Making the Most Out of Your Hawaiian Vacation on the Big Island

The next time you are on vacation you may want to consider splitting your vacation in to different types of travel to suit your diverse travel styles. A few years ago, my husband and I took a six day vacation to the Big Island of Hawaii. I like to experience things from different perspectives so I knew right away that I wanted to split my vacation in half. We would spend the first three nights at a bed and breakfast in the Hilo side of the island exploring the local culture and volcanoes. Then for the last three days we'd stay on the Kona side at a nice resort to relax. We'd never stayed at a resort before and our children were babies and toddlers so we were sleep deprived back then.

Globetrotting Hawaii

We were right to start the vacation on the Hilo side of the island. We stayed at a modest bed and breakfast that cost $50 a night. They served simple toast, jelly, and fruit in the mornings though we woke up extra early to go explore the island and missed most of the continental breakfast. We rented a convertible and put the top down whenever it wasn't raining. We'd pick up snacks from the local grocery store to eat when we were hungry so that we could spend most of our time sightseeing.

The first thing on our list was exploring the volcanoes at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. We walked on the thick stiff black hardened volcanic ash. It looked scarier at night when you can actually see the glow of the hot lava that runs underneath them.

My husband and I had a bit of a hard time with the map because of the length of the names of the streets and landmarks, e.g. Pu'uhonua and Pu'ukohola. We had a hard time pronouncing and distinguishing the names. But mostly, I'm just bad with directions so we ditched the map and continued the rest of days driving by intuition. We turned when a street looked interesting and it led us to discover a canopy of a thick dense green forest along long windy roads that echoed the loud chirps of frogs the size of a width of a quarter. Our intuition took us through a gorgeous old bridge and a questionable neighborhood that we quickly but quietly backed our rental car out of so as to not upset the crowd that stared us down. We pulled over to see daring local Hawaiians jump of the side of a bridge into the depths of an underdetermined amount of water below. We swam in hot springs and ate at dinners that only locals frequent. We stopped and talked with the local artists who displayed their work, the bridge divers and their families, and the locals at the diners. We listened intently to their stories and felt like world travelers in our exploration. Because of my complexion people often asked me if I was Hawaiian. I tend to blend in with whatever culture I'm with.

I longed to swim with the sea turtles but my attempts to snorkel in the Pacific Ocean left me surrendering to the strong persistent currents. I whaled my arms out in defeat and a local man pulled me out of the water. He was sitting on the nearby rocks rescuing tourists.

Resort Style Vacationing

When we arrived at the luxurious Hilton Waikoloa Village, we saw blond haired valets dressed in Hawaiian clothes and lounging bikini wearing vacationers sipping on cocktails. We were critical. What's this! This isn't Hawaii. As we made our way through the resort passing the pools, restaurants, leisure boats, artist corridor, and vaulted ceilings, my husband asked me again how much we were paying for this. I got it a very reasonable $150 a night.

Our room was huge but the resort was extraordinary. There was a huge lagoon which contained colorful fish, eels, and a couple of sea turtles. It was open to the ocean to let the fish swim in, but it had bars to keep the sharks out. There were several restaurants with different ethic types of food, Japanese, Mexican, Chinese, Italian, etc. There was a Dolphin Quest where you could swim with the dolphins but I vowed to come back with my kids once they got older and do it then.

We had planned to do more sightseeing on the Keno side of the Island but we never made it past the swinging hammocks by the trees and lagoon. We decided to live out the rest of our days inside the lagoon or lying on the swinging hammock holding each other. At last, I swam with the sea turtles under a waterfall and chased eels throughout the lagoon. And best of all, I didn't have to worry about the strong ocean currents. It was the perfect way to unwind before coming back home.