Where to stay and what to do on the Big Island of Hawaii

Aloha!
Just got back from a fantastic trip to the Big Island and would like to give you some recommendations and helpful information for your stay there.

Kona, which is in the western part of the big island, is a beautiful place and will not disappoint you. No matter where you end up staying, the natives are very friendly and easy to talk to. This is always a big plus when traveling and defintely made my stay even more enjoyable.  I also recommend you rent a car while staying on the island.  It will end up being cheaper and will make getting around outside the hotel a whole lot easier.  Just to put it in perspective, our taxi ride was 35-40 minutes to the hotel and cost us $75 one-way. I had called the hotel ahead of time to ask what the going rate was and they had told me $76.

I stayed at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and Bungalows.  I highly recommend this beach resort if you go to Kona.  It is located on the west side of the island, about 40 minutes north of the Kona International Airport.  The atrium and the hotel's maintained grounds are absolutely beautiful and I felt like I was walking in to a tropical paradise as soon as I stepped out of the cab. Goldfish ponds lined the entrance into the hotel and when I walked in to the atrium I was in awe of the huge open space with lots of tropical plants, streams, water fountains, and small ponds containing a variety of tropical fish. Because Hawaii has such a great climate, the atrium, surrounding restaurants, and coffee shop are open-air which gives you an even more tropical, beach-like feel and from both of the restaurants they have in the hotel you can see the ocean just steps away.  In my opinion, even El Conquistador hotel in Puerto Rico (a Waldorf Astoria resort on the ocean), which I've always loved, doesn't even top the tropical and tranquil feeling of this hotel when you walk in. I can definitely see why this hotel was rated one of the "top hotels in the world"!

Some of the perks I enjoyed at the hotel included:

1. Upon check-in, I was welcomed with a friendly lei greeting and guava beverage....the perfect start to my Hawaiian vacay!
2. Complimentary cabanas and hammocks on the beach
3. Complimentary rental of snorkeling gear....you can go snorkeling right in front of the hotel and don't need to go far in order to find lots of tortoises and different tropical fish to swim with.  Great for beginner snorkelers!
4. Complimentary rental of bicycles to explore the grounds
5. Complimentary bottled water in your room

Other things to do at the hotel:

• You can rent kayaks and surfboards (will cost about $42-$55/hour)
• The bar in front of the beach....try their yummy fish tacos and their iconic piña colada called the lava flow!
• Spa day: The Mauna Lani Spa and Salon has been recognized as one of the world's top rated spas and many of the treatments are hawaiian themed.
• The resort has 2 championship golf courses, a fitness center, and tennis courts
• The shops at Mauna Lani: Located on Mauna Lani drive and just a minute down the road from the hotel.  Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Tommy Bahama store and cafe, Monstera sushi restaurant, and a grocery store are a few of the places at this location.  They get very busy during peak times so make a reservation before going.  If you are looking for more, there are shops and restaurants at Queen's Marketplace, just a couple of minutes down the road from there.

For more information on the hotel, here is their website: http://www.maunalani.com/
If you book ahead and pay in full up front (non-refundable) you can get a huge discount. We saved over $100/night doing this.

Additional costs:

• Internet use costs $15 + tax/day but we just used our android phone to provide wireless internet to our laptop...for free.  
• If you rent a car, you will need to pay for parking which is $18 + tax per day
• As in any other resort, the food and drinks are pricier but that is to be expected.  ($12 for an alcoholic beverage, $31 for one person at the breakfast buffet, $20 for a small blue wedge salad with a few pieces of chicken).  

A few things to do outside of the resort area:

• Swim with the dolphins in the wild and go with Sea Wolf Charters. These guys are a fun group, professional, and won't let you down!  It was a fun 45 min. boat ride to get out to where they were. They seem to have a tracker who keeps watch of them and let's them know where they are as they migrate to different places in the ocean.  Once we found them we put on the snorkel gear that they provided us and dived in to swim with them.  It was an absolutely amazing experience! I could see them playing together underwater as well as hear them communicating to each other.  If you aren't a great swimmer, they will provide you with life jackets and noodles to float on.  There were 3 experienced divers in addition to the driver that helped us with our gear, swam with us and directed our group, and helped us back onto the boat, making the experience safer and easier.  I don't want to give it away, but they had a special surprise performance at the end of our trip that I enjoyed and definitely did not expect. ;)  They are located at the Honokohau Marina which is about 15 minutes south of the Kona International Airport at Keyhole.  The cost is $95/person and worth every penny.  The following is their website: http://www.seawolfhawaii.com/

• Go to Kona Brewing Co. for lunch. This is a popular outdoor pub to try different Hawaiian beers and just a few minutes drive from the Honokohau Marina.  They also have a shop that sells shirts, glasses, etc which make great souvenirs to take home to your friends and family. 

http://konabrewingco.com/

• Go to a luau! : How can you go to Hawaii and not experience a luau at least once?!?  There are several to pick from on the island but make reservations at least a couple of weeks in advance because they fill up quickly and each place that have these events typically only offer them two nights per week.  Be prepared for this....from our experience and the experience of others that we've talked to that went to a luau at a different location on the island, the food and drinks are a complete disappointment and they should really step it up on their part.  The only reason I recommend going is for the show, which is a lot of fun and worth seeing.  Sorry, on this I'm not going to recommend any particular one because, other than the show (which seems to pretty much be the same anywhere you go) I wasn't particularly impressed with the one we went to nor were our friends impressed with the one they attended.

• Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: This is supposed to be an absolute must see when coming to the island, but I'm not gonna lie.  After about a 2-hour car ride to the other side of the island (we took the shorter route across the middle of the island to get there faster), I was a bit disappointed.  Based on things that I've seen in pictures and on TV, I was hoping to see lava flowing out of or near a volcano.  When I arrived, however, I was told that the part we could access has been inactive for a while and that we would not see any.  Instead, I saw some steam vents, a couple of mid-size craters, and a humongous crater that was so big I felt like an ant walking through it. I also walked through their visitor's center and learned a little more about the history and science of the volcanos. The lava tube we walked through was a bit of a disappointment as well and was basically just a short walk through a small cave.  Having said this, I did enjoy the hike and flora and fauna along the way.

I hope some of this information has been useful for you as you are planning your trip to the Big Island!

Mahalo!

Heather Vanderheiden