Big Island Advice

[Chaser]

Hey Everyone -

I am about a month away from spending 12 days on the Big Island with my wife and kids (5 & 7) and I wanted to see if you all could lend me your experience and expertise to clue me in on the "don't miss activities" for kids (and adults) on the island.

We are staying outside of Kona near the 4 Seasons and I will have access to a quiver of SUPs so any advice on nice distance paddles and/or ideal places to SUP surf, would be much appreciated.  I am not looking to charge hard and am more looking for mellow breaks/beaches where I can bring my family to hang out for the day and get a few hours in the water.

Thanks in advance for your input.

-CHASER

[Bklyn2Oahu]

In no particular order, here's my top 10:

1) Just to the south of Kailua Kona on the beach road is a little beach park with some incredible snorkeling w/lots of sea turtles.

2) Go up and see the observatory on top of Muana Kea.

3)South Point and it's green beach/cliff jumping.

4)Kilauea/Volcano.

5)Ken's house of pancakes in Hilo. 

6)Hama Kua Coast.

7)Waimea and it's plush rolling hills.

8)Visit a coffee plantation.

9) Botanical Garden in Hilo.

10) Eat the local food/go to a luau!

[Chaser]

Thanks for the list Local!!!  Looks like some good options.

[Boludo]

I spent 2 months there last summer.  Here are a few things to consider.

Kahaluu is a great spot for kids to snorkel.  I couldn't get my little girls out.  They loved it.  Not the best spot but for kids, it's usually a tame place to snorkel.

Manta night dive was amazing.  Had 7 Mantas flying underwater just skimming us.

9:30 am I would paddle out in that main Kona (cove harbor area) and saw huge schools of dolphins about .5 - .75 miles out.  Couple times saw about 150 or so.

Kua Bay - Sugar Sand and gorgeous!

69 beach - our favorite because of the trees and small rock that little kids can jump off.

Hilo - lots of cool waterfalls to hike through

Pololu Valley - Gorgeous easy hike. 

Volcano - Did a lot of hiking there and went inside some of the lava tubes.  Pretty cool but if I was there for a week, I'd skip it.

Green Sands - Glad we went but if you're there only for a bit, I'd skip it.  The hike is nothing great.

Kiholo - Cool spot.  We loved it.  Hiked through there a few times.

Surf spots - Kahaluu has fun small waves.  When bigger watch out for the shallow reef.  Pine trees - cool place like San Onofre but with reef. Lots of breaks to choose from or to give yourself space from others.  Banyans - good wave but very local spot.  I only hit it when surf was junk and only a few were out.  Lymans around the corner was a killer spot when it hits.  Only breaks left.  Local spot that I was told to stay away from but I made a lot of friends there.  Super cool locals if you show them respect.

You will get bored watching this video...It's like 25 minutes long.  But it's worth skimming through if you're going to big island as we put a lot of photos of places in there.

[Chaser]

Boludo -

Many thanks for the insight on the Big Island.....unbelievably helpful.

I watched your vid and I am going to show it to my little ones....they are already fired up about the trip but they will be off the charts fired up after they see all the fun that awaits them. We have 12 days so we'll see what we can fit in.

BTW – You have a beautiful family and it looks like you guys had a lifetime of fun over there last summer.  Again...many thanks.

-CHASER

[Boludo]

No problem Chaser.  You guys are gonna love it.  I've lived on North Shore for short time during college and spent time on Maui and Kauai.  I love all the islands.  I didn't expect to like Hawaii as much as Maui or Kauai but it ended up being one of my favorite.  There was so much diversity and so much to explore.  My wife and I almost decided to just stay there to live for a couple of years.  Unfortunately I had a recent commitment that made that difficult for us.  Feel free to ask any other questions.  I feel like I got to know the island extremely well.  I heard some negative stuff about VOG but once we got there, it was never on my mind nor did we experience any issues with it.  Sometimes people are just negative people by nature and they find one negative thing to ruin their vacation instead of enjoying all the positive around them.   Oh and also, Captain Cook has some great snorkeling that you can Kayak or Paddle to.  Lots of Dolphins also go their to visit (almost daily). 

[JF808]

kinda late, but all good areas already mentioned.

paddling out in Kailua-Kona pier in the early AM you will see some spinner dolphins for sure. If you do see them, paddle faster and they'll stick with you and swim right along side you, a really cool experience. Most of the surf you'll see is more or so in town, the south swells start showing up and are dominate in the summer, the northern kona coast breaks dont show much but once in a while you'll get an occasional out of season north swell pushing in.

