Over the summer, I had an incredible opportunity to visit The Big Island of Hawaii for a week with my family. There were so many fantastic experiences I was so grateful to enjoy, here are the highlights!
- Snorkeling at night with Manta Rays
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Oh my goodness…. this experience was so much more than I expected!!
Manta Rays are HUGE beautiful sea creatures. They look similar to sting rays but don’t sting and are way bigger.
How does it work? You get dressed up in full snorkeling gear and ride a boat out, in the dark of the night, a short distance from shore. Everyone floats flat, face down on the water, and holds onto a floating board with a light attached to the bottom and handles all around. You hold onto the handles, and a worker puts something under your ankles to make them float.
Manta Rays come out at night to eat plankton. Plankton is attracted to light, so the light on the bottom of the board means the Manta Rays swim up to the plankton for feeding time.
To eat, the Manta Rays do this sort of barrel roll move with their mouths wide open to suck in the plankton. It’s almost like they are doing tricks for you.
The whole experience is one of the most beautiful and terrifying things I’ve ever done. Manta Rays have huge mouths, and while their throats are smaller than the tip of your pinkie finger, it is still scary to watch their mouths come straight at you.
To keep them safe, you aren’t allowed to touch the animals… but no one tells them that! The Rays come up incredibly close to you, less than a foot away or sometimes even brushing up to you, which is a little startling.
There were a lot of different companies taking off from the same dock as us, but my family booked with Captain Cook.
I am so glad we got a smaller, more personal experience.
While finding and meeting our guides was a little unorthodox, they were incredibly kind and attentive for our entire time with them. My brother was especially nervous and had a difficult time understanding the snorkeling gear. Our guide swam right next to him, reassuring all of us that the Manta Rays are “gentle giants” who cannot hurt people.
The company provided everything we needed, including the scuba gear and even snacks!
The entire experience is exclusive to Kailua-Kona specifically, which is why there are so many companies to choose from. The Big Island is the only place in the world to participate in the activity.
While I was incredibly worried going in (and during), afterwards it is easy to see how Snorkeling with Manta Rays at night is The Big Island’s biggest attraction.
- ATV Tour
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Another highlight of the trip was getting to tour parts of the island you can’t drive on. My family did an ATV tour with Aloha Adventure Farms.
It was so much fun!!
The thing about the Big Island is that it’s small. It only takes about 6 hours to drive around the entire perimeter, but you don’t normally get to see the center of the island. The terrain is uneven and not paved for cars.
With the ATV Tour, you get to drive your own personal ATV and see more of the Island with guidance and help from the tour guides.
Driving the ATV was one of my favorite parts, I found it fun! If you decide at any point it’s not for you, the tour guide drives a UTV and has seats for passengers.
As you drive through their path, the guide stops periodically for activities based on Hawaiian history. My family got to peel and crack a coconut, taste some plants native to the Island, make music, play games, and more!
The tour is beautiful, and the guides are friendly. Definitely something I would do again (even just to drive the ATV). Check out some photos here!
- Glassbottom Boat Ride
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There are fish native to Hawaii that you can’t see anywhere else, but you can’t just swim up and say hi. The Big Island’s Glass Bottom Boat is a great way to view all sorts of sea creatures without disturbing them.
I knew this company understood customer satisfaction when they offered us “sumbrellas” while waiting for the boat.
The boat is what you would expect. A regular boat with benches and designated windows in the floor.
The tour gives you a fish reference sheet and takes you all around popular reefs in the area. The boat was even specially designed to fit around “Shipwreck Reef”, a tricky spot for most boats.
Our tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable. She gave us history and explanations about the boat, reefs, and Hawaii. If anyone had questions about a specific fish or creature, she always made sure to pause and cater to what we needed.
We got drinks, information, a boat ride, and beautiful views. I found the experience relaxing and entertaining.
- Volcano National Park
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Probably what everyone thinks about when we think of visiting the Big Island. For a good reason! Volcanos are beautiful, and the view you get at this park highlights that.
My family and I go to a lot of national and state parks. They are a main attraction of a lot of our vacations. The Volcanoes National park was pretty on par with the rest of the parks we have seen. The Unique natural phenomenons, hiking paths, and information was entertaining and fun to know!
We had lunch in a restaurant with large windows to admire the view over food.
There are a lot of fantastic paths to walk, even one that goes straight through the middle of a volcano! One of my favorite things to do is to pop on some earbuds and play an audiobook as I admire the nature around me.
National parks are one of the cheapest attractions available in new places. Learn and admire the beautiful place you are visiting!
- Pana’Ewa Rainforest Zoo
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This Zoo was an impulse visit on our way back from visiting a waterfall, and it was surprisingly entertaining.
I am not normally a huge fan of zoos. They are dirty, full of screaming children, and once you see the animals, there isn’t a lot more to see. This Zoo felt a lot more unique!
Being a rainforest zoo means that there were lots of animals I had never gotten to see before. It was very small and casual and didn’t feel too “tourist-y”.
There were peacocks just strutting around, and they would walk straight up to you!
It was very cool to see all sorts of birds, reptiles, monkeys, and so on. I loved the monkeys, but there was one animal that beat the rest.
The anteater!!!
I never realized how cool anteaters are. We almost didn’t notice them, but as we walked out there were two anteaters just walking around, sniffing the grass. I loved everything about them, and their nose is just so silly! I have never seen an awake and active anteater in person, and the experience was not something I knew I would enjoy so much.
So, if you are driving around the Big Island, stop by, even for nothing but the anteaters.
- Beaches (Black vs white sand)
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This one probably goes without saying, but there are a lot of beaches on The Big Island that deserve a visit.
Hawaii is unique because it has both black and white sand beaches (also some other colors, but those are rarer, and I didn’t get a chance to visit them).
The difference, in my experience, is that black sand is more course and feels like it is exfoliating your skin. It is rough and thick, but also relaxing to be in. When wet, it doesn’t clump the same as white sand. It can be a little painful to walk on at times, so keep that in mind.
The white sand beaches in Hawaii are more similar to your typical beach. The sand is soft, and they are usually pretty crowded.
We saw sea turtles at both beaches, and they were fun to visit! Don’t pass up the traditional vacation experiences.
It is nice to swim in the ocean a little but be extra careful to not get water up your nose (IT SUCKS).
- Chocolate Tour
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I am a chocolate fanatic, so I was pretty excited to get a little tour on how Hawaiian chocolate was made.
We toured Original Hawaiian Chocolate‘s plantation during our trip. It’s a family-owned business that started their company in Hawaii years ago.
The tour guide, Bob, goes through every step of the chocolate making process. Bob explains the history of their company, the life and process of making chocolate, and offers everyone samples.
You walk through the plantation, getting to see and touch all the parts of coca beans along the way.
The tour is personal, interesting, and heck you get free chocolate!
Honorable Mentions
- Luau – something my mother was really excited for, lots of dancing and lots of food (it was a giant party!).
- Coffee Tour – very informational, completely free including coffee samples!
- ‘Akaka Fall State Park – lots of stairs to view a beautiful waterfall.
Hopefully this gives you a taste of the rich beauty and culture found on Hawai’i. If you get the opportunity, I hope that however you adventure the Island gives you memories for a lifetime.
Happy travels!