Hilton Waikaloa Village (Nights 6-8)
For our last stop on the Big Island, Red and I agreed that we wanted to stay back over on the Kona side to be near to the airport. After looking around a little online, we settled on the Hilton Waikaloa Village, which fit our requirements exactly. It turned out to be a quite a place, a full-scale self-contained resort, a beautiful and luxurious as any place on the island (at least if you count the places you can book online).
Before we left Hilo, we toured the old downtown and then up to Rainbow Falls and down through the campus of University of Hawaii-Hilo. I particularly enjoy touring campuses as I travel, so this was a must-see. Then we headed north along the remote coast, making a detour to Akaka Falls, which allows one a splendid walking tour through bamboo groves and other rain forest trees that really make you feel like you are in Hawaii for sure.
I turned out that Red had forgotten to gas up the rental in Hilo, so along that section of coast we were scrambling on our smartphones to find a gas station. But our fears were exaggerated. We found gas without problem at a little mini-mart and continued all the way up the north part of the island, then passed over the "up country" gap past the famous Parker Ranch, where the gift shop has a great selection of items that combine the horse and Hawaii theme, if you are looking for that kind of stuff.
From there we descended quickly down the barren volcanic terrain to the Kona Coast. Our original plan had been to use the Hilton Waikaloa as a base to explore the north part of the island for the next few days, but once we checked in, it quickly became obvious that we were probably going to stay on the resort grounds the entire time, which is exactly what we did. The rental car didn't move from it's spot for the next three days.
Our room had a splendid ocean view. It was located in the "Ocean Tower," one of three separate hotel buildings on the resort complex. To reach it, we used the resort monorail, which wound slowly around the resort lagoon past several of the restaurants. One could also use the boats which followed the canal next to the monorail. Even before we reached our room, I couldn't help feeling like I was at a theme park.
For the next few days we lounged in decadence in our room with the patio doors open, letting the delicious warm air circulate through the room. Amazing it was a great place to get a lot of work done.
In the afternoons, we strolled around the grounds to one of the restaurants, forgoing to the slow-moving monorail in favor of a detour through the long open-air corridor stocked with art from all over the Pacific rim. It felt like living inside an art museum.
Overall it was a great place to do very little. We killed an hour one afternoon watching the dolphin trainers (all of them young women with pony tails) assisting the guests as they interacted with these animals in the shallow enclosed part of the lagoon. I told Red I only wanted to do that if you could stand on two dolphins at once (like this), something that didn't seem to offered as part the program.
Our experience at the resort reached a climax with the Tuesday evening luau, something I considered a must-do in Hawaii. Along with a couple hundred other guests, we were treated to an evening of roast pig and other traditional delicacies accompanied by music and dancers, in the old Tahitian and Hawaiian styles, exactly as one would expect. I told Red I felt like I was in a Brady Bunch episode.
It was a glorious experience, one I would recommend to anyone, especially to families visiting the Big Island. The only downside was that it felt like living in a bubble. After three days I was ready to see the "real Hawaii" again, even if only for an hour on our way to the airport.
In that last regard, a couple notes for the traveler (1) there are no gas stations north of the airport---if you need to fill up your rental car, you have to go almost all the way into Kona; (2) there is no mailbox in the Kona airport past the security gates, so if you want to mail your postcards from Hawaii, make sure you do it before you go through the screening.
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