Hi folks,
I’m planning on a vacation in mid March to Hawaii. I am considering making the trip to the big island. I’ve been to Oahu and Maui and i figured since there is little chance to head out there in October i would at least get some advice from those who have lots of Kona experience. I have been shopping around for packages that include flights from LAX, lodging and a car. The trip will be for six nights with my wife, sans kids. Here’s a sample of some that i have found:
Fairmont Orchid $3733
Hapuna Beach Prince 3251
Hilton Waikoloa 3203
Mauna Kea Beach 3934
Sheraton Keauhou Bay 3067
Waikoloa beach marriot 3171
Aston waikoloa colony 3171
Outrigger fairway villas 3019
Outrigger keauhou beach 2842
Aston kona by the sea 3211
i assume all represent the lowest room option and the smallest car. We plan on checking out the volcanos, at least snorleking with the manta’s, and maybe some bike rides with rentals. We also plan to make benefit of my two solid months in the gym, her two solid months of p90x, and a few new bikins lounging on the beach, and if i’m lucky i can get her in a brazillian, thong or g-string…ha, so nice beaches are important.
Any recommendations? Where to stay, where to go what to do? Help me out…
The place was amazing and the room rate was only $80 or $90 for a place that slept 8 with 3 bathrooms on 2 floors, I still get emails from them. It’s near where the old IM Marathon used to start. If you like tennis there is a sweet complex built right beside the place
…send me an email…depending on the particular dates, I may be able to give you the “slowtwitchers” rate at my house in Kona…on Alii Drive, Endless Pool, etc… mike.peerless@siskinds.com
There are tons of condos along the beach on Alii drive that I have stayed. Very nice, relatively inexpensive, and your own beach out back. You can swim with the sea turtles in your own back yard and sleep with the doors open to hear the waves and feel the breeze. I don’t like large hotels or resorts, as I feel the romanticism is not there. I remember fondly some balcony sunset wine drinking with someone so terribly dear…wow. I’m ready to go back. And another suggestion…you might want to just rent a scooter, or at least a convertible.
Go down to the Place of Refuge also. It’s one of my favorite spots in the entire world. The feeling there is beyond description.
Enjoy, and if you have any questions, I have a friend who lives there.
I stayed in the Hilton Waikoloa and loved it. Waikoloa is beautiful, but about a 25 min drive into Kona town. Best beach is Hapuna–about 15-20 min north of Waikoloa on the Queen K. Also, there is a Bikeworks in the King’s Shops that rents nice Specialized Transitions. Buy the blue guide book–lots of good things in there. Kayaked over to Capt Cook’s monument one day, that was very cool. Also recommend renting snorkel equipment in town for the whole week–it is pretty reasonable and then you will have it wherever you decide to go. I put this in another thread, but a few things I would recommend: 1)If you don’t ride up to Hawi, then drive up there and see the turnaround–great shaved ice and the best ice cream on the island. On the way back, eat barbecue at Huli Sue’s in Waimea. Excellent. 2)Eat breakfast at Island Lava Java at least once (you probably already planned this). Another good breakfast place right next to a community theater just south of Kona–can’t remember the name. We ate there on our way to the volcano. 3) Plan an entire day for the volcano. It is about a 2.5 hr drive from Kona (either way). Although drive through Hilo if you want to drive the extra distance to try and see the lava entering the ocean (we skipped this and just saw the National Park). Best part of the park was seeing the Kilauea Crater glow after dark, but that makes a really long drive back to Kona. If you eat dinner there, there is a pretty good Thai place in the town of Volcano–you can’t miss it. Another option is Blue Hawaii helicopter tours. These are supposed to be the best on the island, but are also pretty expensive. However they leave from Waikoloa so it is very convenient and offers phenomenal volcano views if you can afford it. 4) We did the standard luau at the King Kamehamaha. I hate these things, but it was my kids’ first time in HI, so I told them they had to do one. It was kinda cool hanging out at the King K hotel though. 5)Went horseback riding in Wai’po Valley. It was ok, cool views, but kinda your standard touristy horseback ride. My kids liked it.
We didn’t have time to spend on the Hilo side, other than the day at the volcano. There are some cool waterfalls between Hilo and Kona, though.
Hope this helps.
only been once, but we stayed in both Kona and a couple of nights in Waikoloa. My thoughts:
I liked Kona more (admittedly this was during Ironman)- it has a cute town and some decent but smaller beaches (great snorkel beach at other end of Alli with salt and pepper sand).
In Waikoloa I felt like a captured tourist. Prices were higher and you were stuck in a hotel environment (not always bad b/c the hotels are amazing). They all have wonderful beaches (most manmade), but it is truly beautiful there and much better lounging and being pampered v. Kona.
Just depends on what you want, I love vrbo.com and we scored an awesome house for the IM and after. Go condo/house if you want to relax and be on your own and cook and take care of yourself (and want cheaper vacation). Go hotel if you want to be pampered (nothing wrong with that), eat out for all meals and be on someone else’s schedule (for meals, events, etc.).
