Life Outside the Inbox

If you haven’t already, please start here with my blog on my overall thoughts on the Big Island.

Hilo, located on the east side of the Big Island, is a little less touristy but it’s the largest town in the Hawaii County. Some people travel all the way to the Big Island without visiting Hilo, but I think Hilo is not to be missed! Located at the base of Mauna Loa, an active volcano, and Mauna Kea, Hilo is hosts to some of the world’s most important ground-based astronomical observatories. 

Day 1 – Hilo

Taking Jax out on a day trip from the Big Island Humane Society! I must credit Here Be Barr for this. I learned about this initiative through his Youtube video. If you’re an animal lover, The Big Island Humane Society allows you to take their shelter dogs out for a field trip. We had such a great time with Jax, he made lots of friends throughout the day. The only pain point was that a lot of the parks we visited didn’t allow for dogs so we were restricted to where we could go.

While with Jax, we drove over to the Coconut Island area and then walked over to Suisan Fish Market for lunch. Suisan Fish Market had a huge selection of Poke and had outdoor seating.

After taking Jax back to the shelter (sad face), we headed off to the Hilo Farmers Market and walked around Kamehameha Avenue, their shopping district in the same area.

We then drove over to Rainbow Falls. It’s encouraged that you visit Rainbow Falls in the morning because that’s when the sun hits the waterfall, displaying a rainbow. Rainbow Falls was easily, easily accessible (which was a bit disappointing). Afterwards, we went to the Kaumana Caves, a short, easy hike to a lava tube where we saw graffiti dating back 100 years (is it real?!).

Because there was still time, we drove to the base of Mauna Kea and hiked to the Sunset Hill. Sunset Hill did not disappoint, it offered the most beautiful sunset view, high above the clouds and that’s how we ended day 1.

Day 2

Since we got home right after sunset the day before and there’s really not much to do in Hilo at night, we woke up bright and early to visit the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park). We were able to see a few steam vents and the Kīlauea Iki Crater and the Hōlei Sea Arch from afar but a lot of the trails were closed due to the 2018 eruption. While the trails were not as exciting as I had hoped, the views from the drive was beautiful.

The Volcanoes National Park took a few hours and afterwards we drove to Isaac Hale Park featuring one of the island’s newest (from Aug 2018) black sand beach. There’s a small hidden heated tide pool there that’s not to be missed. You’ll have to read the guidebook to find the exact location :P. And because everything closes early on the Big Island, we had dinner at a local diner and called it a day.

Day 3

While technically we didn’t spend the day in Hilo, we started our drive from Hilo to Kona going south and hit up a few beaches along the way.

We first visited Punalu‘u Beach featuring a black sand beach, where we saw the one and only sea turtle resting on the beach. It was a windy day so we didn’t stay long but it was a nice little spot to visit. We then drove over to Papakōlea Green Sand Beach, optimistically believing it was a short hike away. It was not. I highly recommend that you take the shady ‘shuttle’ services to Green Sand Beach if you’re 1. tight on time and 2. not prepared to hike to a small beach for hours. Papakōlea Green Sand Beach was interesting because it offered green sand, but overall, just another beach.

And this is where we ended our short time in Hilo. I personally feel like 3 days was the perfect length of time.