Kona, big island, things to do

[adriatic04]

Any cool recommendations for Kona? I'm in waikoloa but have a car.

Specifically looking for a cool coffee bean farm, don't need a tourist trap, the real deal.

Read about black sand beach, gotta do that for the kids at home (borrow some black sand for Ohio)

I was in Maui a couple a couple months ago and the locals pointed you in the right direction of non touristy places, I'm not finding the same here.

Serve it up, help me out. Here on work and no family so sitting at a pool gets old real quick.

 

[kennith]

One of these days I need to go to Hawaii, just to "have been there".

Cheers,

Kennith

 

[adriatic04]

The beer is average, black coffee is great, and the sun sits on top of you and hardly let's up.

Haleakala on Maui is pure, go for sunset and miss the tour busses for sunrise.

Cheers,

 

[umbertob]

Good thing you have a car... It's a big island. If you dive you should definitely sign up for a night dive with the manta rays, they normally dive right in front of the airport. If you get lucky and a bunch of them show up, they are a sight to behold. They also take snorkelers, but it's not quite the same to see them from the surface.

If you don't dive, watching the sunset and staying for stargazing at the top of Mauna Kea surrounded by all those observatories that spring to life as the sun goes down is also quite spectacular. It gets very cold in, like, 10 minutes at the summit as the sun goes down, and I can't remember if a 4x4 vehicle is mandatory or "highly recommended", but the last stretch of dirt road near the summit is extremely steep, so you do need a car with good brakes and low range if possible. Trust me, the experience is worth the hassle.

When I was there I used to love driving over to the "rainy" side, lots of scenic stops on the way, such as the Waipio Valley lookout and a few gorgeous waterfalls. Although it's touristy, you've gotta check out at least a little bit of Volcano National Park, you can walk all the way to the lava flow if you don't mind hiking. There was also a great restaurant in Waimea, Merriman's. Don't know if it's still as good as it was several years back.

 

[adriatic04]

thanks, i dont dive but wish i did after hearing that.

been to the volcano park before, i was considering it again and then saw some of the roads closed this weekend.

will do the sunset thing. the "rainy" side seems cool, might need to figure out how to make that a trip.

Good thing you have a car... It's a big island. If you dive you should definitely sign up for a night dive with the manta rays, they normally dive right in front of the airport. If you get lucky and a bunch of them show up, they are a sight to behold. They also take snorkelers, but it's not quite the same to see them from the surface.

If you don't dive, watching the sunset and staying for stargazing at the top of Mauna Kea surrounded by all those observatories that spring to life as the sun goes down is also quite spectacular. It gets very cold in, like, 10 minutes at the summit as the sun goes down, and I can't remember if a 4x4 vehicle is mandatory or "highly recommended", but the last stretch of dirt road near the summit is extremely steep, so you do need a car with good brakes and low range if possible. Trust me, the experience is worth the hassle.

When I was there I used to love driving over to the "rainy" side, lots of scenic stops on the way, such as the Waipio Valley lookout and a few gorgeous waterfalls. Although it's touristy, you've gotta check out at least a little bit of Volcano National Park, you can walk all the way to the lava flow if you don't mind hiking. There was also a great restaurant in Waimea, Merriman's. Don't know if it's still as good as it was several years back.

 

[Mike_Rupp]

We spent a few days on the big island so we didn't get to explore as much as I usually do, but here are a few things:

Kahlua pork loco moco at Hana Hou Restaurant. It was the best thing I ate on the big island.

While there, go to the southernmost point in the US.

Greenwell's coffee farms. It's a larger farm / coffee processor, but it was a good tour. There weren't any other tourists. I'll try to post up a few pics later.

 

[Mike_Rupp]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/marupp/9561409143/" title="Untitled by rupp62, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7342/9561409143_173641cfc0_c.jpg" width="800" height="535" alt="Untitled"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/marupp/9561409459/" title="Untitled by rupp62, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7286/9561409459_29638fe433_c.jpg" width="800" height="535" alt="Untitled"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/marupp/9564199616/" title="DSC_3460 by rupp62, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3744/9564199616_375358d488_c.jpg" width="800" height="535" alt="DSC_3460"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/marupp/9564200026/" title="Untitled by rupp62, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3791/9564200026_8a4075e9c7_c.jpg" width="535" height="800" alt="Untitled"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/marupp/9564201062/" title="Untitled by rupp62, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7424/9564201062_82edbdd66d_c.jpg" width="535" height="800" alt="Untitled"></a>

 

[adriatic04]

Mike - thank you, that is awesome. Will do both of these, probably do the black sand beach before the Hana Hou, looks like it is close.

Greenwell sounds good. I was going to do Mountain Thunder but this sounds even better.

appreciate it!

 

[Mike_Rupp]

Check out the green sand beach also. It's really close to Hana Hou. Just don't bring any sand home or you'll be cursed.

 

[97discox2]

Mountain thunder coffee farm. Dirty jobs did a show there, cool tour and great coffe. Pancho and Lefty's downtown Kona for some decent fish taco's and cool drafts at a decent price. 1/2 day fishing charters are fun and good snorkeling.

 

[adriatic04]

I am back but a couple points for anyone else.

Green sand beach: pay a local to get a lift instead of hiking, its cool to see but not something you want to spend extra hours hiking to/fro to see for 10 mins.

