TravelGoReady

Hawaii Big Island Must Haves

• The Big Island Revealed guidebook:  Poor organization, but pretty good content
• Rental car:  Unless you’re going to hang in your resort (which can be very nice) you probably need a car given how spread out the Big Island is;  Get a 4WD if you surf; as some of the better breaks (e.g. Pine trees required a 4WD)
• Surf shirt: Even if you don’t surf, having a surf shirt will keep you warm in the water for snorkeling, and keep the sun off your back
• Water:  First stop after the Kona airport, load up on bottled water and keep in your car to stay hydrated.
• Water shoes: Lots of rocky shores.  Will be useful for kayaking; hiking to beaches etc.
• Snorkel gear:  there’s a ton of different sites, so drop the $40 for a set that you can keep in your rental car for random beach/ snorkel stop

Hawaii Big Island Where to Stay- Kona

Kona side is drier and more sunny than Hilo.  Great beaches and seems like a more robust tourist set up.  We stayed north of Kona in the Waikoloa area (30 minutes of Kona- Kailua, the main town).

• This is one of the high end resort areas which has some great golf courses, great resort beaches;  Similar to Kaanapali in Maui, although not as crowded.
• You are also in the general Kohala area which has quite a few nice beaches: Hapuna and 69 beach being two of them
• If we were to do it again, I think we would have stayed in Kona itself.  The accommodations are not nearly as nice, but we found ourselves driving into town a lot for more food choices, surf breaks (in the summer you need to be in Hilo, Kona or south of Kona to hope to catch anything), and other attractions
• We stayed in a condo Fairway Villas which was very nice;  2 bed/ 2 ba condo for about $200 a night which we found on VRBO:  VRBO Link