Planning a trip to Hawaii? Check out all my Hawaii posts and guides including a two week itinerary for Oahu, Maui and The Big Island! 

Our final stop on our trip was The Big Island. We flew into Kona, this was actually a little bit of a mistake, if you plan to see the lava fly into Hilo and fly out of Kona. This will save you the 2 hour trip across the island twice. However, it was a lovely drive and as they say it is the journey not the destination.

 

 

The Big Island was definitely the least inhabited and looks completely different then Oahu and Maui. It is  almost like being on Mars. We flew to The Big Island to see lava and explore the volcano Kilauea! This was a bucket list item for me, seeing a live volcano was one of the most awe-inspiring moments of my life. I will never forget it and if you are in Hawaii you should head to The Big Island just to experience it.

 

Travel Guide: The Big Island, Hawaii

Where We Stayed

We spent just three nights on The Big Island and managed to stay in two places. This was because as I previously mentioned we flew into Kona rather then Hilo. So we spent the first night at The Royal Kona Resort. This was a fairly basic hotel and to be truthful a little outdated. It did have a natural rock pool that was super cool that we swam in. Other then that this was a easily forgettable hotel. Our final two nights we spent in a magical treehouse Mokuna House. It was amazing and if you are going to see the lava I can’t recommend it enough.

 

 

Things To Do

Explore Kilauea

This is why most people head to The Big Island, to see Kilauea! You can read all about our experience seeing lava here.

 

 

Punalu’u Beach

I celebrated my 31st birthday on The Big Island. The day of my birthday we spent most of the day at Punalu’u Beach which is a true black sand beach. It was gorgeous here and we even got to see giant turtles. Definitely worth checking out.

 

Kona Brewing Company

Our favourite beer the entire trip, Big Wave, was from Kona Brewing Company. So on our last day we stopped here and did a tasting. My favourite one we tried was the lychee beer. So good! They also had food here, typical pub grub, but we didn’t try anything.

Waipio Valley

On our drive back across the island we took the northern route and stopped to view Waipio Valley along the way. What a view, totally worth the stop it is gorgeous. Great place to stop and stretch you legs and there are washrooms there.

 

Places To Eat

 Fosters Kitchen

Foster’s Kitchen is located in Kona. We enjoyed dinner here one night with our friends. We started with a beer cheese dip and I had pasta for my main. This place had a casual vibe and the food was good.

 

Kilauea Lodge

The town of Volcano is super small and there aren’t many places to eat, Kilauea Lodge was one of the few places that serves breakfast. We enjoyed brunch here the morning of my birthday. I had the eggs benny and it was incredible. Eggs benny is my go to when I have brunch so I know a thing or two about a decent one, this one was amazing!

 

Ohelo Cafe

Again, this is located in Volcano where there aren’t many options for places to eat! We enjoyed dinner at Ohelo Cafe on their patio on my birthday. The menu is super small but everything we had was really tasty. The prawn pasta was so good, it had a pesto sauce that I could not get enough of, I can almost taste it now!

 

 

This marks the end of the Hawaii recaps! I am going to put together a post that links to all the Hawaii posts and talks about the overall itinerary just as a guide for anyone that may be spending two weeks in Hawaii. We had an amazing time in Hawaii, we actually gave strong consideration to heading back this year to check out Kauai. However, we changed our mind and we are headed to The Cayman Islands in April. If you are considering a trip to Hawaii I can’t recommend it enough, it has a little bit of everything! Gorgeous beaches, hiking, amazing food, and so much to do see and experience. I can’t wait to head back some day and experience a little more of the Hawaiian hospitality.

 

Planning a trip to Hawaii? Check out all my Hawaii posts and guides including a two week itinerary for Oahu, Maui and The Big Island!

What are your travel plans this year? Headed anywhere exciting?