The third of the four Hawaiian islands we visited to finish off our 50 state road trip was the Big Island. Shae and I stayed there from December 19-26, 2024 which meant that we were there during Christmas.
That meant accommodation and rental cars were even more expensive than normal, but we managed to find some solutions. We had fun on this island despite only having a rental car for a few days as that forced us to cram in as much as we could while we had it.
Here’s what we got up to on the Big Island.
Where We Stayed On The Big Island
We spent the entire week at this Vacasa property in Kailua-Kona. Wyndham Rewards has a partnership with Vacasa, so we were able to redeem only 13,500 Wyndham points per night for the stay (it was 15,000 points per night, but my Wyndham credit card gives us a 10% discount).
It was a one bedroom apartment with a good-sized living room, dining area and a full kitchen, as well as a washing machine and dryer in the bathroom. It was therefore a nice, comfortable place to stay for the week and was a long walk or short drive from downtown
How We Got Around The Big Island
As I mentioned earlier, we visited the Big Island over Christmas which meant car rental prices were sky high. From what I can remember, we were looking at having to pay something like $1,200 if we wanted to rent a car for the entire week which wasn’t going to happen.
Not renting a vehicle at all wasn’t an option either as we knew we wanted to go over to Hilo, as well as to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We therefore decided to rent a car for the first three days of our stay as that’s when it was cheapest, then we relied on Uber when necessary for the final four days.
Cars from regular rental companies were still pretty expensive though, so we saved a few bucks by renting from Turo. This also had the added benefit of being able to pick up the car from the parking lot at the airport, rather than having to get a shuttle to a rental car office.
In case you’re not familiar with Turo, it’s like Airbnb for people’s cars. Depending on where you’re renting from and what kind of vehicle you’re after, it can be cheaper than renting from a traditional rental company. We had a Turo Amex Offer on one of our American Express cards, so that gave us $30 back on the rental too.
Using Uber for the other few days worked out fine too. Rides weren’t cheap, but they weren’t crazy expensive either. At the time, Costco was selling Uber gift cards for 25% off, so we stocked up on some of those to save money on rides.
What We Did On The Big Island
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
One of the biggest draws of the Big Island is Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. That’s on the eastern side of the island which is why we needed a car as it’s a 2+ hour drive from Kailua-Kona where we were staying.
We started off at the Kilauea Visitor Center to get a bit more information about the park. From there, we decided to drive along the Chain of Craters road which is a 36 mile round trip. At the far end of the road on the western side is a stop where you can view the Halemaumau Crater of Kilauea. There wasn’t any lava to be seen when we visited, but it was steaming.
There were a couple of other overlooks we stopped at, then we were lucky enough to find a parking spot near the Nahuku-Thurston Lava Tube.
This is a relatively short lava tube that you can walk through; it’s worth doing if you can find somewhere to park, but we enjoyed the Hana Lava Tube on Maui far more.
From there we drove to the Puʻupuaʻi Overlook which gives you a great view looking down into the massive cinder cone which was formed in 1959 following the eruption of Kīlauea Iki. You can also walk down into it along the Devastation Trail, but we didn’t have time to do it that day.
We continued driving along the Chain of Craters road, stopping at various overlooks, craters and lava fields.
Our final stop in the park that afternoon was at the far end of the eastern side of the Chain of Craters road. That takes you down to the ocean where you can see Hōlei Sea Arch.
The drive down there was fascinating as you could see different types and shades of lava from past eruptions and flows.
Shae and I were super unlucky when we visited. The day after we returned the rental vehicle (so two days after our visit to the park), one of the volcanoes started erupting for real. We debated whether to rent a car again for the day, but decided against it because a) it sounded like it was starting to quiet down again and b) we figured it would be impossible to find parking with everyone else wanting to visit.
As it turned out, it didn’t quieten down, so we missed out on seeing actual lava in person which was a little disappointing.
Punaluu Black Sand Beach
On our way back from the National Park we stopped at Punaluu Black Sand Beach. That’s because Shae had heard that it’s where honu (sea turtles) come up on the beach at night to sleep. It wasn’t as amazing as Poipu Beach on Kauai, but it was still cute getting to see some of them resting.
