just got back from a fun week on the big island of Hawaii. This was our third trip to the big island… we haven’t visited the others yet because the big island offers lots to do (beaches, snorkeling, hiking, volcanoes) in one place. We’re totally jet-lagged from our redeye return flight (and flying Northwest is never fun) but I’ll try to capture the salient details in my groggy state.
This time we tried staying at Kohala resorts rather than a condo or cheap hotel like we’d normally do. Resorts aren’t really our thing, but we thought we’d give it a try as our six year-old might enjoy the kid-friendly activities and facilities. The first two nights were at Kona Village Resort and the next five nights at the Hilton Waikoloa Village.
Hale Wood
The Kona Village resort styles itself as a throwback to 1960’s Hawaii, with 125 or so hale (hah-lay) huts scattered over 82 acres. It is a beautiful and peaceful setting and cars, phones, television etc. are not allowed on the premises. We had a tranquil view from our hale and the only sounds (except for ‘luau night’ on friday) were lots of birds, crickets and wind rustling through the palm trees. Lovely. It’s the kind of place that famous people would come to get away and relax and avoid the public eye.
Unfortunately, it is priced so that only rich and famous people can afford to stay there. Behind the peaceful facade of a “Gilligan’s Island” surfer camp is an army of valets, butlers, groundskeepers, ‘activity coordinators’ etc. zipping about in electric golf carts and a country club atmosphere at the restaurant and onsite bars that made me think “this is where republicans go when they die”. The corny luau on Friday only added to that impression. So instead of Duke Kahanomoku and his cronies hanging out on the beach or ganja-stoked hippies renting out their shack to you, you get wealthy, Orange County grannies and their perfectly-coiffed grandkids swanning about in a perfume of cash and sunscreen.
That sounds a bit cynical, and you might say we were ignorant to expect otherwise (esp. given the prices) on the Kohala Coast. It was a lovely spot and we enjoyed some aspects of it. The beach really did have manta rays that came to feed on plankton at night, and the beach and snorkeling were great (I saw turtles and lots of fish just offshore). But I can’t help but think that the French (for instance) would have found a way to make less well-appointed versions of a ‘Polynesian Village’ as a campground without all the expensive trappings, and accessible to more middle-class people. Why does the nice stuff always have to be private in the US?
Thankfully, it doesn’t. The best parts of Hawaii are the public parts, and beaches are required to allow access by using the two magic words “public access” to the security and gate-keepers at the resorts. Thank goodness for that.
Disneyland-by-the-Sea
The next stop was the Hilton Waikoloa Village, not a village at all but a mega-resort. In fact it is one of the most expensive resorts ever built at $360 million dollars or something like that. The hotel covers 3/4 of a mile and has it’s own train and boat to get around. It’s like Disneyland on the Kona Coast… a much more downscale crowd with loads of familys with kids and lots (lots!) of asians, especially Japanese. I liked the fact that the bedside table had Teachings of Buddha alongside the bible and a beautiful ‘Buddha Point’ lookout by the sea
but if you turned back towards land, the illusion was shattered by this
We got a decent room price and thought Malcolm would enjoy the pool, slides and stuff… which he did, literally something like 150 times on the first day
They spent a fortune on asian art and sculpture on the grounds… some of it very beautiful… to create the illusion of being in Bali or Thailand or something. Hundreds of pieces, set all over the property.
The artwork was nice and the grounds were beautiful, but I couldn’t help but think that it was art for people who will never go to these places, for whom the illusion of tropical asia is good enough. In other words, an ersatz illusion. Maybe that is ungenerous, and people can and should enjoy artwork from around the world without having to actually go to the places of origin, like a zoo. But it left a funny impression on me.
After a few days, Malcolm was kinda bored with it though, and I just wanted to get away from there. We have corporate jobs, we didn’t need to spend our vacation in a corporate hotel. Resorts are designed for people who want everything in one place, but we’d go crazy w/that. So we ventured out.
Snorkeling in Kealakekua Bay
Every time we’ve visited Hawaii we’ve taken the Fair Wind Kealakekua Bay snorkeling tour and absolutely loved it. this was Malcolm’s first real snorkeling outing, and he was a bit panicked at first – not surprising, as most adults are a bit freaked out by > 100’ of open water and lots of wildlife the first time :). He started with the boogie board at first and then graduated to the snorkel. Here’s us and some wildlife (snaps courtesy of Living Ocean Productions, the guy who films us tourists on the boat)
Snorkeling was the first step in ‘resort detox’, Waimea Falls (which we’d never seen) was next, and Akaka Falls. Lovely.
then we stopped for lunch in Hilo (at Cafe Pesto – great!) then onto Volcanoes Nat’l Park. Malcolm was a bit tired and crabby that day so we didn’t make the entire Kiluea Iki hike (thx anyway E),
but we more than made up for it by watching Pele give birth with the lava flow at Kalapana… fantastic!
That was pretty exciting. It was a long drive down Hwy 130 to where the lava flow had cut off the road, and flashlights and sturdy shoes were required. There were a few hundred people down there watching the lava flow. Malcolm spent the time searching the hollow tubes under the lava shelf while we watched the spectacle. It was 2.5 hours back to Kohala but worth it.
The last day was body surfing on the waves at Hapuna Beach after we checked out of the hotel. What a great beach. After all the great natural sites we were finally detoxed from the resorts, and we topped it off with pizza and great local brews at Kona Brewing Co before getting on the plane. Mahalo!
all snaps are here.
