Three day itinerary in Big Island of Hawaii

 

The big island is the biggest island in Hawaii. It has a very diverse terrain across the island: ranging from beautiful beaches and coastlines, to rainforests, to deserts of lava remnants. It definitely deserves a multiple day visit. However, if you are only there for two or three days, this itinerary will show you how to get the most of it in a limited time.


Summary

Day 1

  • Kaumana Caves

  • Kilauea Caverns of Fire

  • Volcano national park

    • Nahuku - Thurston Lava Tube

    • Ha‘akulamanu (Sulphur Banks) and Steam Vents

Day 2

  • Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park

    • Where can I see lava flow?

    • Craters

    • Petroglyphs

  • West side of the island

    • Waikōloa Petroglyphs

Day 3

  • Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park


Day 1

Kaumana Caves

Kaumana Caves is a Lava tube with free entrance. Inside of the cave, you can do a round trip of 0.5 mile with 100’ elevation gain. It gets darker as you go deeper into the cave. The flashlight from my phone is not enough for lumination. It is better to bring a flashlight. You can see the pattern of lava flow on the ground, which is very cool:


Kilauea Caverns of Fire

Kilauea Caverns of Fire is a lava tube that sits on top of the Kazamura Lava Tube system, which is the "longest lava tube in the world". You can make a tour reservation by calling them at (808) 217-2363 (Please check on their website to make sure their phone number has not changed by now). They offer three different kinds of tours at different price points and length of time. 

We did the 1hr walking tour. The geology inside the cave is fascinating:


If we ever go back there, we will definitely want to try the 3 hr adventure tour. For your first trip the shorter tour is fine because there are so many other things to do, but on a repeat visit I would take the opportunity to see even more of the caves.


The area where the cave is located is like a rain forest climate. I got a lot of mosquito bites while I was there. Please use some bug spray if you don’t want to be carried away by mosquitos.


Volcano national park

Nahuku - Thurston Lava Tube

This is the lava tube day! After the two lava tube tours, we drove to volcano national park and headed into Nāhuku, which is the Thurston Lava Tube. This lava tube is well lit, but less interesting compared to the other two we visited earlier (IMO).  It is a large, circular and straight lava tube.  If it’s the only one you see, I bet you would like it, but since it was our third lava tube of the day we were somewhat less interested.

Ha‘akulamanu (Sulphur Banks) and Steam Vents

This is a hiking area with volcanic gas and steam. The steam smells a little funky, so please be prepared for that.


Dinner

Some of the restaurants near the national park are a bit pricey. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant called “Thai Thai Bistro and Bar”. The Mai Thai is pretty good. I asked for Thai spicy for my Pad See Ew, and I ended up regretting it big time. The food is delicious, but it is definitely very spicy.

Hotel

We stayed at volcano inn, which is a hotel very close to the national park (2.9 miles). This hotel is like a garden. I saw bananas and pineapples at their property:





Day 2

Breakfast

The hotel we stayed in provided a very unique breakfast: a half papaya filled with sliced bananas and yogurt, banana bread, coffee and orange juice. If you are vegan, you can ask them to make a papaya bowl for you with no yogurt. Another bonus is the view of the rainforest plants from the breakfast area:  


Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park

Where can I see lava flow?

When we were there, there was an active lava flow going on. We asked around and finally found out where we could go to see lava flow. We parked at the Devastation trail parking lot. Then walk on Crater Rim Drive (towards west) until arriving at the viewing area.

If you look real hard at the picture below, there is a faint red area at the bottom of the crater. That’s the flowing lava.  We only made it there during daytime, but other people have told us that it’s much more beautiful at night when the heat of the lava causes the clouds and smoke to glow red.

If you know a better way to view the lava flow, please let us know. We will be happy to try it out next time we visit.

Craters

After the lava flow viewpoint, we drove towards the coast along “Chain of Craters Road”. There are a lot of craters along the road that you can stop to take a look. This is one of the craters:

There are miles and miles of lava bed along the road. It is very scenic. Here is a pic of the lava bed (sorry for blocking the view):


Petroglyphs

You can see a lot of petroglyphs at Pu‘u Loa Petroglyphs, which is near the end of the “Chains of Craters Road”. 

A lot of the petroglyphs are dots, circles, people and turtles.


Hōlei Sea Arch

This is at the end of “Chain of Craters Road”. It is an arched rock near the coast.


West side of the island

After the amazing national park tour, we started driving back to the west side of the island, because we are flying back from Kona airport the next day.

Waikōloa Petroglyphs

If you want to see more petroglyphs on the west side, check out Waikōloa Petroglyph Reserve. It is right next to a golf course, and offers abundant Petroglyphs on a paved trail. 

Dinner

We had dinner at Quinn's Almost by the Sea. They have delicious seafood and pasta there:

Day 3

Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park

We had two hours to spare in the morning before our flight, so we went to Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park. This is a great spot for watching green sea turtles from the beach. You can park at Marina, then walk for 5 min to the beach. 


I am sure there are so many other great places to go, and things to do on this beautiful island. Leave me a comment below and let me know what is your favorite spot on the big island! 


Check out the itineraries for other Hawaiian islands:

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