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'Anaeho'omalu Beach Park's beach
'Anaeho'omalu Beach Park's beach is a narrow strip of sand with shady palms that separates an extremely calm bay from two ancient fishponds. Popular with families, swimmers and picnickers. This is perhaps the only beach suited to windsurfing; snorkeling is decent at the north end, directly in front of the sluice gate; and drinking water, showers and bathrooms are available.
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'Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii
'Imiloa Astronomy Center is one of Hawaii's most fascinating museums and is a provocative look at the creation stories of two very different peoples: Native Hawaiians and modern astronomers. This combination wouldn't make sense except that it embodies the story of Mauna Kea, which is central to Hawaiian mythology. Comparing these stories, one is struck by both their points of divergence and their synchronicities.
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2400° Fahrenheit
Come early to glass-blowing studio 2400° Fahrenheit and watch artists Michael and Misato Mortara create their mind-boggling glass bowls and vases. A tiny gallery displays finished pieces.
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Ahalanui Beach Park
Ahalanui Beach Park is also called 'the hot pond' because of its main attraction - a large, spring-fed thermal pool set in lava rock that's deep enough for swimming. It makes for a pretty sweet bathtub: water temperatures average 90°F, cement borders make for easy access, tropical fish abound, and, though the ocean pounds the adjacent seawall, the pool remains mellow.
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Ahu'ena Heiau
After Kamehameha the Great established his kingdom's royal court in Lahaina on Maui, he returned to Ahu'ena Heiau, his Kamakahonu residence on Kailua Bay, where he died in May 1819. His personal temple is at the tip of an outcropping on the northern end of Kailua Bay, and surrounded by water on three sides. It has been reconstructed with palm-leaf shacks and carved wooden ki'i (statues). Do not climb on this sacred site.
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Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka Space Center
Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka Space Center pays tribute to the Big Island native who perished in the 1986 Challenger space-shuttle disaster. The little museum sits between the departure and arrival buildings and features exhibits and educational films about space and astronauts. Items on display include a moon rock, a NASA space suit and scale models of spacecraft.
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Chain of Craters Road
Chain of Craters Road gets shorter all the time (most recently in 2003). It currently winds about 18 miles down the southern slopes of Kilauea Volcano, ending abruptly at the latest East Rift Zone lava flow on the Puna Coast. It's paved but curvaceous; allow 45 minutes to an hour one way without stops.
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Crater Rim Drive
The incredible 11-mile Crater Rim Drive loop road skirts the rim of Kilauea Caldera. It passes the visitor center, a museum, a lava tube, steam vents, rifts, hiking trails and views of the smoking crater that'll knock your socks off. Don't miss it. Also, since it's relatively level, it's the park's best road for cyclists. This description starts at the visitor center and goes counterclockwise.
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Devastation Trail
The paved, wheelchair-accessible Devastation Trail passes through the fallout area of the 1959 eruption of Kilauea Iki Crater, which decimated this portion of the rain forest. Continuing east, you pass Keanakako'i Crater and the intersection with Chain of Craters Rd.
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Donkey Mill Art Center
Rustic and unpretentious, the Holualoa Foundation for Arts & Culture's Donkey Mill Art Center displays impressive collections and offers workshops taught by recognized artists in a variety of mediums. The center's building, built in 1953, was once a coffee mill with a donkey painted on its roof, hence the name. It's 3 miles south of the village center.
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East Hawai'i Cultural Center
Hilo is becoming a bona fide art town, and for many years the heart of Hilo's art scene has been the East Hawai'i Cultural Center, which is dedicated to promoting local artists. Diverse exhibits showcase everyone from established professionals to competent amateurs, all engaged in celebrating and digesting the Hawaiian experience. They also offer a range of workshops and classes (including painting, drawing, 'ukulele and hula).
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Ethnobotanical Garden
For a look at the Hawaiian landscape before Western contact, wander through this small ethnobotanical garden that houses three categories of plants: endemic (native and exclusive), indigenous (native but found elsewhere) and Polynesian (introduced by the islands' original settlers). Plaques explain what plants were used for, but take a tour to get the most out of your visit. Bring insect repellant.
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Greenwell Farms
Greenwell Farms, one of Kona's longest-standing coffee farms, is run by the fourth generation of the Greenwell family. Established in 1850, their beautiful 35-acre farm quickly became known worldwide as a large-scale producer of quality Kona coffee. Take a free tour, sample around 10 types of coffee or enjoy the freebie fruit at a shady picnic table.
