Hilo right now (summer 2018)

[flav]

I am probably off topic but cannot find information anywhere else and thought that fellow DISers might be able to help.

We are visiting Big Island at the beginning of August, landing in Hilo and leaving from Kona to go to Oahu.

The Volcano National Park is closed so we are wondering if there is enough to do around Hilo for three days or if we should shorten our stay to be longer in Kona.

Any suggestions? Anyone was/is there in a similar situation?

 

[ShirikiUtundu]

Rainbow Falls, Rainforest Zoo, Ken's House of Pancakes

 

[pjacobi]

Helicopter flight over lava, and boat tour to lava ocean entry.

Tsunami museum, farmers market

Just to name a few...


-Paul

 

[gregf71]

We are doing a week on the Big Island next month after 5 nights at Aulani. We are staying in a timeshare on the Kona side, but plan to drive over to the Hilo side one day of our trip. We plan to drive down the Hamakua Heritage Corridor north to south, down towards Hilo. Lots of great places to see the beauty of the island, including the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens, Akaka Falls, Laupahoehoe Point Beach Park and Waipio Valley Lookout. Not to mention the best malasadas on the Big Island are supposedly found at Tex Drive In near Waipio! Hilo also offers some "sweet" shopping/foodie places, such as Two Ladies Kitchen for mochi, Big Island Candies, and the Mauna Loa Macademia Nut factory. There is also Raindow Falls and Boiling Pots to check out. I am sure that you can fill three days over there! We too planned to hit Volcanoes, but it's not looking good, eh? Instead, we are going to visit the western Kahuku section of the park, which is unaffected by the current eruptions. Admittedly, not as cool, but it's from a 19th century eruption and still offers a glimpse into what Mother Nature can do! Aloha!

 

[flav]

Thank you all, you sure make it sound better and better! We have decided to keep our original hotels’ reservations so three nights in Hilo and three nights in Kona. We will check out some of the great suggestions you provided and report back!

 

[Rera2528]

We were on the Big Island earlier this month and landed in Hilo on a Sunday. Our original plan was to be in the Volcano area for two days, but Mother Nature altered that plan, so we spent our time in Waikoloa. I mentioned that we flew in on a Sunday because we planned to check out a bunch of things in Hilo the day we arrived, but we were surprised at how many places were closed on a Sunday. That included museums, restaurants, and such. So my only caution would be to look at the days you plan to be in Hilo and to cross check with where you want to go to make sure the places are open.

Gregf71 - we did the Kahuku section and really enjoyed it. It's definitely not the main section of the park, but it was cool to see!

 

[flav]

We were on the Big Island earlier this month and landed in Hilo on a Sunday. Our original plan was to be in the Volcano area for two days, but Mother Nature altered that plan, so we spent our time in Waikoloa. I mentioned that we flew in on a Sunday because we planned to check out a bunch of things in Hilo the day we arrived, but we were surprised at how many places were closed on a Sunday. That included museums, restaurants, and such. So my only caution would be to look at the days you plan to be in Hilo and to cross check with where you want to go to make sure the places are open.

Gregf71 - we did the Kahuku section and really enjoyed it. It's definitely not the main section of the park, but it was cool to see!

From your response, I understand that a Kona base would be better since both Waikoloa and Kahuku Unit at VNP are closer to the West. Good point about hours of operation though. We are arriving early Saturday so we will do the Big Farmer Market. Sunday will probably be Hawaii Botanical Garden and Wakaka Falls if opened. Monday will be Hilo and/or Star Gazing at the observatory. And Tuesday we will head to Kona, probably going through Waikolia.

 

[Rera2528]

From your response, I understand that a Kona base would be better since both Waikoloa and Kahuku Unit at VNP are closer to the West. Good point about hours of operation though. We are arriving early Saturday so we will do the Big Farmer Market. Sunday will probably be Hawaii Botanical Garden and Wakaka Falls if opened. Monday will be Hilo and/or Star Gazing at the observatory. And Tuesday we will head to Kona, probably going through Waikolia.

There was quite a bit of vog when we were there, so we were glad to be north of it in Waikoloa. I think you can find a lot of conflicting views on that. We were originally going to be in Kona and changed our reservations, and we were happy with that decision. It was about 2-2.5 hour drive to Kahuku from Waikoloa, and 30-40 minutes to Kona, depending on where we were going. I am so envious, though! We would love to go back ASAP!

 

[owensamo]

We stayed in Waikoloa 4th of July week - the area was beautiful, and we had no problems with vog. However, we did do a stargazing our on Mauna Kea which got rained out - and our guide said he lived in Kona and they've been having lots of vog problems! It's more south and all of the wind/water currents seem to be taking the vog around to that part of the island, while parts farther north/west (Waikoloa is farther from the eruption than Kona) were just fine. We found Hilo to be just fine as well the day we visited. This is the same timeframe we were there 4 years ago, and we found that overall the weather on the island seemed to be worse this year - a lot more rain over drier parts of the island. I don't know if that's normal, or if the volcano is creating its own weather with all the water it's evaporating into the air via the ocean entry.

Also, there's construction on the highway between the airport and Kona so our *worst* traffic in 2 weeks of travel on Oahu, Maui and Hawai'i was the 40 minutes spent going the 2-3 miles from the airport exit to Costco! It was awful, and seemed to be just as bad every time we drove in that area.

We had no problems driving from Waikoloa to Hilo and exploring Rainbow Falls and having lunch at Cafe 100. We did take a lava boat tour and it was probably the highlight of the trip.

 

[jodybird511]

We were in Kona right at the end of May, shortly after Kilauea heated up, so to speak, and I will say that the vog was pretty terrible. We went back and forth in the week or two leading up to our trip about whether we should change our plans, but ended up sticking with them. We were in Kona for 3 nights, and the vog was, I'd say, severe for two of our three days. Like, you could not see the mountains from across the street, could not see the horizon, itchy eyes and cough for one of my kids. From all that I've read, Kona is one of the worst locations on the island for vog, in general, and with the upsurge in volcanic activity since May, it's just that much worse. Just something to be aware of. We enjoyed our time in Kona, but we may have opted to STAY north if we'd known.

 

[Rera2528]

We stayed in Waikoloa 4th of July week - the area was beautiful, and we had no problems with vog. However, we did do a stargazing our on Mauna Kea which got rained out - and our guide said he lived in Kona and they've been having lots of vog problems! It's more south and all of the wind/water currents seem to be taking the vog around to that part of the island, while parts farther north/west (Waikoloa is farther from the eruption than Kona) were just fine. We found Hilo to be just fine as well the day we visited. This is the same timeframe we were there 4 years ago, and we found that overall the weather on the island seemed to be worse this year - a lot more rain over drier parts of the island. I don't know if that's normal, or if the volcano is creating its own weather with all the water it's evaporating into the air via the ocean entry.

Also, there's construction on the highway between the airport and Kona so our *worst* traffic in 2 weeks of travel on Oahu, Maui and Hawai'i was the 40 minutes spent going the 2-3 miles from the airport exit to Costco! It was awful, and seemed to be just as bad every time we drove in that area.

We had no problems driving from Waikoloa to Hilo and exploring Rainbow Falls and having lunch at Cafe 100. We did take a lava boat tour and it was probably the highlight of the trip.

We were there at the same time, and did the same three islands! Too funny! I completely agree about the vog south of Waikoloa, and I was very happy we switched our plans to be further north. And yes, the traffic going south from the airport into Kona was awful!