A Kid-Centric trip to the Big Island (updated with Volcanoes National Park)

[wanderlust7]

Alternative title: How 1 island turned into 2 and 7 nights turned into 12.

Welcome to the second in my series of kid-centric trip reports! Or at least I think it will become a series….

This trip only included the Big Island and a couple days in Waikiki (mostly just to eat) – no Aulani. I see questions on here about the Big Island and the volcano in particular, so I hope this trip report is of interest to some. But if you’re looking for Aulani info, feel free to stop reading now.

Okay – if you’re still with me, some background. We’re a family of 4 – me (the mom), DH, DS (age 8), and DD (age 5). DH and I have been to the Big Island twice before (in 2004 and 2010 – it’s been a while!), but the kids have never been. They were very excited and curious to see the volcano!

The trip planning started with an exchange with our Wyndham timeshare to the Hilton Grand Vacation Club Kings’ Land during the kids’ spring break. It was for a week with check-in on Saturday. That much was fixed. We could start our vacation early and/or end it late, but I knew I didn’t want to cut short that week. We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so flights to Hawaii are relatively easy and usually not too expensive. We have never gone during school breaks though and I have always been able to find flights out of SFO/OAK/SJC to any of the islands for $400 or under. This being spring break, I knew I wasn’t going to get that, but anything around $550 I probably would have jumped on it. I never did catch it that low and ended up having to get creative. I used AA miles to get a non-stop flight on Alaska Airlines to Kona for 3 of us (22,500 miles one-way each – not the best use of miles but I suppose I could do worse) and then paid cash for 1 person ($314). The return flight, best I could find was with Hawaiian Airlines on a Monday with a connection in HNL. Well, if I need to connect through HNL, I’m going to stopover and eat lots of yummy Japanese food (personal quirk – I love Waikiki for the Japanese food, it’s Tokyo by the sea to me). I was able to get the flight for the same price of $284 with the stopover flying KOA-HNL on the Saturday we check out of Kings’ Land and then HNL-SJC on the Monday after. And that’s how 1 island turned into 2 and 7 nights turned into 12.

We arrived at KOA in time for lunch and headed to Pine Tree Café, which is very close to the airport. We forgot to take pictures of the food! Too tired I think, having gotten up at 3:30 am to get ready and get to the airport. We got fried poke salad, Korean chicken, and the kids’ chicken strip meal. The fried poke was the stand out to me – it was very moist like seared tuna. The Korean chicken was yummy too and their macaroni salad side dish is interesting in a good way (macaroni + potato + canned tuna).

Our bellies full (and DH caffeinated), we headed off for the 2 hour and 15 minutes or so drive to Volcano Village. Some photos along the way:





When we got to Hilo, we stopped at a KTA Super Store (the one on E. Puaninako St.) and got some groceries and prepared foods for dinner. They have a huge selection of poke; there must have been at least 15 different kinds. I didn’t know which to choose and picked the two that had the least left thinking it must be the most popular. Hmm…or maybe it was just the oldest batch. It tasted fresh though and the ahi (tuna) was not stringy like sometimes it can be in poke. I also got some nishime (Japanese stew - it had chicken, turnips, carrots, and taro), small unagi (eel) bowl, soba salad, and rice with edamame. Yeah – remember I said I like Japanese food? Everything turned out to be quite good for grocery store food.

We stayed at a little vacation rental in Volcano Village called Menehune Mansions. There are 2 small one bedroom houses on one plot of land. It was very cute and cozy, super clean and everything looked quite new. DD called it our “Hawaii home”. DS had fun finding all the Menehune girl figurines hidden throughout the house (like in the closet or cabinets). Like most houses in Volcano Village, Menehune Mansions is on a small one lane road (the type where if there’s another car coming in the opposite direction, someone needs to pull over and let the other pass). The directions on Google maps are a little off, but it wasn’t hard to find in daylight using the map and directions the owner provided. The owner is very nice and responsive by e-mail. In fact, we stayed in her other vacation rental Maile Treehouse on our trip without kids 7 years ago.

At one point, I had thought about staying at the Grand Naniloa in Hilo after reading here that it had been recently remodeled. The views from some of the rooms look gorgeous and I am such a sucker for an ocean view. But when it got closer to our trip and the lava lake was still going, I knew that we’d want to see it at night, so staying in Volcano Village seemed more convenient. In hindsight, I’m really happy with my choice. Staying in Hilo would have been convenient to restaurants, but a totally different vibe. Staying in Volcano Village is rural, quiet, and secluded. The kids called it our “Hawaiian adventure”.