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Hapuna Beach State Recreation Area
Hapuna is legendary as having Hawai'i's most accessible beaches. Its clear water and golden sand are the picture of a classic tropical beach and it is ranked among the world's best beaches by Condé Nast Traveler . When calm, Hapuna affords good swimming and diving, but winter surf can produce strong currents and a pounding shorebreak. Numerous tourists unfamiliar with the water conditions have drowned, so be careful.
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Hawaii Plantation Museum
This homespun museum is dedicated to preserving Hawaii's plantation-era life. It has the disheveled feel of a jumble sale with placards - and rightly so. What began as owner Wayne Subica's desire to celebrate the plantation baseball teams of his youth now expands daily, with residents donating their personal memorabilia to the ever-widening collection. Wayne has already outgrown his Hilo location; call first to see if he's moved.
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Hilo Coffee Mill
Coffee lovers (or addicts, if you will) should put on the brakes for the Hilo Coffee Mill, which is dedicated to supporting and promoting East Hawai'i coffee plantations. Free samples are offered at the counter, where coffee is treated as though it were fine wine. The Mill sells fresh coffee and espresso drinks, hot and cold, and you can buy whole beans. Visit the roaster next door to further your education; orchard tours are sometimes offered.
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Hilo Farmers Market
Nearly 20 years old, Hilo's Farmers Market is an island-wide event, as locals gather from all over to shop for fresh produce and catch up with friends. Covered stalls sell top-quality island produce: papayas, liliko'i , breadfruit, apple bananas, mangoes and star fruit. You'll find lots of Asian greens, organic vegetables and local produce. There's prepared food, too: bento boxes (with Spam musubi) and machete-cut coconuts for drinking. Wednesday and Saturday are the big days.
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Ho'okena beach
Ho'okena beach is medium-sized with soft dark sands backed by a steep green hillside. The bay's waters are often calm and great for swimming and kayaking. The snorkeling is decent, with a fair amount of coral, some fish, and often dolphins and sea turtles, though it drops off quickly. Be aware of strong currents further out. The beach park has a picnic pavilion, bathrooms, showers and a hang-loose vibe, but no drinking water.
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Honoli'i Beach Park
North of downtown Hilo, the protected cove at Honoli'i Beach Park has Hilo's best bodyboarding and surfing, particularly for beginners. A lovely, well-tended grassy picnic area fronts the beach, with fantastic views of Hilo, plus there are rest rooms, outdoor showers and a lifeguard. Honoli'i isn't the best for swimming, as the adjacent river often muddies the waters.
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Hulihe'e Palace
Hawai'i's second governor, 'John Adams' Kuakini, commissioned Hulihe'e Palace, a simple, elegant two-story house, in 1838 as his private residence. Used as a vacation getaway for Hawaiian monarchs, the house, built with lava rock in 1885, was plastered over inside and out by King Kalakaua, who preferred a more polished style after his travels abroad.
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Isaac Hale Beach Park
Isaac Hale Beach Park (Hale is pronounced ' ha -lay') at Pohoiki Bay is basically a line of parking spaces along a rocky beach with a boat ramp at one end. On weekends there's usually a frenzy of activity, as local families and teens picnic, fish, swim, surf and hang out. However, the swimming is limited due to the rough water, which makes for challenging surfing so long as you avoid the rocks.
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Isaacs Art Center
The stunning collection of significant and historic Hawai'ian paintings and artifacts at this art center makes it much more a museum than a traditional gallery - one of the best outside of the Honolulu Academy of Arts. It's housed in a 1915 plantation schoolhouse (now on the historic register), whose single row of six spacious classrooms makes an ideal exhibition space.
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Jaggar Museum
The exhibits here introduce the museum's founder, the famous volcanologist Dr Thomas A Jaggar; overview the Hawaiian pantheon; and provide a deeper understanding of volcanic geology. They also sport a bank of real-time seismographs tracking the park's daily quota of earthquakes. If that doesn't sound interesting, at least stop for the view of Halema'uma'u Crater and, on a clear day, Mauna Loa 20 miles away.
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Ka'upulehu
Even if you're not high-rolling enough to stay at either of the two exclusive resorts in Ka'upulehu, you can still visit the area's beautiful white-sand beaches, thanks to shoreline public access laws. A mile-long coastal footpath winds through reddish lava and brackish water, where turtles can be seen, and a string of pristine, easily accessible little coves lies further south. Showers, rest rooms and drinking water are available.
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Kahalu'u Bay
Kahalu'u Bay is an easy-access snorkeling spot and a giant natural aquarium loaded with rainbow parrotfish, silver needlefish, brilliant yellow tangs and Moorish idol. At high tide green sea turtles often swim into the bay to feed or rest on the beach. They're endangered, so give them space. According to legend an ancient breakwater was built on the reef by the menehune (Hawai'i's mythical race of little people) and protects the bay.