Black sand beach: interesting to see, not very big at all. The sea turtles are really neat to see, again, you wont spend much time there, its a 10 min picture stop.

Hana Hou: cool place, loco moco was fun to have, pork was awesome. I would recommend getting there for a late lunch. This place including the two previous beaches are an easy 2 hour drive from Waikoloa area. The drive is not that exciting, especially when the sun sets at 7 PM and it is pitch black the entire way home. Would be a lot better to be driving back around 5 so you drive along the water during the sunset and have a late meal when you are back.

Coffee farms, I went to both Mountain Thunder and Greenwell. Mountain Thunder has a second (main site) which is 15 mins from the Kona airport (30 mins from Waikoloa), I enjoyed this place and setting more than Greenwell (1-1.5 hr from Waikoloa). Coffee farms are in the rainy area, it is easily 20 degrees cooler than at sea, I was up at Greenwell and it was raining and 58 degrees, be prepared.

All in all, this island is much different, make sure you are prepared to drive a lot to get to sites, its not like Maui or Oahu where you have a bunch packed in, this is like being in the desert of Tucson area.

 

[Mike_Rupp]

Glad you liked the pork loco moco.

Now, give me some recommendations on Maui. I've been there a couple times, but I'd love to get some new ideas.

 

[adriatic04]

if you havent done any of these I found this to be fun in the short time I had.

go see Peahi (Jaws) the north shore surfing spot.

Go to town of Paia and check out the cool shops and little mom & pop places to grab a beer and seafood. Drive a few miles away and hit Mama's Fish House for dinner, get a reservation early, it can fill in quick.

I thought the food and beer was really good at Maui Brewing Co. but the location sucks. It is in Lahaina so you arent far from Kapalua or wailea.

Do Haleakala for sunset unless you do it the day after arrival when you will be up at 3am anyhow. Less traffic and fewer tour busses

 

[Mike_Rupp]

We're most likely going to stay in Paia, so Halealaka will be close. The last time we went to Halealaka it was from Kaanapali, so it was a long drive at 4am. We just missed sunrise.

I rented a Jeep, so I hope to drive to Hana and then along the south coast back to Paia.

 

[bri]

The Maui Prince for expensing but awesome sushi.

Mama's fish house for food and Mai Tai's.

Ahihi Bay for about everything you can imagine at snorkeling depth.

Watch surfers at Hookipa (think I saw 40' breakers there in the mid 90's).

Take a smaller or racing class sailboat somewhere, where whales are... a boat that can cut it's engines and still sail.

We usually went in Feb. Whales were awesome. Boogie boarding was awesome, but got maytagged regularly.

I enjoyed the coaster bikes down the volcano.

We also hiked some of the hills in the rainiest parts of Maui. Pretty fun.

Edit... another. Hit the local markets, docks or grocery stores for fish caught that day. grill or sear a relatively cheap dinner.

 

[adriatic04]

We're most likely going to stay in Paia, so Halealaka will be close. The last time we went to Halealaka it was from Kaanapali, so it was a long drive at 4am. We just missed sunrise.

I rented a Jeep, so I hope to drive to Hana and then along the south coast back to Paia.

the road to hana drive is really cool. Paia is cool, good spot, do mama's for sure. There is a flatbread pizza place there, they have mainland locations but they did a nice local job there in Paia.

I am not in to the group tour things but I know some people who did zip lining and the coaster bikes down the volcano passes and enjoyed both. I almost bought a bike shipping case and shipped my bikes both times to the islands but decided I just didnt have enough time.

anyone been to Oahu recently? Staying in Waikiki in January, heard the whales are awesome this time of year. anything else on that island? Not looking forward to that one as much as I did Maui.

 

[Mike_Rupp]

Well, Waikiki beach is undoubtedly the worst place to be in all of the islands. Seriously. Maybe it's because I'm not in my 20's anymore, but I thought that Waikiki sucked. We stayed there for a couple days at the beginning of a vacation where the rest was spent on Kauai.

That being said, this is a really good restaurant: http://sidestreetinn.com. Even though it's in Honolulu, it's one of the few places that's frequented by locals. There are a bunch of ramen shops that are supposedly really good, but I didn't get a chance to go to one.

The best thing to do is get the hell away from Waikiki beach. On another trip to Oahu, we stayed up on the North shore. It is just spectacular up there. You must hit Tita's Grill and get the garlic shrimp. It is an imperative. It was one of the best meals of my life. I'm not trying to exaggerate, but I really dream about that shrimp. Everyone will tell you to go to Giovannis, but Tita's Grill is better.

Another place to visit is the Kualoa Ranch. It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. They've filmed a bunch of movies and a bunch of scenes from Lost there. They also have Pinzgauer tours which was pretty cool.

It kind of goes without saying but going to visit the Arizona memorial is kind of a requirement. It's wild to see a bunch of standard loud obnoxious tourists quiet down as they take the boat ride over.

 

[adriatic04]

yeah...its not a vacation so I cant control the destination otherwise trust me I have no interest. A long flight to stay in a city and walk across a major road to possibly see a tourist packed beach. :banghead: It has been years since I was there. I enjoy Maui and Kauai.

will hit up Tita's grill for sure, salivating about it already. Looks like it is an easy hour away but I will make the trip.