The word ‘Imiloa’ means “exploration driven by a sense of wonder and imagination” and that’s exactly the mission at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai’i. Their goal is to share Hawaiian culture and science to inspire exploration. I know an Astronomy Center sounds kind of boring but this place is everything but. It opened six years [...]
On the two hour drive from Hilo to Kona we made a few stops that you’d probably want to as well. Akaka Falls State Park. It’s home to the Hawaiian Island’s most famous waterfall, the 442-foot Akaka Falls which is breathtaking. There’s also the 100-foot Kahuna Falls (FYI: They now charge $5 to enter the [...]
Next stop was a visit to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park where 1.3 million people visited in 2010. To enter costs $10 per vehicle or $5 per individual (both are good for 7 days) but the cashier/ranger was a grumpy, older Haole – the only one I encountered the whole trip. The best starting point is the [...]
A friend from Honolulu told me that Hilo is like old Honolulu and the first place you will probably want to visit is the Hilo Farmer’s Market. In my mind there’s no better place to get a feel for a city than to see what the locals grow and create. I wrote a post solely [...]
Hawaii Forest & Trail’s The Big Island Tourism Board hooked us up with Hawaii Forest & Trails. They are an amazing tour company that has been around for 18 years. They are huge in protecting the environment and have access like none of the others. I took two of their tours and they all included [...]
The highlight of my trip to Kona was going on Hawaii Forest & Trail’s Kona Coffee & Craters Adventure. It’s a four hour tour that takes you up to the lesser-known Hawai’i Island volcano, Hualalai. The owner and founder of the company Rob Pacheco was our guide and he drove us from the hotel to [...]
In Kona we checked into the Courtyard King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel which must be the World’s longest hotel name. Seriously. After staying at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel this place felt like a Ritz-Carlton. Marriott did a nice job keeping the Hawaiian feel of this old building and making it one of their comfortable, clean [...]
During my trip to the Big Island, we drove to Mountain Thunder Coffee which is the island’s largest organic farm and the highest grown coffee in the world at 3,200 feet elevation. The owner bought 20 acres 20 years ago with no intention of getting into the business but now he is highly successful and is also [...]
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