After staying in Hilo for a few days, we are heading back to Kona. On the way back, we decided to stop by a couple of cool places:

Punalu’u Black Sand Beach
Black beaches are usually found near volcanoes, as the sand is composed of volcanic minerals and lava fragments. You can also find sea turtles here! One of the pictures below is a shy sea turtle saying hi with its hand from under the water. We were choosing between going to the black sand beach or the green sand beach because we only had time to go to one of them. As cool as the black beach was, we really should have picked the green sand beach! Due to poor research and planning, we did not know that the Big Island has one of the 4 green sand beaches in the world. Well, till next time!

Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park
Another stop we made is to the Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park to learn more about Hawaiian history and culture. You get to see the hut and some cool sculptures!

We have another 3 days on the Kona side of the island, where we planned to spend our time on different beaches. We had to return the rental car because those were the only days the car was available. For the rest of our time here, we mostly used Uber to get to different places (as long as you don’t go too far, it doesn’t get too expensive). It is such a small island that we happened to have the same Uber drivers twice, and we also got to meet some interesting people who live on the island. We met a retired firefighter, a chef and a school teacher, and the people here are super friendly that they would share their whole life stories with you!

Catching the Waves - Magic Sands Beach
This is a beautiful beach, with soft white sand. As you can see in the video below, it has good waves for those who like to play with the board!

Snorkeling - Kahalu’u Beach Park
One of the activities that I looked forward the most was snorkeling!!!! And This is a great place for it! (So as the Honaunau or two steps next to the national historical park) We didn’t have anything to take underwater pictures, but you can see a lot of fish from above as well! We saw so many fish that I would normally see in an aquarium (might not be the exact species, but that was how I felt), and it was an amazing experience! There are also a lot of sea urchins around, so be careful to not get stung!

Sea Turtle “Hunting” Part I - Anaehoomalu Bay
Sea turtles is my favorite sea animals, and yes, I actually have key chains of sea turtles! Needless to say that I want to see a real one! I looked online and found a couple beaches that claimed to have sea turtle sightings. This one is called the A-bay or the Anehoomalu bay. It is quite close to the Waikoloa village, which is a super huge fancy hotel resort, so you can go check that out if you have time! But, I am only here for the turtles!!! Turned out I did not see any sea turtles here, but it is a beautiful beach with lots of corals (pictures below). It is quite rocky, so I don’t recommend swimming, but I heard from other people we met along the way that there are a lot of fish and sometimes sea turtle in the water.

Sea Turtle “Hunting” Part II - Kiholo Bay
Both the Uber driver and another person we met at the A-bay told us that Kiholo bay is the place to go for sea turtle. I decided to trust the locals, as this is probably my last hope of seeing a real sea turtle. It was getting a little later in the day, which decreases the chance of seeing them! (Sea Turtles are usually seen between 11am to 4pm, when the sun is strong) The Kiholo Bay can be accessed through a trail by Highway 19, and it took us about 30 mins to walk from the trail head to the beach. After reaching the beach, you make a right and start walking all those lava rocks. AND…. drum roll….. THERE THEY ARE! Sunbathing on the rocks across! I was able to capture one that was going into the water (See below). We did not have swimming stuff with us, but we can see through the water that there are again a lot of fish AND sea turtles in the water!!! This looks like an amazing place for snorkeling because there are fewer people with a lot more fish plus sea turtles!! If we had come earlier, we would have been able to 1) see more sea turtles and 2) walk all the way to the end to get closer to the sea turtles. Oh well, till next time!!

Coffee Tour - Mountain Thunder
One last thing we want to do is coffee tasting! To be honest, we have been having bad luck getting good coffee around here, so we were quite skeptical about this. Anyways, we picked one of the many coffee roasters here based on online reviews and recommendations. This place gives you a complementary tour and coffee tasting, so you could come here and not spend a dime if you don’t buy anything! We did end up buying some authentic Kona coffee beans to try (and they are good, and expensive!).

This concludes our one-week relaxing vacation in Hawaii. There are definitely more you could do on the island, like swimming with dolphins, manta ray night dive, etc. For those who plans to visit, note that Christmas is their busiest time of the year, and everything gets booked out! So plan ahead! Aloha!

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To be honest, Hawaii was not our first choice for a holiday destination, but due to various reasons, we decided to check it out! This is our first tropical experience, and we have two conclusions: 1) We will never move to a tropical island, 2) We like it but a week is probably enough time.
We definitely enjoyed our time there, but we both agreed that this would not be some kind of retirement destination for us, unlike a lot of people on the island. It is a little claustrophobic for us, ironically, to be living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Originally, we wanted to go to Kauai and the big island, but everything is booked out in Kauai, so we ended up staying on the big island for a whole week, which to be honest, it’s quite enough to see the things we want to / can see.
Hawaii is one of the more expensive destinations, however, if you do Airbnb for accommodation and Turo for car rental, it is actually quite reasonable.

Hilo

We flew into Kona, but first, we drove to Hilo, which is in the opposite of the island for the first couple days. The climate on each side is surprisingly different. Hilo rains a lot, therefore a lot greener, and also closer to the volcanoes. A couple highlights on the Hilo side:

Mauna Kea
Depending on where you count it from, this can be the tallest mountain in the world (higher than Everest). We were determined to go to the summit, so we rented a 4WD from Harper car and truck rental that would allow us to drive up the Mauna Kea (normal rental companies won’t let you). However, when we got there the first day, it was pouring, and therefore snowing up there. The park rangers block off the road and we couldn’t go up there. We went back the next day morning, the weather was nice, but the snow and ice haven’t completely melted yet, and so we did not make it up there. We were very sad, but we took a couple short hikes around the visitor center and got some nice views.
*Note that it is advised to acclimate at the visitor center for at least 30 mins before driving up to the summit when weather permits

Due to the weather, it also ruined my stargazing plan :(

Volcanoes National Park
Another slightly disappointing experience. We were hoping to see the lava glow, but due to the recent eruption, we weren’t able to. However, it was still a very cool experience to see the crater and the steaming vents everywhere.
We did stay till night time for stargazing around here. On a clear day, you can literally see quite a lot of stars anywhere on the island (as you can imagine, light pollution is quite minimal in the middle of the pacific). And when you go to places slightly darker, you can see a beautiful starry sky. What’s interesting is that the constellations are different from those we observed on the mainland.

The waterfalls - Akaka Fall and Rainbow Fall
There are many waterfalls on this side of the island, and we saw interesting plants, wild pigs and chickens everywhere!

Waipio Valley
This is a must-go!!!! Breathtaking view from up top and when you get to the bottom. I saw a lot of people drove down with a 4WD, but you can also walk down to the valley. It was so steep that we both think walking up is easier than walking down. Once you were in the valley, you could walk to the beach and swim. It was surrounded by stunning views.