Kona Info
January 15, 2011 1:25 PM Subscribe
Please give me some Kona/Hawaii tips.
We are travelling to the big island for a week. Have a hotel in the Hapuna Beach area, but would love some tips on restaurants, sights and activities, snorkeling, car rentals, etc. Thanks.
We are travelling to the big island for a week. Have a hotel in the Hapuna Beach area, but would love some tips on restaurants, sights and activities, snorkeling, car rentals, etc. Thanks.
We've been a few times and really liked using this book as a guide.
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:22 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:22 PM on January 15, 2011
Yes on Hawaii The Big Island Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook.
Also. Do not leave the island before snorkeling in the Kapoho tide pools. See above book.
posted by space_cookie at 3:52 PM on January 15, 2011
Also. Do not leave the island before snorkeling in the Kapoho tide pools. See above book.
posted by space_cookie at 3:52 PM on January 15, 2011
Be very careful with that book - use it as a guide to locations, not to behavior. It has singlehandedly done a great deal of damage in relations between tourists and local people. Do not smirk smugly at people as you drive a truck through sensitive lands, or any of that stuff. No one likes a tourist who makes an ass of himself. You're a guest, after all.
I suggest Instant Hawaii for ideas on hikes, beaches, and scenic drives. Go visit Kamuela/Waimea and get a tour of Parker Ranch. Tour a coffee plantation. Ka'u (southern part of the island) is the next big thing in coffee. It snowed on Mauna Kea this week - either rent a 4x4 from Harper's or take a tour to visit the summit. Or hike it if you can handle altitude. Of course, you must go see Kilauea at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
posted by pandanom at 5:03 PM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
I suggest Instant Hawaii for ideas on hikes, beaches, and scenic drives. Go visit Kamuela/Waimea and get a tour of Parker Ranch. Tour a coffee plantation. Ka'u (southern part of the island) is the next big thing in coffee. It snowed on Mauna Kea this week - either rent a 4x4 from Harper's or take a tour to visit the summit. Or hike it if you can handle altitude. Of course, you must go see Kilauea at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
posted by pandanom at 5:03 PM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
I'd be careful with 'The Big Island Revealed', for different reasons. Its pretty useful as a way of finding out about various places and activities, but I found it worse than useless in terms of learning how to actually get to places. The directions they give for places are generally written assuming you're driving from the previous one listed. So if you're just interested in a particular location midway through a section, you have to read all the previous pages in order to piece together how to get there.
BTW, 4x4s from Harper's are really expensive. For the price of a day's rental from them, I could rent a Jeep Wrangler for over a week via the Discount Hawaii Car Rental. (Their website does look kind of skeevy, but my experience was positive, they are agents for Alamo and some other companies.) At least as of September 2010, Saddle Road was pretty drivable, though still under some construction, you don't need a 4x4 there, just a full tank since there aren't any gas stations. Going up from Saddle Road to the Mauna Kea visitors center is very steep and twisty, but its well paved, and I don't see why you'd need a 4x4 there. I didn't go up to the summit though. The stargazing at the visitors center was pretty spectacular enough.
As far as snorkeling goes, I rented gear from Jack's Dive locker and found them to be very helpful and friendly.
posted by Hither at 10:32 PM on January 15, 2011
BTW, 4x4s from Harper's are really expensive. For the price of a day's rental from them, I could rent a Jeep Wrangler for over a week via the Discount Hawaii Car Rental. (Their website does look kind of skeevy, but my experience was positive, they are agents for Alamo and some other companies.) At least as of September 2010, Saddle Road was pretty drivable, though still under some construction, you don't need a 4x4 there, just a full tank since there aren't any gas stations. Going up from Saddle Road to the Mauna Kea visitors center is very steep and twisty, but its well paved, and I don't see why you'd need a 4x4 there. I didn't go up to the summit though. The stargazing at the visitors center was pretty spectacular enough.
As far as snorkeling goes, I rented gear from Jack's Dive locker and found them to be very helpful and friendly.
posted by Hither at 10:32 PM on January 15, 2011
If you go to Volcanos National Park, which I think is a must, I strongly recommend Kilauea Lodge, a great place for a meal in the town of Volcano, right outside of the Park.
You can't really get up to the summit of Mauna Kea now as it's winter and I'll bet that the summit is snowed in and only reachable via 4x4 and with chains. I do strongly recommend stargazing at the Onizuka Center, but make sure you go when there's no moon or only a sliver of one. A full moon ruins stargazing.
If you go to the beaches listed in the guidebooks, make sure to leave nothing valuable in the rental car- in fact leave it unlocked. It's very common to have rental cars ransacked if they're in a hidden place invisible to passersby.
posted by gen at 1:37 AM on January 16, 2011
You can't really get up to the summit of Mauna Kea now as it's winter and I'll bet that the summit is snowed in and only reachable via 4x4 and with chains. I do strongly recommend stargazing at the Onizuka Center, but make sure you go when there's no moon or only a sliver of one. A full moon ruins stargazing.
If you go to the beaches listed in the guidebooks, make sure to leave nothing valuable in the rental car- in fact leave it unlocked. It's very common to have rental cars ransacked if they're in a hidden place invisible to passersby.
posted by gen at 1:37 AM on January 16, 2011
I love Volcanos NP and think it is great but it is a long drive from where you are staying. I'd definitely recommend staying overnight at or near the park to make your trip more pleasant. Perhaps drive to the park along the western edge of the island and return via the eastern edge. The geography of the different sides of the island provide variety and you'll find the eastern side to be less overtly touristy plus there are waterfalls. Who doesn't love waterfalls? My other advice for driving is to have CDs or an iPod with you as radio reception is sketchy of the southern part of the island and your radio choices will be pretty limited.
If you want a cool and dramatic hike in the NP, check out the Kilauea Iki trail. It has lush rain forest and a moonscape-esque traverse of a harden lava floor of a crater. It is absolutely stunning and amazing to see the results of the destructive power of the earth.
Another suggestion for a day trip is up the mountain from your resort in Waimea. There are some nicer restaurants and it has a whole different feel than a beach/resort town that you are staying in. Waimea feels like some hybrid between Hawaii and Texas.
posted by mmascolino at 10:13 AM on January 16, 2011
If you want a cool and dramatic hike in the NP, check out the Kilauea Iki trail. It has lush rain forest and a moonscape-esque traverse of a harden lava floor of a crater. It is absolutely stunning and amazing to see the results of the destructive power of the earth.
Another suggestion for a day trip is up the mountain from your resort in Waimea. There are some nicer restaurants and it has a whole different feel than a beach/resort town that you are staying in. Waimea feels like some hybrid between Hawaii and Texas.
posted by mmascolino at 10:13 AM on January 16, 2011
There are a lot of nice local art galleries in Hawi, which is about 30 minutes north from the Hapuna Beach hotels. If you keep driving past Hawi, around the northernmost point of the island, you'll come to a great lookout point. (Ask the locals, they can point you in the right direction.) If you're adventurous, hike down the trail to Pololu Valley and the black sand beach at the bottom of the cliffs. (Careful, this is not for amateurs. The trail is quite steep, and there's the potential for rocks to fall down the cliffs onto you from above.)
We rather enjoyed eating at Manta, which is in the Mauna Kea Beach hotel on Hapuna Beach.
posted by Guernsey Halleck at 11:03 PM on January 16, 2011
We rather enjoyed eating at Manta, which is in the Mauna Kea Beach hotel on Hapuna Beach.
posted by Guernsey Halleck at 11:03 PM on January 16, 2011
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