Lavaloha Chocolate Farm Tour
The day after visiting Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, we drove over to Hilo. One of the main things we wanted to do there was going on a farm-to-bar chocolate tour at Lavaloha.
We had a superb experience as our tour guide was excellent, it was an informative tour and the chocolate was delicious. We even got to try cacao seeds which is the fruit from cacao trees which eventually becomes chocolate.
Shae and I would both highly recommend going on a tour there as it was well worth our money. You can read more about the tour here.
Carlsmith Beach Park
On our way to Lavaloha we stopped at Carlsmith Beach Park. The plan was for both of us to go snorkeling there, but the water was far too cold for my liking, so Shae braved it alone.
Wailuku River State Park
Our next stop on the way to Lavaloha had been Wailuku River State Park. This was worth stopping at for a couple of reasons; one of them was Rainbow Falls:
The other was an immense banyan tree. At first I found it a little disappointing that I couldn’t get a photo of the tree without people being in the photo, but in hindsight I’m glad about it because it helps give a sense of quite how enormous the tree is.
Where We Ate & Drank On The Big Island
Costco
We kicked off our week on the Big Island in true Hawaiian style by going straight to Costco. That’s not even a joke! Food, drink and other goods are expensive in Hawaii, so many locals shop at Costco as it’s much more reasonably priced.
We also picked up some food inside to take with us to our Vacasa. While walking around, we saw giant pallets of Spam; I was interested in trying out the gochujang Spam, but it came in a massive case that we wouldn’t be able to finish in time and we didn’t have the space – nor weight allowance – in our suitcases to bring with us on our next flight sadly.
Punaluu Bake Shop – Southernmost Bakery In The US
On our way to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park we stopped at Punaluu Bake Shop which is the southernmost bakery in the US. Before our visit to Hawaii, I’d never paid much attention to its location relative to the contiguous 48, so I didn’t realize it’s further south than the rest of the country. With the Big Island being the southernmost of the Hawaiian islands, this bakery on the south side of the island is thus able to lay claim to being the southernmost bakery in the country.
As would be expected, they had a wide selection of baked goods for sale that you could eat on site outside or take with you. There was also a gift shop where you could pick up other souvenirs.
We bought three malasadas – one fruit-filled, one Bismarck and one creme-filled – as well as a cinnamon pinwheel and an apple cinnamon sweetbread loaf to go.
The malasadas were good, as was the cinnamon pinwheel. The apple cinnamon loaf was nice in parts where there was plenty of apple, but about half the loaf didn’t have the filling and so it was just a regular sweetbread; not bad, just not as flavorful as I’d hoped.
Kai Loki’s – Southernmost Bar In The US
On the way to the National Park we also drove past Kai Loki’s where we saw a sign stating that it’s the southernmost bar in the US. At the start of the year we’d had a drink at the Southernmost Point Bar in Key West which is the southernmost bar in the contiguous US, so it was fun getting to finish the year at the southernmost bar in all of the US.
I ordered a porter or stout (I can’t remember what it was as they were out of the Black Sand porter from Kona Brewing Company which I originally wanted), while Shae got some kind of cocktail.
Hawaiian Style Cafe
A friend recommended that we eat at Hawaiian Style Cafe in Hilo, so we stopped there for lunch just before the Lavaloha chocolate tour.
Wanting to have something, uh, Hawaiian style, I ordered one of the Loco Mocos options – their Mok-A-Sauras. This is fried rice topped with spam, chicken cutlet, kalua pork, hamburger patty, two eggs and brown gravy. As you can imagine, this was A LOT of food, but it was worth the full stomach as it was very tasty.
Shae ordered what I believe was a mixed plate – half Kalua Kabbage which had savory slow cooked pork and cabbage and half boneless Korean chicken, served with rice and mac. She enjoyed her lunch too.
Ola Brew
After the chocolate tour, we went for a quick drink at Ola Brew in Hilo before heading back to Kona. They had a ton of interestingly-flavored beers and other adult beverages, so we each got a flight in order to try a few.
For my flight I ordered their:
- Dragon lychee milkshake IPA
- Kiawe vanilla porter
- Lilikoi (passionfruit) lime milkshake IPA
- Kiawe brown ale
Shae meanwhile got a flight of some of their hard juices:
- Dragonfruit lemonade
- Pineapple juicy
- Dragonfruit lychee
- Chili lili (chili passionfruit)
All the drinks were interesting and decent enough to try, but not so good that we felt the need to buy any to take with us.
