Let me start of by saying …. WE HAD A GREAT TIME!!
We travelled all around the island. My daughter is almost 2 and still needs her naps, so it was perfect for us to go on long drives and let her sleep in the car.
Volcano National Park – Two thumbs up! I would try to go on a day when it’s not too hot. There are lots of walking trails that were great! But if the sun was beaming down on you, it might get a bit intense, especially the walk to/from the crater. Wear a hat, use sunscreen, and bring water everywhere you go. There’s a video inside the information centre if you want to learn about the history of Hawaii. If you don’t feel like walking, there’s roads you can drive on to go to the cool spots.
Hilo – We didn’t spend too much time in Hilo. We had lunch and then went to Six Tons Waterfall. There are nicer waterfalls on the “waterfall corridor” than Six Tons, but we picked that one because you can swim there! It was a super hot day, so that was ammmaazzzing. If you google it, you’ll find some blogs which will include directions on how to get there as it is a bit hard to find.
Mauna Kea (the volcano) – We loved this! We lucked out with it being a super clear night. We couldn’t drive all the way to the summit because kids can’t go that far, but even halfway up at the visitor centre was beautiful at night. MILLIONS of stars! A woman was there using this cool laser pointer that touched the sky as she described the different constellations. If you like stargazing, this is MUST.
Turtle Beach (Honokohau) – This was our main beach for hanging out. They have an old fish catch (? not sure if that’s the right term) at the very end to the left, which was perfect for Blake; no waves, super shallow. If you’re travelling with a kid, I highly recommend this place. We felt very confident she couldn’t hurt herself, which made it sooooo nice for me and Dave to just relax on the beach chairs and sunbathe while she played. AND SO MANY TURTLES! Bring you camera.
Black Sand Beach (Punalu’u) – If you go to Volcano National Park, you can stop here on the way. It was a beautiful beach with… yup… black sand. Some parts looked a little chaotic for swimming but others looked okay. I erred on the side of caution since we had the little one, but there were people swimming.
Food – This is the one area we failed on. We tried a few restaurants and poke places and couldn’t find anything that was good enough to pay the EXTREMELY high cost for dining out. Fair warning on that. I have no problem paying for good food, so if someone finds a good place, please let me know! But most days/nights we did Costco prepared meals, which were great. Tasted good and were super quick and easy so we could maximize our pool time at the house. The Save-on also had really, really good sushi rolls. We got those a couple times and took them down to the beach for lunch.
If we could have, we would have done a helicopter tour. Blake wasn’t old enough to go so we didn’t this year but hopefully next year! There are a few different routes you can do. Google that and try it out!
Even after all these incredible adventures we went on, it’s safe to say my favourite part of the whole trip was coming home every night, putting Blake to sleep (we very strategically kept her on BC time 😉), grabbing a glass (but not glass) of wine, heading out to the pool, and gazing at the sunset over the luscious gardens of Tony’s neighbourhood. Heaavvveennn.
It was such a good trip. Cannot wait to go back! You’ll love it.
❤
Alyssa