Two recommendations- don’t miss lava java and Rapanui Island cafe (both on Alli Drive)
If you want an expensive resort then Waikoloa is your best choice and Hapuna is the best beach on the island. We stay in condos south of town and cook some of our own meals so that we can afford to stay for longer or return sooner. One of the condos by white sands beach would be good. The Big Island is not really that great for beaches. On your trip to Volcanoes National Park continue around the island and stay for a couple of nights in Hilo if you want to get away from the tourists and have a glimpse of a more genuinely Hawaiian area. Visit one of the rain forest gardens for a walk. For the drive back take the saddle road across the middle of the island and consider visiting one of the observatories. Don’t let the rental car companies scare you away from the saddle road, it is fine, and the lava fields are amazing.
We are going Feb. 3. Flight for 2 and car (full size) was about $1000. Aston Kona by the Sea will be about $1500 for 7 nights. So about $2500 total. Have the Ashton sharpen their pencil and little, you should be able to do better there.
If you’re a gamblin’ man. Use Priceline.com. I’ve used it for Maui and the Big Island. 3.5 stars or better and a bid of $130 @night the day prior has worked everytime.
Redweek.com is awesome! You have to pay a $15 yearly fee but well worth it. Oceanfront condo in Maui on Kaanapali last year for $1000 for the week.
With that we stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village last year for IM. Nice resort. It is ginormous. 10 minute walk from the lobby to our room, or you can take the tram or boat. Yes tram or boat, it is that big.
Outrigger.com also has some good packages as well. The Outrigger Fairway Villas in Waikoloa are nice and spacious. The condo option is always nice.
You could do a night in Hilo, a night at Volcano and then spend the rest of the time at one of the resorts. I stayed at Hapuna Prince for Honu and loved it, but you have to leave the ground and drive a bit to do anything other than go to the beach. Great beach though!
Heading out March 20th for our annual trip to Kona. Over the years we have stayed on every island and several different places on Kona. We tend to avoid the Kona area - more traffic and not the best beaches but down by Keahou it’s a little more quite. We have stayed at the outrigger keahou and it was nice. The last few years we have stayed at Waikoloa beach - close to Hapuna, Mauna Kea, and 69 beach. “A” beach at Waikoloa is okay but the sand isn’t too great. We also go to beach a few miles north of the airport near Hualali.
This year we paid slightly more for airfare, $625 rt from Denver and are staying at the Waikoloa Vista. We like this condo best for the price. $165 per night no cleaning fee 5th night free. The Vista is slightly older but nice lanais. We have stayed at Kolea, which is very nice but they run $300 per night. Kolea is between the Marriott and the Hilton and very close to A beach. We don’t care about the view and a mountain view is fine. Last year we stayed at the Outrigger Fairway villas, which are newer but you end up driving to “A” beach, especially if you have kids. Hali’i Kai in Waikoloa is nice but we haven’t stayed there but again not within walking distance to the beach. Mauna Lani has some nice condos but the price tends to be higher.
just depends on what you are looking for but we tend to like a condo versus a hotel, especially with kids. Eat breakfast in, pack a lunch for a trip to the beach and grill tuna steaks and drink Kona longboard lager at night.
We have used VRBO in the past but the last two years we have used south kohola rental www.southkohala.com .
Ever heard of trail running? No worse than that. I did a 15 miler on the trail last year and had no troubles at all. the time of my life as you get to see all sorts of cool stuff and the views were amazing. To each their own though.
Wife and I went this past year and spectated Kona. We stayed at the Mauna Lani in Wakiola and we loved it. The resort has a good beach and good snorkling right there. There is a bunch of sea turtles their on the property so it was cool swimming with them. I loved the resort b/c it wasn’t too big like the Hilton and it was very nice. Just ask them for a room upgrade and they will probablly give it to you, they did us. We did about a bunch on the island but my best days were when we just relaxed at the resort. I wouldn’t waste my time with the green sand and black sand beaches. Just not worth the drive down there. Make sure you bring appropriate clothing, you can go from warm to cool to damn near always raining within a 2 hour drive.
Check out the condo rentals in the Waikaloa area. That area is home to some of the more beautiful beaches in the area, great restaurants, shopping, golfing, and is a short drive to downtown Kona. Blue Hawaii helicopter tours also runs day trips out of Waikaloa to fly over the volcanos on the Hilo side, definitely worth doing.
Thanks everyone for the recommendations for my trip.
Based on some of the advice from the folks here my trip is now booked. I used a “Big Box” travel provider for a package deal including flights, room, and car. Here is some details.
Flight: It was interesting that i figured out that all of the web sites don’t have access to the same flights. It seems that some of the airlines only provide the less preferred times to the discount brokers like priceline. It took a while to find a way to get the flight times that either wouldn’t take the whole day or make me basically skip the nights sleep to get to the airport early enough. Great departure time on a non stop flight.
Lodging: i looked a long time at some rentals and either they didn’t pan out because of location or the price was too high. I looked at switching resorts in different locations and booking different resorts individually and ended up at the Marriot.
Car: I went with an intermediate car from Alamo. no big decisions there. maybe i’ll upgrade to a full size if they don’t give me one for free.
Overall i finally noticed the prices were starting to bump up and i’m deployed overseas and don’t have access to a phone to call anyone very easily, so i just decided to throw it down. $2915 for all of it. Six nights with the wife and no kids. I’ll have to make sure i get my moneys worth, at $415 a day.
So I have the logistics worked out, next i need to figure out what i want to do when i’m out there.