One week itinerary on the big island of Hawaii

Day 1

  • Two step

    • Snorkeling

    • Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park

  • Acai bowl

  • Greenwell Farms

  • Sunset

    • Aiopio Fish Trap

    • Abay beach in Waikoloa area (ʻAnaehoʻomalu Beach)

Day 2

  • Papakolea Green Sand Beach

  • 69 beach

  • Puakō Petroglyph Park

Day 3

  • HiCO - Hawaiian Coffee

  • Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site

  • Pololu Valley Lookout

  • Waikōloa Petroglyph Reserve

  • Queen’s bath near Kiholo bay

  • Night Manta Ray Adventure

Day 4

  • Wailuku River State Park

    • Rainbow Falls

    • Boiling pot

  • Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens

  • Akaka Falls State Park

  • Waipi'o Valley Lookout

Day 5 

  • Kealakekua Bay

  • Kaumana Caves

  • Kilauea Caverns of Fire

  • Volcano national park

    • Nahuku - Thurston Lava Tube

    • Ha‘akulamanu (Sulphur Banks) and Steam Vents

Day 6

  • Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park

    • Where can I see lava flow?

    • Craters

    • Petroglyphs


Day 1

Two step

Snorkeling

This is one of the best snorkeling places on the big island. It is called two steps because it takes only two steps to get in the water. On days when tides are higher, you might be able to directly go to the water from the first step. The lower step has some sea urchin in the holes. Make sure when you get out of the water, your hands are flat on the lower step, instead of sticking your fingers in the holes of the sea urchins.

Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park

It is right next to Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park, so you can also visit the park either before or after your snorkeling trip, to learn about ancient practices and rituals of the native Hawaiians.

Acai bowl

If you like acai bowls, we recommend a place called Barefoot zone. Everything is vegan there. We got an acai bowl called Superbowl. It is the most elaborate and beautiful acai bowl I’ve ever had so far.


Greenwell Farms

This coffee farm has free 1 hr farm tours. You can check their website for the tour hours. When we were there, they also provided free coffee samples for you to drink.

In the farm, we also saw bananas, vanilla beans, cacao fruit and peppercorns.


Sunset

Aiopio Fish Trap

This is a beautiful place to watch the sunset. You might also be able to see a lot of green sea turtles in the water.

Abay beach in Waikoloa area (ʻAnaehoʻomalu Beach)

This is another good place to watch the sunset and/or get into the water.

Day 2

Papakolea Green Sand Beach

This is one of the only four green sand beaches in the entire world, and the only green sand beach in Hawaii. If you want to visit this green sand beach, make sure you leave early for parking and pack lots of water and snacks. It is a 5.5-mile round-trip hike with an elevation gain of 275 feet. Hiking shoes are recommended.

69 beach 

This is another good place to go snorkeling. Parking is $10 per car for non residents. After parking, walk towards the right from the bathroom. We found that there are more fishes when we swim along the rocks to the right. There are lots of dead (white) corals, but many live fishes. There are a few live corals.

Puakō Petroglyph Park 

From the parking lot, it is a 0.7 mile hike to the petroglyph location.


Day 3

Today we did a day trip on the North side of the island + night snorkel with Manta Ray.

HiCO - Hawaiian Coffee

We got vegan donuts and ube latte there. The vegan donuts are $6 each, which is pretty expensive. The ube latte looks pretty, but I didn’t really taste the ube flavor in it.


Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site

This place is where Kamehameha built the heiau (Hawaiian temple). Compared to some other ancient Hawaiian temples we visited before, where the temple is mostly gone and you can only see the ruins, this temple is very well preserved.

They also have a visitor center that plays short videos about the history here.


Pololu Valley Lookout

From there, you can go on Pololu trail, a beautiful trail along the ocean. 


Waikōloa Petroglyph Reserve

This is another place to see petroglyphs. There are some newer ones since we see letters and years marked on them. It is right next to some golf course. It is interesting to see the combination of ancient and modern there.


Queen’s bath near Kiholo bay

To get there, we parked at Kiholo Bay Parking. The last part of the road (about 0.7 miles) is bumpy and not paved. From the parking lot, take the trail on the right. About 0.3 miles later, the queen's bath are on the right side of the trail (easy to miss). There are two of them besides each other. They look like caves filled with water.


Night Manta Ray Adventure

It is about 3 hrs in total. You will first be taking a 20- 40 min boat ride one way to the destination, then 45 min floating in water. You will be holding on to a bar of a floatation device that is attached to the boat. The tour guide says there are people who will get seasick on the ocean, but we are totally fine. It is a few steps down the ladder to go into the ocean. Then a very short swim from there to the flotation device. The manta Ray doesn't have teeth or stingers, so they won't bite or sting you. The manta rays are swimming and flipping really close to us. 


A tip from us is to bring a jacket and some towels because it gets cold after you come out of the water.

Day 4

Today we spent a day exploring Hilo.

Wailuku River State Park

Rainbow Falls

The viewing point is right next to the parking lot. The waterfall is 80 ft tall and almost 100 ft in diameter. 


It was raining when we arrived. I guess when it is sunny, you probably can see a rainbow near the waterfall.

Boiling pot

The viewing point is right next to the parking lot. It does not exactly look like boiling when were there.


Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens

This is one of our favorite places on the big island. The entrance fee was $25/person when we visited, but it was totally worth it. It is a loop of about 1 mile with some elevation. There are so many interesting plants there.

You will also see a little cascaded waterfall in the garden:

There are many mosquitos there, so be prepared for that.


Akaka Falls State Park 

This is a beautiful state park that is a bit overpriced. They charge for both parking and person. It is $5/person and $10 parking for the car. The only other park I’ve been to that charges for both parking and entrance is Muir Woods National Monument. 


From the parking lot, it is a 0.4 mile loop to Akaka Falls.

Waipi'o Valley Lookout

Day 5 - Day 6

Kealakekua Bay

From talking with some locals, they told us this is the best snorkeling spot on the big island. The best place is near the captain cook monument, where you need to take a boat there.

We just snorkeled in the Nāpō‘opo‘o area at a beach called Manini Beach. We saw 6 dolphins 🐬 there. Corals don't look very healthy. water is deep enough that you won't bump your knees on rocks.


From here on, you can spend the next two days exploring the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and lava tubes. The details of the in Three day itinerary in Big Island of Hawaii.

 

Check out the itineraries for Hawaiian islands:

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