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| Best part of HI- lanais |
I love Hawaii. It is a joy of a place to travel to. Weather is (almost) always fantastic. There are so many wonderful natural areas to explore. And because it's in the US it's so gosh darn easy to plan- or even wing it- on a trip to this place. For that reason, the Nelson Lilly's go there every 2 years and the kids and I LOVE it. This trip was no exception.
Over the years we have gravitated to repeat Maui trips for a few reasons but in large part because of the incomparable Honua Kai condo resort in Kaanapali. It may seem a bit unlike us to love a destination because of the lodging but in Hawaii part of the game is relaxation and family time and when this can be combined with an incredible lanai from which one can watch whales breaching and the sun rising or setting? Well, that's perfection. So the states were high as I scoured the Big Island for a (nearly) equivalently marvelous condo resort. Thankfully I found a winner in the Halii Kai in the Waikoloa Beach Resort area just north of Kona. We had a more spacious than expected 3 bedroom condo with 2 lanais and indeed could watch both whales breaching and the sun set. The pool area was just right for us. A couple pools including a shallow kids pool, a hot tub, and with wrap around views of the ocean and, you got it, whales. Here's how we spent our week on this beautiful island:
The first day was for getting settled, getting groceries, getting the wiggles out from the long journey. With family travel (esp with littles), downtime is KEY. That's how you keep everyone ready for the inevitable challenges of travel- the niggles, the little disappointments, the times when you expect them to dig deep and accept discomfort. I'm careful to build in flex time/downtime and short adventures in the couple days after long travel days and major time changes. Plus it builds up the kids faith that we will be planning things fun for them in addition to what mom and dad want to do (which usually ends up also fun for them, though sometimes begrudgingly).
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| Coconut surprise! |
We headed to the grocery store (wow, the $$$$ is no joke), and the farmer's market to stock up on fresh fruit. Then a quick stop at a national monument visitor's center to get some maps/lay of the land, and then swimming pool! The kids were dying to get to the pool and it thankfully was all they were hoping it would be! Then we procured snorkel stuff and headed to the 'Anaeho/omalu (A) Bay beach just 5 minutes from our condo to check it out and test the snorkel gear.
The next day we head back to A Bay beach and snorkeled. The snorkeling was pretty good but nothing magnificent. Nice and calm though which was great because they last time Z and I tried to snorkel it was a fail for her because we couldn't even get her past the huge rolling waves 😅
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| A Bay! |
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| Hike to Green Sand Beach |
Day 3 we set out on a classic Nelson Lilly adventure- a 3 mile hike (6 round trip) to one of 4 green sand beaches in the world conveniently located at the most southern point of the United States. It was a bit of a drive from Kona so we set out a bit early. Also, important to note that the hike is entirely in the sun so water and sun screen much needed! IAlso, note there are a variety of people in the parking lot offering rides in their pick up trucks to the beach. This is illegal due to erosion of the the land along the route they are driving. Don't encourage these folks by paying for a ride. The hike was gorgeous with varied terrain, and lots of humpback whales surfacing within view. The kids were a bit grumbly on the way there and frankly I was pretty hot and discouraged at certain points too (direct sunlight is not the best) but trudged on and were very, very well rewarded when we arrived to the Green Sand Beach!
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| Green sand! |
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| Beautiful hike! |
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| Green Sand Beach |
The cove is a cinder cone from a volcanic eruption 50,000 years ago. The sand is green due to olivine. The other volcanic rocks are lighter in weight therefore wash away and all that is left is this green, soft, amazing sand. The texture was different than anything I had ever felt. Really a special geologic feature.
We all had such fun playing in the sand and the waves and the kids really understood what a rarity this special beach is. There were zero complaints on the way back maybe because we were less hot after swimming, flying high on the experience of the beach and frankly the realize there is no other option but to get back to the car. The other 3 green sand beaches are in Guam, the Galapagos, and Norway. Shall we head to them next?
I've frankly forgotten the order of events for the other days but here are some activities we did that I would recommend on the Kona side:
-- Z and went to Kohala zip-line. it's a high course so is almost combo ropes course and zip lining and it was tons of fun. The jungle views were very cool and the double zip line where you go side by side was particularly awesome. While I'm generally not that into towns, stores, or restaurants I could have liked to lunch here and spend some time at the stores with super local products. One of our guides grew up in Kohala and gave us some ideas for future explores- sounds like there are plenty of cool hikes and non touristy scenic explores in the area. If coming from Kona, consider making it a full day trip. We, however, needed to get back to the brothers and the pool;)
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| Turtle |
--Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park - This was a short explore - 1.2 miles- along a trail with petroglyphs to the coast where there are frequently sea turtles. Can you believe I've never seen a sea turtle close up in all the times I've been to Hawaii? Well we remedied that at this park- plenty of sea turtle in the water and land to observe.
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| Petroglyph |
--Kekaha Kai state park- This was gorgeous! Is a popular swimming and surfing spot with gorgeous waves. Lots of tide pooling as well. We stopped here just briefly before catching our flight - I'll bet there is a lot more to explore in this area.
Oh- hot tip- one thing I'd avoid is the Waikoloa Beach Hilton. We got a resort pass one day just to check out the pools and man I would not recommend staying there. You can't see the ocean from the pool! So you come all the way to Hawaii and you spend the day out of view of the ocean? Sitting by or swimming in a pool? I was very confused. The place was huge, included a tram to get around which rendered the place not very walkable. The snorkeling lagoon was nice but that's actually public property so anyone can use that- a good place for first time snorkelers.
We ended our trip on the Hilo side and this may be an unpopular opinion, but next time I'd skip this. I'm coming from a huge position of privilege in that I've been to Hawaii a few times, I've been to Yellowstone many times, and I've seen volcanic features on multiple different continents. So to leave an Illinois winter to come to warm, perfect, sunny, oceany Kona side of the Big Island and leave to go too often gloomy, rainy, even a little cold Hilo side? Ugh, hard to justify. If there were visible active lava flows that would be one thing. But there weren't. Staying at an AirBnb in Hilo would have been better- we stayed at the Volcano House and the food was ugh, the rooms were ugh and there was very minimal communal space. We did have a view over the crater but it was only steaming- and what- are we going to just sit in our room and look out the window? Wasn't for us.
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| Lava tube |
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| Entertaining kids with recyclables in a hotel room |
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| Sea arch |
But we had a good time exploring the lava tube, crater, rainforest, cinder cone, steam vents and sea arch. More driving than I would have liked though. There is a nice just barely off the road stop that I recommend if convenient- the Kalopa state recreation area has a nice Polynesian botanic garden with some interesting plants. They kids had a great time making an impromptu mud kitchen on a stump and we all enjoyed stretching our legs.
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| Walking on the crater floor |
I would like to have fun on Lake Tahoe with my mates and wanna tell you that had been there during best west coast tours and that was outstanding for me.
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