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Mauna Loa Macadamia-Nut Visitor Center
Some 'tourist traps' can be fun. Mauna Loa Macadamia-Nut Visitor Center provides a window on a working factory, where you can watch the humble mac nut as it moves along the assembly line from cracking to roasting to chocolate dipping and packaging. The gift shop, of course, has every variation ready for purchase, with tasters. The factory is well signed about 5 miles south of Hilo; the 3-mile access road dips through acres of macadamia trees.
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Mauna Loa's Observatory Trail
At the end of Mauna Loa Observatory Rd is the Mauna Loa Observatory Trail. This is an all-day adventure, but few 13,000ft mountains exist that are so accessible to the average hiker. This is a rare and unforgettable experience. Day hikers do not need a permit, but if you would like to overnight at Mauna Loa Cabin, register the day before at the Kilauea Visitor Centre.
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Mauna Ulu
In 1969, eruptions from Kilauea's east rift began building a new lava shield, which eventually rose 400ft above its surroundings. It was named Mauna Ulu. By the time the flow stopped in 1974, it had covered 10,000 acres of parkland and added 200 acres of new land to the coast.
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Mo'okini Luakini Heiau
One of the oldest and most historically significant temples in the Hawaiian islands, Mo'okini Luakini Heiau sits on a grassy knoll near 'Upolu Point at the northern tip of the Big Island. The massive structure, which measures about 250ft by 125ft, with walls 6ft high, was a 'closed' heiau, reserved for ali'i nui (kings and ruling chiefs) for fasting, praying and offering of human sacrifices to their gods.
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Moku'aikaua Church
On April 4, 1820, the first Christian missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands sailed into Kailua Bay. When they landed, they were unaware that Hawai'i's old religion had been abolished on that very spot just a few months before. King Liholiho gave them this site, just a few minutes' walk from Kamehameha's Ahu'ena Heiau, to establish Hawai'i's first Christian church.
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Mokupapapa Discovery Center
The best, and easiest, way to visit the long string of islands and atolls that make up the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is to visit the Mokupapapa Discovery Center. It packs a lot in a small space, describing all the islands and their abundant marine life through videos, films, displays, maps and interactive exhibits, such as a mock-up of the Pisces V diving submersible, with workable robotic arms. It's worth visiting just to hear the kumulipo .
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Old Kona Airport State Park
Despite being only a mile from downtown, the 217-acre Old Kona Airport State Park is often overlooked by visitors. Its lengthy shore offers solitude and the relaxing sound of waves, and it's a good place to picnic or stroll. The old airport runway skirts a long sandy beach laced with thick strips of black lava rock. Though there are a couple of breaks allowing entry into the water, fishing, not swimming, is the major activity here.
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Onizuka Center for International Astronomy
Named for Ellison Onizuka, a Big Island native, and one of the astronauts who perished in the 1986 Challenger space-shuttle disaster, the center is rather modest, but its one room is packed with information: photo displays of the Mauna Kea observatories, astronomy videos, descriptions of discoveries made from the summit, computer feeds and virtual tours of several observatories, and exhibits of the mountain's history, ecology and geology.
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Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory
The tiny Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory on the slopes of Mt Hualalai, Bob and Pam Cooper's mom-and-pop company is unique in that they grow, harvest, process and package only Big Island cocoa. On a free tour of their operation you'll see cocoa fruit in lovely shades of yellow, gold and fuchsia, and learn about how they process their estate chocolate.
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Pacific Tsunami Museum
For heart-stopping drama and sheer emotion, it's hard to top this tidy museum, which brings to life the destructive horror of Pacific Ocean tsunami. Multimedia exhibits are excellent (including chilling computer simulations, videos, documentaries, dioramas and more), but it's the first-person accounts by survivors that grab you. Some staff are also Hilo tsunami survivors.
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Pahoa Community Aquatic Center
For swimming, don't miss the gorgeous outdoor Olympic-size pool at Pahoa Community Aquatic Center, behind the Pahoa Neighborhood Facility; it's got nice showers and a separate kids' pool.
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Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo
Upon entering the modest 12-acre Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo, most visitors receive a cheerful 'Hi! How are you?' from Max, the zoo's talking parrot and official goodwill ambassador. The zoo's real prize, however, is a white Bengal tiger. You only need an hour or two to tour the grounds, which feature several endangered Hawaiian birds, monkeys, reptiles, a pygmy hippo, and gaggles of free-roaming peacocks and chickens. Kids love it.
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Parker Ranch Historic Homes
See how wealthy landowners lived in the two 19th-century Parker Ranch Historic Homes. 'Tours' consist of a 15-minute presentation, after which visitors explore the houses on their own. Built in 1962, Pu'uopelu is the estate's sprawling 8000-sq-ft grand manor, which showcases the impressive collection of European and Chinese art of the last Parker Ranch owner, Richard Smart.