Beaches:

Kua Bay close to you, just past kukio heading south
Kikaua Beach, in Kukio
Wailea Bay
Hapuna Beach

All great beaches, all good for the kids. No snorkel rentals as these beaches, but plenty rental locations in kona, or just buy a set, inexpensive. These beaches are sandy, a beach with a reef will have more fish to see (Kona). If you want to SUP surf. Anaehoomalu beach if it's breaking is good. Kahaluu beach gets crowded with Surf lessons on the inside, and if it's breaking lots of SUP surfers in the line up. Lymans which is a left, or pinetrees which is more of a mush ball beach break.  Unlike the other islands, the big island surfspots are all over shallow reefs, no sand bars here. I would stay away from Banyans surf spot, you'll probably get some flack from the locals there for sure.

it's been windy latley, and you could take a shot at a downwind run out in waikoloa. was 40+ today!! crazy fun.

check out a luau for sure. I would recommend King Kam Hotel, Keahou Sheraton or Fairmont Orchid. They also have great food and the shows put on by "Island Breeze Productions" are awesome and it's a greats way to try a variety of local foods. I highly recommend either of these http://ibphawaii.com/luaus/

Try Zip Line!!!! I'm sure the kids will love that, many places for that. Check out the volcano for sure, you can go at night time too, and see the flow at night, pretty sick.

[Chaser]

JF808 -

Perfect timing actually....we leave on Saturday so this info will be very helpful.  Thanks for your insight.   

We are actually fortunate enough to be staying at the Kukio Resort so we plan on spending lots of time at Kikaua Beach and Kua Bay.  We were there 6 years ago and Kua Bay is a pretty special place.  Surfed Pine Trees when I was there last but was not all that comfortable out there due to the crowd and my lack of skill at the time...so did more floating than surfing.  Hoping to put the last six years of experience to work a bit this time.

Definitely want to hear a little more about Waikoloa downwinders...something I would love to do.  I will shoot you a PM.

Thanks again for the advice!

CHASER

[Takeo]

Chaser,
JF808 covered it pretty well, that's his stomping grounds. If you happen to be in Hilo and want to do an afternoon paddle on the weekday or morning paddle on the weekend, hit me up. I don't surf much but we can do an open ocean paddle or leisure bay paddle. I got 3 boards, bunch of paddles.

S. Tokunaga Store in Hilo has some SUP gear like KeNalu and QB paddles. Also great for fishing and diving gear. They are like family to me there.

Westside definitely has the beaches for the family.

Anyhow, PM me if you want to paddle or need any other advice.  Aloha!

[JF808]

right on, replied to your PM. That's pretty cool that your staying in Kukio... I just work there a lot.

Takeo's got the toys for sure, if your in Hilo give him a shout. Gottah extend the extra Aloha to fellow zoners!!

[Boludo]

Chaser,

Let us know how your vacation went.

[Chaser]

Sorry to leave you guys hangin, I have been trying to find the time to post about it but I have been slammed since I got back with work and getting this past weekend's CCBC event together.  I will give you a play-by-play of our Big Island stay sometime this week.

I will say that it was enhanced greatly by all of you who responded to my post on this site.  The recommendations were spot on and I thank you all for that.

Chaser

[JF808]

too bad we didn't hook up with the downwinder, but glad to hear you had a great time!!

[Chaser]

Ok. So this is three or four weeks overdue but here we go.....12 days on the Big Island with pics below:

To lay the background out for you, we (my wife & two kids ages 5 & 7) live in Boston and are fortunate enough to have a family member that has a house outside of Kona on the Big Island.  Given the long haul to get out there, we had not been to Kona for 6 years...so my daughter had never been there and my son really doesn't remember his first time since he was 10 months old.....my wife and I remember the last time fondly....what a great place.

When we decided to travel out to Kona this past July, I posted a request on the Zone for some help as to what I should do out there with a 5 & 7 year old and as evidenced by the responses above, I received some amazing advice that didn't stop at this forum.  A few of the Zoners who live on the Big Island followed up with offers of hospitality......this is such a cool site!

Anyway, here is a quick synopsis of our trip:

The house we stayed at was in the Kukio Resort and over looked Kua Bay, which is one of the most beautiful beaches and bays in existence.  The resort is unbelievable too so to say we were lucky to be where we were is an understatement. 

