Jeanne Cooper - Hawaii Big Island

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FROMMER MEDIA LLC

Copyright 2016 by Frommer Media LLC, New York City, New York. Frommer Media LLC is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

ISBN 978-1-62887-218-7 (paper), 978-1-62887-219-4 (e-book)

Editorial Director: Pauline Frommer

Editor: Alexis Lipsitz Flippin

Editorial Assistants: Margaret Day and Ashley Dubois

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Frommers Star Ratings System

Every hotel, restaurant and attraction listed in this guide has been ranked for quality and value. Heres what the stars mean:

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AN IMPORTANT NOTE

The world is a dynamic place. Hotels change ownership, restaurants hike their prices, museums alter their opening hours. And all of this can occur in the several months after our authors have visited, inspected, and written about these hotels, restaurants, museums and transportation services. Though we have made valiant efforts to keep all our information fresh and up-to-date, some few changes can inevitably occur in the periods before a revised edition of this guidebook is published. So please bear with us if a tiny number of the details in this book have changed. Please also note that we have no responsibility or liability for any inaccuracy or errors or omissions, or for inconvenience, loss, damage, or expenses suffered by anyone as a result of assertions in this guide.

About the AuthorS

Jeanne Cooper fell in love with the real Hawaii on her first visit in 1998, after growing up with enchanting stories and songs of the islands from her mother, who had lived there as a girl. The former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle travel section, Jeanne writes frequently about Hawaii for the newspaper and its website, SFGate.com, home of her Aloha Friday column and Hawaii Insider blog, and for magazines such as Sunset and Caviar Affair. She has also contributed to guidebooks on her former hometowns of Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

Shannon Wianecki grew up in Hawaii swimming in waterfalls, jumping off of sea cliffs, and breakfasting on ripe mangoes. An award-winning writer and editor, she writes feature stories for numerous travel and lifestyle magazines. Having served 8 years as food editor for Maui No Ka Oi Magazine, she knows the islands restaurant scene as well as her own kitchen. She once won the Maui Dreams Dive Companys pumpkin-carving contest.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my editor, Alexis Lipsitz Flippin, and my husband, Ian Hersey, for their support, and all those in Hawaii who have shared their knowledge and aloha with me.

Jeanne Cooper

Thanks to Gabe Marihugh for driving the Jeep through mudbogs in Lanai.

Shannon Wianecki

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

L arger than all the other Hawaiian Islands combined, the Big Island truly deserves its nickname. Its 4,028 square milesa figure thats growing, thanks to an active volcanocontain 10 of the worlds 13 climate zones. In less than a day, a visitor can easily traverse tropical rainforest, lava desert, verdant pastures, misty uplands, and chilly tundra, the last near the summit of Mauna Kea, almost 14,000 feet above sea level. The shoreline also boasts diversity, from golden beaches to enchanting coves with black, salt-and-pepper, even olivine sand. Above all, the island home of Kamehameha the Great and Pele, the volcano goddess, is big in mana: power and spirituality.

Essentials

Arriving

The Big Island has two major airports for interisland and trans-Pacific jet traffic: Kona and Hilo.

Most people arrive at Kona International Airport ( KOA; http://hawaii.gov/koa) in Keahole, the islands westernmost point, and can be forgiven for wondering if theres really a runway among all the crinkly black lava and golden fountain grass. Leaving the airport, the ritzy Kohala Coast is to the left (north) and the town of Kailua-Konaoften just called Kona, as is the airportis to the right (south).

U.S. carriers offering nonstop service to Kona, in alphabetical order, are Alaska Airlines ( www.alaskaair.com ; 800/252-7522 ), with flights from the Pacific Northwest hubs of Seattle, Portland, and Anchorage, and from San Diego, San Jose, and Oakland, California; American Airlines ( www.aa.com ; 800/433-7300 ) and Delta Air Lines ( www.delta.com ; 800/221-1212 ), both with flights from Los Angeles; Hawaiian Airlines ( www.hawaiianairlines.com ; 800/367-5320 ), with summer flights from Oakland and Los Angeles; United Airlines ( www.united.com ; 800/241-6522 ), with year-round flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, and seasonal flights from Chicago; and US Airways ( www.usairways.com ; 800/428-4322 ), scheduled to merge with American, but at press time still offering nonstop flights from Phoenix.

Air Canada ( www.aircanada.com ; 888/247-2267 ) and WestJet ( www.westjet.com ; 888/937-8358 ) also offer nonstop service to Kona, with frequency changing seasonally, from Vancouver.

Only United offers nonstop service from the mainland to Hilo International Airport ( ITO; http://hawaii.gov/ito), via Los Angeles.

For connecting flights or island-hopping, Hawaiian (see above) is the only carrier offering interisland jet service, available from Honolulu and Kahului, Maui, to both Kona and Hilo airports; its Ohana by Hawaiian subsidiary also flies from Kona and Hilo to Kahului on 48-passenger, twin-engine turboprops. Mokulele Airlines ( www.mokuleleairlines.com ; 866/260-4040 ) flies nine-passenger, singleengine turboprops between Kona and Kahului and Kapalua, Maui; between the Big Island upcountry town of Waimea and Kahului; and between Hilo and Kahului. Note: Mokulele discreetly weighs passengers and their carry-ons before boarding to determine seating; those totaling 350 pounds or more are not permitted to fly.

Coast of Kailua-Kona.

Visitor Information

The Big Island Visitors Bureau ( www.gohawaii.com/big -island; 800/648-2441 ) has two offices: one in the Kings Shops in the Waikoloa Beach Resort, 250 Waikoloa Beach Dr., Suite 15 ( 808/886-1655 ); the other at 250 Keawe St., No. 238, Hilo ( 808/961-5797 ).

The free tourist publications This Week (www.thisweekhawaii.com/big-island) and 101 Things to Do on Hawaii the Big Island (www.101thingstodo.com/big-island) offer lots of useful information amid the advertisements, as well as discount coupons for a variety of island adventures. Copies are easy to find all around the island.