1 day on Big Island

[robinb]

how does one go about looking at smaller flights? Do you have a specific site you used?

Sorry, I don’t remember!

 

[Old Man Goofy Runner]

Mokulele is a smaller airline.
https://www.mokuleleairlines.com/our-fleet/

Unfortunately they do not go directly from Oahu to the big island.

 

[ngl]

Hi there,

We will be staying at Aulani for 7 nights. We own DVC, but this is our first Aulani trip (and I don't think we will get back often or maybe ever).

So we want to do a day trip to the big island. We will fly there and fly back all in one day (sleep at Aulani every night). Does anyone have a tour that they recommend to do this? It would be even better if the tour meets us at the airport on big island and takes us around to the big island sites (Volcanoes National Park is a must), because we have a ton of southwest points, so we would rather if the flight is not included in the tour price, since we can book the island hopper flight for free on points. But if it is really only possible with the flight booked as part of the tour, we can always save our SW points for another time.

Checking in to see if you did you trip yet? We are looking to do the same (1 day trip to Hawaii Volcanoes) so if you can recommend a tour company, I would appreciate it! Thanks in advance.

 

[pjacobi]

Since volcanic ash is very hazardous to airline engines, the Big Island airports can shut down and all flight are usually cancelled during an eruption. There's a very slight, but possible chance that your 1-day trip could be longer than one day!


-Paul

 

[crisi]

It would be a long day due to logistics. Depart 3 hours before flight time for traffic, check-in and security, time to collect car rental or find transportation, meals, and refueling the car. I would recommend doing it another trip so your not so anxious and feel rushed to see what you want to see in the limited amount of time.

Yeah, I'd do an overnight in Hilo if you are going to do it. Island hopping is NOT quick.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

We did the 1 day and honestly it was great. The Hilo airport is tiny and super easy to navigate. Like check in to gate was all of 10 minutes. Pick up and drop off of the rental car took no time at all either.

I'm very glad we did our 1 day in Hilo!

 

[starry_solo]

We were there last year (or was it the year before?) but stayed on the Big Island for a few days.
We did the tour here:
https://www.hawaiitours.com/big-island/#mostpopular

We did not have a car. There were 3 of us, so yes, it was a bit pricey. But we enjoyed both tours we did, although we did like the stargazing one better. We did the Twilight Volcano and Stargazing tour and one other, which is like the Grand Circle tour but it included lunch. I'll see if I can find my receipts...

 

[Ariel620]

OP here! I finally have my report of how this all went.

We stayed at Aulani for 7 days last week, one day we did a day trip to the big island. Thanks to the tips here, it was amazing. We didn't book any tours and the rental car was very cheap (Avis < $50) and it was the very easiest rental pickup drop-off ever, it took almost no time.

Here was our day:

6am flight from HNL (4 of us travelling, no bags)
7am land Hilo (landed a little early, so maybe 6:50)
7:11 already had rental car, this was so fast.

8am-11:30 am Volcano National Park, we first parked at Kilauea Iki Overlook, got some nice sights from above as we walked towards Thurston Lava tube, after walking through the tube, we hiked down to the center of the bottom (I think it said about a 1 mile hike), it was worth the hike! When we got back to the top, we visited Volcano House and the visitor center (in the future I would skip those two), but our final stop at the steam vents was very worth it, there are even steam vents in the parking lot if you don't want to walk, but we walked around for some better views.

11:30am Auntie Pon's Thai Food truck was supposed to open, but it didn't, people love this place, but we were quite annoyed that they weren't open by 11:50, so we left, skip this truck.

1-2 played at Punalu'u Black Sand beach, this was a beautiful stop and very worth it!

2-3 ate at the Southernmost restaurant in the US (Hana Hou). By now we were starving so would have settled for any food we found. Food is very hard to come by, and this place hit the spot. Don't go out of your way for it, but it was good, and we couldn't find food anywhere, try to make a plan for food, so much was closed on Mondays.

3-4 drove back to Hilo

4-5 since we had some time, we visited Rainbow Falls, you can see it from the parking lot, so it can be a quick stop. We spent some extra time since my son climbed the big banyan trees there, and they were impressive to look at.

5:30 arrived back at Hilo airport, for our 7pm flight

I wouldn't change anything, it was a great day. However, next time I might pack a lunch since it is really hard to find any food places open on a monday.

Hope this helps if anyone else tries it! I'm very glad we didn't book a tour, it gave us time to explore the way we wanted, especially the volcano hikes, and the specific black sand beach we wanted to go to (Punalu'u was very beautiful).