Quote:
Originally Posted by FurnaceFace
Depends what you want to do. If you don't want beach and want to do the national park and a variety of other volcano and natural things the Hilo side is better as your travel time is far less. We spent two weeks on The Big Island - a week on each side. We had good weather on the Hilo side for most of it (the first 2 days were just cold across the whole island). We stayed at Yami's Ambulana which was a great place. The owner is a cool dude, pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a hippy Californian who moved to Hawaii. You're also less than 20 miles from the surface flow which took out Kanapala in the 80s and is flowing now. It was pretty cool driving on a road, which then turned into natural asphalt due to the lava flow. Pretty cool to see. Also interesting stories from the owner and his friend who lived through it the last time.
I'd say it's a choice between seeing lava and seeing Pearl harbour. |
That is true, your travel time to Volcano National Park is less from Hilo. Rainbow Falls is pretty cool as well. Kona has a lot of really nice beaches, though.
I also saw the lava flow that took out Kalapana and did the hike. It was probably the highlight of my trip. Here's a few links:
http://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisi...620_view-2.jpg
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/gallery/kilauea/volcanomovies/