We realized that the big island of Hawaii is a BIG island, so we decided to take a day and explore the whole island. You have to start early as there will be a lot of driving!

so it is best to load up with a Sumo order of Loco Moco at Kens Pancake House in Hilo.

All the celebrities visit here and they tried to take my picture too…

There are tons of little lagoons and beaches around the island you can explore. The idea is to catch of the turtles and hang out with them. Carlsmith Beach is pretty popular and accessible to both humans and turtles

but even cooler and further to the north is a park, lookout and place to go fishing called Laupāhoehoe Lookout. It is pretty intense and worth taking the narrow road down to the coast to check out.

But you did need to be careful and watch out for these lava based crabs that are spawned from the depths of the deep lava tubes!

Similar to the Rainbow Falls in Hilo, it is recommended to check out Akaka Falls. It is a very short (and very humid) walk through the rain forest.

Not too crowded, lots of flowers and you also have the same scammer Diamond Parking crew collecting money from every visitor.

It takes about an hour each way to cross the middle of the island through the long, desolate and boring lava fields. You get one of two extremes each way: massive rainbows across the side or complete blinding fog and rain that you almost have to pull of the road as you cannot see anything.

But the treat at the end is a good cup of Kona coffee which is quite popular.

We took a tour around Greenwells coffee planation which was quite large and very nice to get the local insights. What was the surprise was all the massive fruit trees and avocado trees which were massive.

Was Kona was as fancy and better than everyone claims compared to Hilo and the eastern side of the island? Not really. It is just newer with more industrial space and Costco, but really does not feel that Hawaiian.

We drove back to Puna area to enjoy the calming private waves 🙂