The Big Island, Hawaii "I Like Turtles" 🌺🌴🌊🐢

It's taken me until the age of 33 to visit our country's 50th state, Hawaii. Well, technically, I had an overnight layover in Honolulu around 1 month prior (read more about why here), but this trip to the Big Island was my first chance at really spending a substantial amount of time in Hawaii. We were fortunate enough to visit the Big Island for around a week in October of 2024.

I had minimal expectations about the Big Island. I knew it was the product of two volcanoes, infamous around the islands, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. I knew that coffee was popular there and the only place in the U.S. where coffee was grown, but outside a few random facts, I really didn't know what to expect either culturally or geologically.

We had a week on the Big Island, and I felt like we were able to see just about everything we wanted – sure, more time in Hawaii is always better, but a week felt just about right for the Big Island.

We were based about 30 minutes north of Kailua-Kona, one of the island's main cities and home to its largest airport, KOA. We flew nonstop from SJC to KOA on Alaska.

The geology and flora of the island's west side typically revolve around lava rock, which, despite being generally flat and dark black, is something uniquely beautiful to look at. Of course Mauna Loa and Kea's presence is felt wherever you are, but west of both mountains is fairly rocky and predictable – other than the island's south side, which is generally verdant and thick much like most of the east side of the island including the other main city on the island, Hilo (which I learned is the wettest U.S. city!)

Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are part of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, one of the more unique national parks in the country, as far as I'm concerned.

Doing the Kīlauea Iki trail will set you down right in the Kīlauea Iki crater.

Looking down at other hikers from the top of the rim.

The Thurston Lava Tube is not too far off from the Kīlauea Iki trail. Well worth the quick walk through.

What most of the hike down into Kīlauea Iki looks like.

We spent a lot of time beaches, as you do in Hawaii. The Big Island is full of them just about everywhere, with most having pretty good snorkeling as well. We were fortunate enough to see a lot of sea turtles throughout the entire trip on all sides of the island.

The highlight of the trip for us was Kiholo Bay, located on the island's west side. While the beach is kind of a pain to get to (requires about a 20+ minute walk after parking), it is well, well worth it. Beautiful black sands, 90% fewer people, and tons of sea turtles. While the immediate Kiholo Bay beach wasn't the best for snorkeling (but still beautiful), just around the corner is a calmer, clearer, and shallower section of the bay. We saw multiple sea turtles here mosying around.

Again, the walk from the closest parking lot is kind of a pain in the ass, but if you want black sands with more turtles than people, Kiholo Bay is the spot. But in all honesty, every beach we went to was nice. My advice, spend as much time at the beach here as possible. It doesn't get old.

✌️ Somewhere on the Big Island's west coast

Other beaches in the area we hit were Waialea Beach, Manini'owali Beach (which was crowded but with plenty of sand and relatively calm), Kahalu’u Beach Park, and Two Step Beach, which is located just adjacent to Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park, an excellent peak in to the native Hawaiin culture on the Big Island.

Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park is a must-see on the Big Island. The drive down from Kona is beautiful and you start to get a taste of the more verdant side of the Big Island that starts to peek out in the south. The park is relatively small but very unique and informative on replicating and showing the history of the indigenous people on the island within the bounds of a historical sacred site.

See inside replicas of shelters once used here.

Obsessed with the tikis here.

Coming down this far south means you're in coffee territory. The Big Island is the only place in the U.S. where coffee is grown. Of course it's more expensive than what most of us are used to, but it's typically smaller batch and considered a bit higher quality. Definitely would recommend a tour at one of the farms. We did a tour at Greenwell which was fantastic – our tour guide Aaron was great.

Greenwell's farms

Japanese coffee company UCC also has a farm on Kona.

While the Big Island is by no means small, in a week you should have plenty of time to reach just about everywhere if you want to. Most days we spent around beaches on the west side, but still made time to venture over to the east and around the island for a couple of days. As mentioned before, it's much more wet and green on this side of the volcanoes.

Akaka falls. The main trail was closed when we were there sadly.

Lots of cats hanging around Akaka Falls.

Caught this rainbow up on the northern side of the island on the drive back from the Hilo area.

I never would have guessed we'd visit the Big Island for our first time in Hawaii but a family member had a hook up on super nice place to stay in Kona and it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I always pictured myself hitting Kauai first, but the Big Island provided such a unique experience that really opened my eyes up to how different and diverse each of the islands could be. While I'm anxious to check out the rest of the islands I'm super glad we got this for our first experience on Hawaii.