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Pine Trees Surfing Break
Pine Trees Surfing Break, one of west Hawai'i's best, is just south of Nelha. Why Pine Trees? Early surfers spied mangrove trees near the break, which they thought were pines. No mangroves (or pines) are visible today, but the name stuck. The break is along a long, pretty, rocky beach that makes swimming difficult. Gates are closed between and .
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Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs
The gentle Pu'u Loa Trail leads less than a mile to the largest concentration of ancient petroglyphs in the state. At the Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs, early Hawaiians chiseled more than 20,000 drawings into pahoehoe lava. Given the setting, it's easy to see why this spot might have been considered sacred.
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Pu'Uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park
Visiting this impressive historical park is a memorable experience. The park's name simply means 'place of refuge at Honaunau'. A half-mile walking tour passes the major sites, each marked by a numbered plaque - the visitor center has brochure maps with cultural information. Avoid visiting at midday as there is little shade. Most of the sandy trail is accessible by wheelchair, but sites near the water require you to traverse rough lava rock.
Read more about Pu'Uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park
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Pua Mau Place
Lose yourself in a hibiscus-flower maze and ogle bizarre bronze sculptures of animals and giant insects at Pua Mau Place, a botanic and sculpture gardens. Its 15 acres of native and exotic plants (and peacocks!) are a splash of color in a landscape stripped of much of its original vegetation. Ala Kahua Dr intersects the highway just north of the 6-mile marker.
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Puako Petroglyph Preserve
With more than 3000 petroglyphs, the Puako Petroglyph Preserve is one of the largest collections of ancient lava carvings in Hawai'i and definitely worth a visit. The human figures drawn in simple linear forms are among the oldest examples of such drawings in Hawai'i. Like all petroglyphs in Hawaii, the meaning of the symbols remains enigmatic.
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Punalu'u Beach Park
Punalu'u Beach Park provides easy access to a pretty little bay with a black-sand beach famous for basking green sea turtles. The turtles are both endangered and very sensitive to human disturbance - don't approach them. Punalu'u is one of the few beaches where rare hawksbill turtles lay their eggs, so take caution not to disturb their sandy nests.
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Rainbow Falls
A few minutes from Hilo, Rainbow Falls provides the sort of instant gratification that's a godsend to parents and tour-bus operators. The pretty cascade - whose spray winks a rainbow in the morning when the sun is right - can almost be seen from the parking lot. Natural beauty doesn't get any easier than this. The cave beneath the falls is said to have been the home of Hina, mother of Maui.
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St Benedict's church
John Berchmans Velghe was a Catholic priest who came to Hawai'i from Belgium in 1899. Upon taking responsibility for St Benedict's church, he moved it 2 miles from its original location near the pu'uhonua (place of refuge). It's not clear whether he did this as protection from tsunami or as an attempt to rise above - both literally and symbolically - a significant Hawaiian cultural site and what Christianity considered to be pagan ways.
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St Peter's Church
St Peter's Church, aka The 'Little Blue Church', is one of Hawai'i's most-photographed, and a favorite for weddings. Made of clapboard with a corrugated-tin roof, it sits practically in Kahalu'u Bay. Built in the 1880s, it was moved from White Sands Beach to this site in 1912. It now sits on an ancient Hawaiian religious site, Ku'emanu Heiau. Hawaiian royalty, who surfed Kahalu'u Bay, paid their respects at this temple before hitting the waves.
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The Parker Ranch Museum & Visitor Center
This center provides a thorough accounting of ranch history. Displays include some fascinating Parker-family memorabilia, such as portraits, lineage charts, fancy gowns and traditional Hawaiian quilts. The recreated tack house is particularly evocative, with 100-year-old saddles and branding irons. Though it has a romantic gloss, the 25-minute movie on Parker Ranch tells the history well and describes current ranch operations.
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Thurston Lava Tube
East of the intersection with Chain of Craters Rd you enter the rain forest of native tree ferns and ohia that covers Kilauea's windward slope. Thurston Lava Tube is the endpoint of an enjoyable short walk through a bird-filled ohia forest (it's a good place to spot the red-bodied 'apapane , a native honeycreeper). The lava tube itself is enormous - big enough for your car - and a short initial section is lighted. Does get crowded.
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Volcano Art Center
The Volcano Art Center sells high-quality island pottery, paintings, woodwork, sculpture, jewelry, Hawaiian quilts and more. Browsing the stunning collection is as satisfying as buying (well, almost). The resident nonprofit arts organization also hosts craft and cultural workshops, music concerts, plays and dance recitals, all listed in its free bimonthly Volcano Gazette.