Kona Brewing
Once we’d returned the Turo rental car, we had to stay closer by so that we could either walk places or get an Uber. One place we went for a drink was Kona Brewing which had a nice outdoor seating area.
Shae got a glass of their prosecco, while I got another beer flight, this time featuring:
- Lavama red ale
- Hula hefeweizen
- Koko brown ale
- Black Sand porter
Their beers were good and I loved that rather than being served on a regular flight tray, Kona Brewing served the drinks by placing them on a sheet corresponding with what I’d ordered. That makes it easy to know which is which and it means you can read the description.
Spinners Kailua Cantina
I still had a ton of referral credits in the inKind app that could be redeemed at certain restaurants around the country. Somewhat surprisingly, there were a couple on the Big Island and we went to both.
The first was Spinners Kailua Cantina which has a snack food menu, as well as cocktails, tequilas and more. Seeing as we didn’t have to worry about driving, we started off with some cocktails.
I ordered a Blue Hawaii which contained Rumhaven coconut rum, silver rum, blue curacao, coconut and pineapple. Shae got a Blue Dragon which was half Blue Hawaii (the drink I got) and half Chase The Dragon which contained vodka, lilikoi (passionfruit), dragonfruit and organic lemonade. Both the cocktails were delightful and refreshing on a warm afternoon.
Spinners was right on Kailua Bay, so it was nice looking out on the water as we had our drinks. We also ordered some snacks from their menu – pork sliders for me and beef sliders for Shae. Her beef sliders that came with mango-pineapple salsa were apparently good…
…but my pork sliders were amazing. It ended up being one of my favorite meals from our entire month in Hawaii which was funny because the restaurant/bar didn’t seem like it would be anything special. The pork was delicious though, the BBQ sauce and coleslaw added tang and crunch and the Hawaiian rolls were nice and soft.
We also got a side of chips and salsa; the salsa was nice and flavorful too with a little bit of a kick to it from what I can remember.
Cheeky Tiki
A couple of days later – on Christmas Eve – we returned to the same location, but headed upstairs to Cheeky Tiki. That was the other restaurant available in the inKind app and which, I think, has the same owners as Spinners.
Spinners is at ground level, but Cheeky Tiki is up a level which means you get even better views of the bay.
I’d previously enjoyed the Blue Hawaii so much that I ordered that again, while Shae got a Bali Hai cocktail. Both were served in very fun drinkware.
For lunch Shae ordered a watermelon mint salad and their Pulehu steak, while I had their Portuguese corn dog bites and a fresh island fish wrap. This was all tasty, but ended up being waaaaay too much food for both of us.
We each washed it all down with a Lava Flow cocktail which was also delicious and refreshing. This contained Pina Colada with a choice of strawberry, lilikoi (passionfruit), mango, guava or ube (purple yam); Shae and I both ordered it with strawberry.
12th Hawaii Distiller
Despite being completely full from our meal at Cheeky Tiki, we still wanted to do a spirits tasting at the nearby 12th Hawaii Distiller. This is a small distillery where you can taste their different spirits, all of which are made with Hawaiian honey.
The spirits were all good, as well as having a unique flavor due to them being made with honey. The experience itself was a little weird though; the owner was the one serving us and we happened to get chatting to a couple of other people who were there. For some reason the owner decided to suddenly turn up the music on the TV so ridiculously loud that we couldn’t actually hear the people we were chatting with, before he eventually turned the volume down a little.
What We Missed On The Big Island
Seeing as we only had the Turo car for two full days, there’s other stuff on the island we didn’t have a chance to make it to. Here’s what we have on our potential to-do list in the future there based on our own research and other people’s recommendations:
- Papakōlea Green Sand Beach
- Two Step Beach – likely to see wildlife/marine life
- Randy’s Huli Chicken and Ribs
- Manta ray watching at OUTRIGGER Kona Resort & Spa
- Captain Zodiac for a zodiac rafting tour
- Akaka Falls State Park
- Big Island Candies
- Two Ladies Kitchen – for mochi
[…] out this post for everything else we did on the Big […]