【Hawaii Travel Blog】Kona Hawaii (Big Island).::You, me; sunset and palm tree::.

If you haven’t been to Big Island, you haven’t been to the real “Hawaii”. In fact, the State of Hawaii is named after the Big Island, aka “Hawai’i”, which is the State’s biggest island.

Wait, there are different islands in Hawaii? Yes! I only learned that Hawaii is so much more than Waikiki and Honolulu (which, by the way, are on the island of Oahu) as I started planning our trip. The most difficult part was deciding which islands to visit for our 10-day holiday…Each island has its own charm and so much to see – and holidays are always too short.

Our Big Island Itinerary

Day 1: Arrive in Hilo. Drive to Kona. Afternoon in Kona – town & sunset
Day 2: Breakfast in Kona. Kahaluu Bay (snorkelling). South Point. Punaluu beach (black beach). Pahoa (accommodation).
Day 3: Tide pools. Mauna Kea (sunset).
Day 4: Lava tour. Volcano National Park.

If you don’t have a car, this is how you would get around Kona – the trolley.

If you are driving, the better way of doing both Hilo (on the east coast of Big Island) and Kona (on the west coast of Big Island) is to enter one airport and leave from another. However, the extra cost for returning the hired car to the different side of the island was not worth it for us.

Pastel yellow fire hydrants are so cute.

Kona Seaside Hotel

Since we only had one night in Kona, I picked the Kona Seaside Hotel for its convenient location. It’s right by one of Kona’s main village, the historic Kailua Village, the beach, and restaurants.

The room was clean and reasonably well maintained.

We randomly got upgraded to the partial ocean view room. Lucky. We didn’t even have to play the “we’re on our (fake) honeymoon” card!

{Kona Seaside Hotel}
Address: 75-5646 Palani Road, Kailua-Kona
Website: http://www.konaseasidehotel.com

Kona Hawaii – Things to do

I was hoping to join the night mantra ray snorkelling tour, but our jet lag and the long drive from Hilo got the better of us…We decided to take it easy so that we were well recharged for the rest of our trip.

After our nap, we just strolled along the main streets of the Kailua Village.The streets were quiet in mid-February when we went. Apart from the many many ABC stores, you would also find some cute little souvenir shops, shave ice and restaurants along the streets.

Kona Sunset

Being on the west coast, Kona is famous for its sunset. We watched the sunset on the little beach next to Bubba Gump (blog post to come), where we had our first meal in Hawaii.