Quote Originally Posted by Veronica View Post
In Volcano I reccommend staying here or Kilauea Lodge. Have dinner at least once at Kilauea LOdge.

You can rent some pretty nice bikes in Kona and ride up to Hawi on the Ironman route. We rented from Bike Works.

We've stayed in 4 different places on the Kona Coast and would recommend all of them for different reasons.

If they are still doing tours, Arnotts Lodge had some good ones up Mauna Kea and to see the lava flows. You don't have to stay there to do their tours.

Highly encourage getting Wizard Publications Hawaii The Big Island Revealed as your guidebook.


Veronica
Thanks for the suggestions. It's been hard to decide on accommodations. We prefer not to move around too much, although that does mean more driving. We're pretty settled on staying in a rental house that's about 40 minutes from the national park. It's on the very edge of the coast and has some stunning views. It's not far outside Hilo town and will put us is a decent position to explore the Hamakua Coast, as well as South Point, although obviously lots of driving will be involved. The second place is a studio cottage outside of Kailua-Kona. That location should put us in a decent position to explore that side of the island. I'm not sure from which base we'll explore Waimea and the Waipi'o Valley. It's about the same distance from each.

It's going to be a busy ten days with a fair amount of driving. There are so many things from which to choose. We have the Big Island Revealed Guidebook and will just have to spend some time pouring over it in an effort to prioritize. I think we need to accept that we won't be able to see and do it all. At least we have plenty of time to plan.....