness had settled over the cove. We entered the water. Down below had been placed some dive lights to attract the manta rays. As soon as we splashed in, we saw what we had come for-a huge manta ray was already in the area, swimming figure eight loops over the lights on the bottom. Then we descended, and all the divers from our boat arranged themselves in a circle, kneeling on the bottom around the lights.

We settled in for a fantastic spectacle. For the next forty minutes, three different mantas swam around our group and through the light beam shining up from the bottom. The lights had attracted a school of small baitfish which congregated in midwater, and the mantas were feasting. These majestic animals were a sight to behold. They are magnificently large—about twelve feet across from wingtip to wingtip– but they move with a fluid grace that is difficult to describe.

Besides the mantas themselves, there were other creatures of the night to see. One was a green moral eel, named Frank by the dive crew, because he is known to make regular appearances during manta ray dives. Frank was active but friendly, swimming around the perimeter of the group, darting in and out of rock and coral formations. We also saw a few squirrel fish.

Then it was time to return to the world above. Our group ascended, the divers’ green glow sticks marking their presence in the water. Back on the boat, everyone shared stories of how close the mantas had gotten, and how they hope their video and pictures came out!

It was truly an experience of a lifetime, and if you’re ever in Kona, this is an adventure not to be missed. If you are not a certified diver, you can snorkel the manta site, too, though this is not as fun as the scuba dive.

What I’m talking about is going out to a spot after sunset where you can watch the lava from Kilauea flow into the ocean. I did this in early May with my friend Dee, although the entire time I’d been wishing my husband had been with me instead! If you’re fortunate enough to have someone special to take along, this is a night that will remain in your memory forever!

We were staying in the town of Volcano for a couple of days and we’d heard that seeing the lava run into the ocean was supposed to be an amazing sight. We were very curious to see it and we love a good adventure! We were also suffering a bit from the chilly air and the rain up there on the volcano; we hadn’t dressed appropriately! It took us almost an hour to drive back down off the volcano and get onto the road going toward Pahoa. We didn’t have clear directions but we knew we needed to drive down toward the water! We followed all the cars on the road, in the hope that they would lead us to the right place. We weren’t quite sure what to expect once we got there. Luckily, getting away from the actual volcano, the temp was back in the 70’s so we weren’t so cold anymore. We finally reached the end of the road and got to a point where we started hitting all this lava rock. The road was treacherous! We parked with all the other tourists who were there for the same reason and walked the path as it started to get dark. It was so exciting and even a bit scary! We were literally walking on LAVA ROCK! Again, we were not so prepared. We had water to drink but no flashlights. Luckily, this guy at a roadside drink stand loaned us his lantern. The walk to the actual spot where you see the volcano exploding in the distance was about 1/4 of a mile, maybe a little more. Those flashlights were totally necessary! We walked along carefully and it was just crazy, trying not to twist our ankles! It was a total accident waiting to happen! What was funny is that the lantern I was carrying on loan was brighter than anyone’s flashlights. When we reached the spot and stood there to watch the “show” this guy came over and said, “If you’re not going to keep moving, can you please shut your light?” Ooops! I didn’t realize that I was the only one with a light still on!

The volcano was “spitting up” and we saw that but because of the rain all day, there wasn’t the usual flow of lava into the ocean. We were very bummed about that, but I guess you can’t control Nature! It was still an awesome experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat, preferably with my hubby! Dee and I were also bummed about the quality of photos that our camera took in the dark. So if nighttime photography is important to you, make sure your camera takes good photos in the dark! Still, it was super cool to be out there walking on the lava rocks and watching Kilauea “perform” for us.

If you’re going to take the love of your life out to see this phenomenon, prepare for it! Wear good walking shoes, bring along a lightweight jacket in case the temperature drops, and don’t forget the water and flashlights! If you want to be romantic, you could bring some candles, a bottle of wine, and a blanket to sit on with your loved one. There will surely be others around watching the show (the lava flowing, not you guys!) but everyone will be pretty quiet as they stand around under the pitch black sky, gazing at the powerful lava making its journey into the water…

Earlier this month, during a wonderful road trip on the Big Island, my friend Dee and I decided that we would NOT rest until we’d discovered this magic beach with the green sand! Armed with our trusty guidebook, we set out. We reached our next destination, South Point, but we were far from there! South Point is supposed to be the southernmost point of the Hawaiian islands, as well as of the United States (interesting little bit of trivia!). From the main road, Highway 11 (you can take it from either east or west), we took a turn onto a treacherous road that would lead us all the way down to South Point.
The road was unpaved and rocky and we drove as far as we could before reaching a makeshift parking lot and thanking the heavens that the car tires had made it! But now the REAL work was about to begin; if we really wanted to see the special beach, we had to hike to find it.

According to our guidebook, we’d have to walk 2.5 miles each way to reach it. At this point, we put on our sneakers, took a deep breath, and went for it! The walk was even more treacherous than our drive; we had to constantly look down to make sure we didn’t trip or stumble. There were hills, crevices, rocks, sandy spots, grassy spots, holes…you name it! It was a twisted ankle incident waiting to happen! But we felt ALIVE as we pressed on, determined: the wind was blowing, we were sweating, and there were amazing views all the way.

We FINALLY reached the end and after one final little hill, we spotted the beach below!!! It really existed! We made it! But then, we had to figure out how to get down to it…The climb down was insane, but we did it and were rewarded with an amazing beach and awesome water. We hung out and enjoyed it and dreaded the hike back — 2.5 miles back to the parking lot! We actually jogged a bit of it, so that made the time go faster! We were very tired when we got to the car, and our sneakers were covered in dust. My ankles were killing me, and they ached for days! But I was really proud that I’d done the 5 miles!! And that beach was SO worth it — how often do you see green sand?