If you haven’t already, please start here with my blog on my overall thoughts on the Big Island.
Kona, in the Hawaiian language, means leeward or dry side of the island. That is, it’s dry until 3pm and the clouds start rolling over. The weather on the Big Island was pretty predictable with sunshine in the morning and clouds and a slight drizzle by the afternoon so it’s important to plan your day accordingly. Had I known better, I would’ve spent my mornings at the beach and the afternoons hiking when it was cooler.
Day 1
I was so excited for today to visit Greenwell Coffee Farms for a coffee tour! I am a self proclaimed coffee snob and to be able to see how the coffee cherries are grown, harvested and processed was the coolest thing! Kona has all the right conditions to grow the best coffee crop. Sunny mornings, wet afternoons, mild nights, rich volcanic soil. Greenwell’s farm tour happens every 30 minutes, lead by one of their employees. It was just us and another couple that day so it was a very intimate tour. The coffee farm not only offered a lot of history with their century old coffee plants, they also grew avocados, apple bananas (which we ate fresh off the tree yum!) and other citrus trees.
After the coffee tour, we went to Makalawena Beach, another beach that took a lot longer for us to get to. It was a rough drive over lava rocks to a lava rock path that took another 40 minutes to get to. And that was basically our day!! We got home in time to eat at Kona Grill House, the best restaurant on the island! They had different poke flavours and ah-mazing crab cakes! Of course, we ended the night at Target lol.
Day 2
I guess I loved the Greenwell Coffee Tour so much that I decided to visit Heavenly Hawaiian Kona Coffee Farms since they had great reviews on Google. Their farm was more elevated than Greenwell, offering a great view. But while their tour guides were great, they were led by exchange students and it followed more of a scripted tour. It was also a larger group because they catered to cruize ship guests.
Next, we headed to the Cloud Forest Walking Tour. It was another tour that got amazing reviews on Google. The tour lasted about 2.5 hours and we got a little geography lesson and a guided walking tour in the cloud forest.
Since it was a gloomy and wet afternoon, we grabbed a pizza at the Kona Brewery and headed to Nāpō’opo’o Pier, where we surprisingly caught a beautiful sunset.
Day 3
The weather on Day 3 was perfect, but it was one of those days where I wished I did things in the reverse order. While the sun was scorching, we visited the Pu’uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park, a place of refuge for ancient Hawaiians. The park was beautiful but it was so hot that I would’ve much rather have been on the beach.
After walking around the park, we checked into our resort and we finished our left over pizza from last night for lunch. We then headed off to a small, shallow beach nearby to practice using our new snorkeling gear. And of course, that’s when the weather cooled and got windy.
We got back home, took a quick nap woke up refreshed for the Night Time Manta Ray snorkel (recommended by our good friend Ken). We went with a company called, My Kona Adventures. The tour takes you out a few hundred meters from the coast (I thought we’d be much further) and you hang on to a floating board while they shine a UV light for plankton to appear and manta rays to eat. We were told we got really lucky with 5 manta rays swimming from right under us. They got up close and real personal. It was a really memorable experience.
Day 4
Out of all days, I was most excited for this day. We signed up for the Captain Zodiac 5 hour Beat the Crowd tour. On this tour, we get to explore the ocean on a raft. We were able to see pods of dolphins, whales, pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins!
Once again, we were pooped so we went back to the resort to take a nap and got up in time for the Haleo Luau at Sheraton Kona Resort. I had high expectations of the luau but it didn’t turn out all that exciting. An average buffet and a mediocre show.
Day 5
Our last full day on the Big Island! We made our first stop in the cute town of Hawi where I stumbled upon a local jewelry shop that I fell in love with! I purchased a handmade ring and a pair of matching earrings from Ceecee, the designer.
We then made our way to the Pololu Valley Lookout, a beautiful lookout point of the northeastern coast. We then took a quick 30 minute hike down to the valley floor, followed a few trails and walked along the black sand beach. The black sand beach was rocky and not suitable for swimming but astounding to look at. After a few hours there, we hiked back up and took a drive across the island where we came across one of the most breathtaking sunsets I’ve ever seen.
I tried to chase it but couldn’t find the perfect spot to park so this was the best photo I got of it. It just doesn’t do it justice but it was awe-inspiring. It was the most wonderful way to summarize our trip in Hawaii.
The Roadtrip Girl 