Big Island 2021

It is still Covid times in Hawaii and those longing for the carefree trips of the past should still wait. Restaurants are not seating at 100pct capacity. Businesses of all kinds cannot get staff. Some businesses are still closed. Those that are open are short staffed. Restaurants in Hilo are generally not seating inside and takeout lines are long. Restaurants on Kona are seating inside but again not at 100pct capacity (and I read today they are going back to 50pct indoor capacity due to Delta.) The pretravel covid testing requirement was recently waived but might be brought back. The precheck lines at the So Cal mainland airports to receive your wristband were looong – budget 30-45 minutes for this. This preflight precheck eliminates the need to get checked on the island side. But whether you get the wristband on the mainland or island, you need it in order to book your car, and do hotel checkin.

Surprisingly, cars seemed to be fairly plentiful…Alamo had 5 jeeps and 3-4 full size SUVs available at 2pm on a Wednesday…so they must have gotten a shipment just in the past few weeks.

We were very fortunate to get a great deal on the Hilton Waikoloa. They upgraded us to the Makai tower which i highly recommend as the Palace and Ocean towers are not convenient to the parking lot or restaurants. Count on 30min from Ocean Tower to parking lot. But the hotel is beautiful. We enjoyed riding the boats and monorail, but be aware many of the boats have little shade. We loved sitting in the lobby sipping drinks and people watching, and sitting on our patio in mornings and evenings.

But I don’t see us coming back here. The Kauai Marriott, and Grand Hyatt Kauai, for example, are much more beautiful resorts with more artwork, huge floral arrangements, manicured landscaping, and a more dramatic, upscale environment overall. Another point of comparison – our friends stayed in a Grand Hilton Vacations condo which was outstanding – it was hard to come back to what is essentially a studio (juat a bed and dresser) after seeing their dining room, living room, kitchen, and laundry. AND they had pool privileges at the Hilton. Long ago, the timeshare people said hotel prices would just go up and they were right…even pre Covid, Kauai was 250-300/nt, for a room with lower value than a timeshare room. Maybe we should have bought that timeshare…

New and noteworthy –
Waipio lookout was beautiful even under cloud cover. We would probably come here every visit.

Kathmandu Trading Company (Hilo) – outstanding selection of Southeast Asian art.

Place of Refuge – you bought the National Park pass at Volcanos right? Come here for free and save $30! Also enjoy the beautiful lava beach tidepools.

Alula beach with turtles – Next to AioPio fish trap near Honokohau Small Boat harbor. Can you spot the puffer fish?

Thurston lava tube – love, love, love this micro hike thru an old drippy lava tube and fern forest.

Have poke (not from Costco) and realize you’ve been eating frozen ahi back at home. Fresh Ahi is actually succulent and almost transparent, jewel like, not cottony.

Costco – for the love of God go here for macnut cookies, Hawaiian Host, sarongs, Aloha shirts, 10 kinds of fish, ahi sashimi …

Eat local fruit. You have never had such delicious papaya.

Make (lots of) time to pause and listen to the tradewinds and feel the mana of Hawaii.

Always stop for the sunset. At Lava Lava Beach Club if possible.

Surprises –
Long waits for restaurants. Get there at 5 for that 90-120 min wait. At 4 you might be seated right away. Don’t bother showing up after 5. Call several weeks ahead for ressies!

Many restaurants in Kona are closed on Sunday. We ended up eating lunch from some Thai lady making food in a parking lot!