My father (Pops to the kids) was out there for the first three days and he is at the age where traveling around the island on adventures is not high on his priority list so the first three days we spent a lot of time at the Kua & Kukio Bay beaches snorkeling, paddling and also in the resorts pool which my 5 year old daughter would not get out of.

Once Pops took off we decided to adventure:

Paddling - The resort we were staying at had dozen Naish SUPs anywhere from 10' to 11'6" (Nalu series).  Stable all around boards...some had ok glide.  Pretty much every morning I would get up around 6:30 and go for a 1-2 hour paddle up or down the coast from the resort dependent upon the wind.  I was solo every morning so the first few days were a little spooky but every day but one I had my friends along with me...the spinner dolphin.  I ran into pods of dolphin everywhere and it was truly an amazing experience for a guy from the Northeast.  The highlight had to be when three dolphins decided to play with me a bit as two of them positioned themselves either side of the tip of my board with their fins almost touching the board and the third was swimming under the tip of the board upside down.  They stayed like this as I paddled for what felt like 5 minutes but was only probably less than a minute.  That was a highlight for me.

Surfing - The first week I was there, it was relatively flat.  Not having a board of my own to use, I went out with a guy from the resort one morning looking for surf and we couldn't find a bump.  Kahaluu, Lymans, Pine Trees nothing.  Fortunately, at the beginning of the second week a relatively unusual swell for the summer picked up and produced some waves off the point in front of the resort where we were staying.  I spent a good portion of three days in the water (when I had the hall pass) surfing knee to chest high crumblers which was just fine for me.

Other highlights of the trip:

More Dolphins - One morning after my paddle, the dolphins were off shore relative close to Kukio Bay so we jumped into a little Zodiak that the resort had and set off to meet up with the dolphins for a swim.  My daughter Lily was content to stay in the boat to watch the dolphins but me, my wife and my son jumped in the water well ahead of the pod and waited for them to come.  My son got a little freaked out and decided to remain next to the boat while in the water watching the dolphin but my wife and I spent about an hour swimming with them and it was pretty cool.  She was speechless.

Not the greatest vid but all I have -  

Beach 69 – Very cool local beach....beautiful setting and good snorkeling.  The kids loved climbing on the rocks.  We had it basically to ourselves as we arrived right as a passing shower drove out most of the crowd.
Hike to Kiholo Bay - 20-25 minute hike from the highway through some pretty hot & arid terrain on a trail packed with wild goats (which my kids thought were the coolest thing) to a beautiful bay with a lagoon behind it.  The lagoon is a preserve for sea turtles and they make their way from the bay to the lagoon to feed.  There were probably 20-30 turtles in the lagoon when we arrived.  No swimming in the lagoon but you can swim in the Bay and with the turtles as they enter the connection to the lagoon.
   
Luau @ Waikoloa Marriott - My daughter was over the top excited to go to a luau so I couldn't say no.  It was definitely a little cheesy but we had seating up front and to see her face throughout the performance was well worth the cheese factor.  She still talks about it as one of the highlights of the vacation today.

Volcano National Park - My son was hell bent on seeing a volcano so we took a day and drove south from Kona around the South Point of the Island and up into Volcano National Park.  The drive was about 2 hours but the scenery was spectacular.  We spent a few hours driving around the Rim Road and looking at the Volcano from different vantage points and then headed down to the Thurston Lava Tube.  Definitely the highlight of the day.  Although the actual tube is pretty short the walk down into the tube is very cool as you basically descend straight down into the rain forest.  The volcano is a definite must see but probably not a repeat when we head back to the Big Island next time.

Anyway, those were the highlights.  As we were flying home on the red eye from San Fran to Boston and my daughter was asleep in my lap (she slept the whole way!), I realized that the actual highlight for me was to be able to spend 14 days straight with my family.  I am not sure when I will be able to spend that amount of time with my wife and kids again without the interruption of work and everyday life...so for that reason, this vacation was truly a lifetime highlight for me.

Enough sappiness.  Thank you once again to all the Zoners who gave their two cents and advice on things to do on the Big Island.  Your generosity is much appreciated.



A Fully Satisfied Chaser

[JF808]

Awesome synopsis of your trip. Too bad you couldn't join us for the downwinder the weekend you came in. Some really good winds then. Next time you come back consider visiting Maui and hooking up with some of the Somers there (headmount) can take you on a maliko run.... But be warned, its enough to make you move to Maui and experience maliko everyday. Plan your trip ther around the olukai race and you'll have a blast

Alpha and thanks for sharing