Our most recent trip to Hawaii Island marked our third visit to this wonderful place (and fifth trip to the state). We absolutely LOVE Hawaii! Our favorite island is Hawaii Island (aka the Big Island) and our second favorite would probably be Maui. What is nice about Hawaii is each island is so different from each other and offers different things.
Since we could probably start being considered frequent visitors to Hawaii, this trip was purely about relaxation after a stressful year (here's lookin' at you 2020). We stayed at the Mauna Kea Beach Resort which has an amazing beach and that is where we hung out for most of the trip!
On days one and two the northwest coast had some horrible winds, so we headed south and hung out in Kona one day, walked Ali'i Drive and had some shave ice and the next day we visited Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park and Hōnaunau Bay for some snorkeling. After snorkeling we headed out for some whale watching and saw nothing but spinner dolphins. We did see whales from our hotel lanai (aka balcony) every morning! We even saw a baby humpback.
***Tip: If you plan on visiting Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park and Volcanoes National Park you might want to look into a National Parks pass. Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park has a $20 entry fee and Volcanoes National Park has a $35 entry fee. An annual National Parks pass is $80 so if you think you'll visit any other national park in the next 365 days it might be worth it to just get an annual pass.
On our third day we had great weather and the rain seemed to break on other areas of the island so we headed over to Waipi'o Valley to FINALLY hike down into the valley and back up. On our previous two visits we haven't been able to do this hike. The total road portion down and back is about 2.6 miles with some areas estimating to be at a 45% incline and it averages 25% incline. We were both so impressed that out daughter, who is just shy of 6 years old, was able to accomplish this hike on her own! She did have some candy bar incentives along the way and there was minimal amounts of "can you carry me" but she did it!
One of the negatives we experienced due to COVID was no grocery store or gas station would let us use their bathrooms. And when a kid has to go, they gotta go! It was really frustrating! Because of this, we decided to skip our planned day in Hilo and just stay at Mauna Kea and enjoy the beach and hotel. It was a nice way to spend our last full day on the island.
On our last night my husband went night snorkeling with the local manta ray population at the resort. He said it was amazing and that I should do it the next time we are there! Just another reason to go back.
Due to some flight schedule changes on behalf of the airline and our horrible 2+ hour wait for our rental car, we only had 4 full days on the island. I wish we had had one more day. In the past we have done anywhere between 6 to 10 day trips so this one ended up being a little short for us (arriving on a Sunday and leaving on a Friday). Had our car rental not taken so long on our arrival day, we could have enjoyed a walk on the beach, dinner and the sunset...but instead we arrived after dark on our first night.
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