once planted with sugarcane; it now blooms with macadamia nuts, papayas, vanilla orchids, and mushrooms. Resort-free and virtually without beaches, the Hamakua Coast includes the districts of Hamakua and North Hilo, with two unmissable destinations. Picture-perfect Waipio Valley has impossibly steep sides, taro patches, a green riot of wild plants, and a winding stream leading to a broad, black-sand beach, while Akaka Falls State Park offers views of two lovely waterfalls amid lush foliage. Also worth checking out: Laupahoehoe Point , with its mournful memorial to young victims of a 1946 tsunami; and the quirky assortment of shops in the plantation town of Honokaa.
Rainbow Falls
Hilo
The largest metropolis in Hawaii after Honolulu is a quaint, misty, flower-filled city of Victorian houses overlooking a half-moon bay, a historic downtown and a clear view of Mauna Kea, often snowcapped in winter. But it rains a lot in Hilo—about 128 inches a year—which tends to dampen visitors’ enthusiasm for longer stays. It’s ideal for growing ferns, orchids, and anthuriums, but not for catching constant rays.
Yet there’s a lot to see and do in Hilo and the surrounding South Hilo district, including indoor attractions such as the Imiloa Astronomy Center , Lyman Museum and Mission House , Mokupapapa Discovery Center , and the Pacific Tsunami Museum . Outdoors, you’ll want to see Hilo Bay , the bayfront Liliuokalani Gardens , and Rainbow Falls (Waianueanue) —so grab your umbrella. The rain is warm (the temperature seldom dips below 70°F/21°C), and there’s usually a rainbow afterward.
The town also holds the island’s best bargains for budget travelers, with plenty of hotel rooms—most of the year, that is. Hilo’s magic moment comes in spring, the week after Easter, when hula halau (schools) arrive for the annual Merrie Monarch Hula Festival hula competition (www.merriemonarch.com). Plan ahead if you want to go: Tickets are sold out by the first week in January, and hotels within 30 miles are usually booked solid. Hilo is also the gateway to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park , where hula troupes have traditionally performed chants and dances before the Merrie Monarch festival; the park is 30 miles away, or about an hour’s drive up-slope.
Puna District
Pahoa, Kapoho & Kalapana Between Hilo and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park lies the “Wild Wild East,” which gained international fame in 2018 with the onset of devastating, dramatic lava flows that lasted 4 months. Although no lives were lost (scientific monitoring allows for early warning, and lava doesn’t move that fast here), the flows claimed some 700 homes—including oceanfront vacation rentals, an isolated suburban subdivision, and farmsteads—and filled all of Kapoho Bay with molten rock up to 900 feet deep. The Lower Puna eruption also caused Green Lake to evaporate and buried the volcanically heated waters of Ahalanui Park, the Kapoho warm ponds, and Waiopae tidepools, all beloved attractions and unique ecosystems. However, not all was lost: The ghostly hollowed trunks of Lava Tree State Monument remain standing, while a new black-sand beach and lagoon formed at Pohoiki Harbor in Isaac Hale Beach Park , which currently requires a four-wheel-drive vehicle to access. At press time, officials were still mulling how to allow safe access to newly created thermal ponds near the extended shoreline, but a lively night market still takes place in Kalapana on the acres of lava that rolled through the hamlet in 1986. The part-Hawaiian, part-hippie plantation town of Pahoa was threatened by a lava flow in 2014 that consumed miles of forest before stopping just short of the village and Hwy. 130, its lifeline to the rest of the island.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park This is America’s most exciting national park, where a live volcano called Kilauea continuously erupted from 1983 to 2018, and put on many memorable displays long before Mark Twain recorded its scenery and sulphurous odors in 1866. At press time, steam still wafted around Kilauea’s edges, while its magma chamber far below the earth was slowly beginning to refill after having poured out lava through Puna’s Lower East Rift Zone. The months of sporadic but massive, steam-driven eruptions of ash at the summit in 2018 not only drained the famous lava lake at Halemaumau Crater inside Kilauea’s caldera, but also quadrupled the size of the caldera, which expanded more than a square mile. The crater floor dropped from 280 feet to as much as 1,500 feet in places. While the vast park had yet to reopen all roads, trails, and attractions at press time, visitors should still ideally plan to spend 3 days at the park exploring its spectacular landscape, including cinder mounds, lush rainforest, stark-hued shoreline, and cultural sites. Even if you have only a day, it’s worth the trip. Bring your sweats or jacket (honest!); it’s cool and often misty up here.
Volcano Village If you’re not camping or staying at the historic, 33-room Volcano House inside the park, you’ll want to overnight in this quiet hamlet, just outside the national park entrance. Several cozy inns and B&Bs, some with fireplaces, reside under tree ferns in this cool mountain hideaway. The tiny highland community (elevation 4,000 ft.), first settled by Japanese immigrants, is now inhabited by artists, soul-searchers, and others who like the crisp high-country air, although proposed county regulations may drastically limit vacation rentals here.
Kau District
Pronounced “kah-oo,” this windswept, often barren district between Puna and South Kona is one visitors are most likely to just drive through on their way to and from the national park. Nevertheless, it contains several noteworthy sites.
Ka Lae (South Point) This is the Plymouth Rock of Hawaii. The first Polynesians are thought to have arrived in seagoing canoes, most likely from the Marquesas Islands, as early as a.d. 124 at this rocky promontory 500 feet above the sea. To the west is the old fishing village of Waiahukini, populated from a.d. 750 until the 1860s; ancient canoe moorings, shelter caves, and heiau (temples) poke through windblown pili grass today. The east coast curves inland to reveal Papakolea (Green Sand) Beach , a world-famous anomaly that’s best accessed on foot. Along the point, the southernmost spot in the 50 states, trees grow sideways due to the relentless gusts that also power wind turbines in the area. It’s a slow, nearly 12-mile drive from the highway to the tip of Ka Lae, so many visitors simply stop at the marked overlook on Highway 11, west of South Point Road.
Naalehu, Waiohinu & Pahala Nearly every business in Naalehu and Waiohinu, the two wide spots
once planted with sugarcane; it now blooms with macadamia nuts, papayas, vanilla orchids, and mushrooms. Resort-free and virtually without beaches, the Hamakua Coast includes the districts of Hamakua and North Hilo, with two unmissable destinations. Picture-perfect Waipio Valley 