Driveway in to the vacation rentals:



Outside:



Inside:








Up next: Our day in Volcano National Park.

 

[happymommy]

This is awesome! I'm going this summer with just my daughter to VNP, leaving the boys over at Ko Olina, for a few days. We'll be at Ko Olina for a month, so since she wants to see the Big Island, I plan on taking her there.

 

[alohamom]

YAY-subscribing! We LOVE Big Island, I cant wait to read more. I have been going back and forth about staying at the Kings Land section of the Hilton so I am excited to hear about it. I have heard before that the pools are very cold, did you find it that way?

 

[wanderlust7]

Thanks for reading! I debated if I should do a trip report since it doesn't include Aulani. Wondered if it would end up like I was talking to myself.

This is awesome! I'm going this summer with just my daughter to VNP, leaving the boys over at Ko Olina, for a few days. We'll be at Ko Olina for a month, so since she wants to see the Big Island, I plan on taking her there.

A month! NICE!! That sounds so relaxing.

YAY-subscribing! We LOVE Big Island, I cant wait to read more. I have been going back and forth about staying at the Kings Land section of the Hilton so I am excited to hear about it. I have heard before that the pools are very cold, did you find it that way?

We loved our stay at Kings' Land. I'll have more details later. I didn't find the pools cold except when first going in, but that's always the case for me. We went over to Hilton Waikoloa Village (the hotel side) and the pools there felt the same to me.

 

[pam95]

I'm subscribing as well.. We're going to Aulani at the end of June and then hopping over to the Big Island to Volcano National Park before heading home.

 

[wanderlust7]

I'm subscribing as well.. We're going to Aulani at the end of June and then hopping over to the Big Island to Volcano National Park before heading home.

Yay! Welcome!

 

[happymommy]

Yes, a month, longest trip since I moved away in 1998. Using our studio for 2 weeks, just my DD and me, then the boys come over and we move to the one bedroom for 2 weeks, then added 2 nights to use airline miles to get low mileage first class (both ways, yay) on AA from DCA. So we're going over when the boys come, after a few days. We own at the Marriott, 2 weeks every other year.

Still working on where to stay at volcano and whether to fly into Kona and out of Hilo (did that when my son was a baby, so haven't been back for 20 years, omg am I that old?).

I love your report!

 

[wanderlust7]

Today we headed to Volcanoes National Park. I never timed it, but it was probably only a 5 minute drive from the vacation rental to the entrance of the park. It costs $20 to enter the park and is valid for 7 days. First stop was the visitor center. The park ranger was telling everyone that the level of the lava lake was a little higher today and there was splatter. His recommendation was to head to the Jagger Museum overlook first. We weren't sure if the splatter is a hurry-go-see-or-you'll-miss-it type thing or if it tends to last a while. We decided to head there and come back to the visitor center later.

I think this is an unzoomed view:



Here's a zoomed view:



There’s a telescope that's free to use. Looking through there you can see the splatter action much more clearly.

This was the most easily accessible view of glowing lava we have had in our trips. Truly park and go see. No hiking involved. Our first trip we saw it at night glowing on the side of a mountain in the distance. I don't remember how long the hike was but it must have not been more than a couple miles for me to seriously consider doing it. Even when I was younger I was never very fit. In the end we didn't do it because of all the warnings about uneven terrain hiking over old lava at night when you can’t see that well and how it'll cut you if you fall on it. I tend to be an overly cautious person....

Our second trip there was not much lava activity anywhere. We ended up doing a helicopter tour and flew over a mountain top area where we saw glowing lava through cracks in old lava. Definitely not accessible except aerially.

This time, I feel so lucky it was so easy to see, especially with the kids. It was also possible to see the lava flow into the ocean, but involves a long hike, so I didn’t consider it at all. From the end of Chain of Craters Road, there was a sign it would be a 10(!) mile hike. I think there's another area you can start at that would be shorter (but still long hike) that I didn't look into. The other option would be a boat tour. I thought about it for all of 5 seconds but was too concerned with the inherent risks – sulfuric and hydrochloric acid in the air that's created as lava hits ocean and risk of lava shelf collapsing. Yeah - overly cautious person here and never more so than when the kids are involved. If it was just DH and I, I would have been very tempted to do it.

We went in the Jagger Museum when it opened at 10 am. The kids had fun jumping and making the seismometer go. There were displays of all the different types of lava. The two most common types are pahoehoe (more smooth and flowy) and a’a (sharp and jagged). Throughout the trip, I would ask DS, is that pahoehoe or a’a? The most interesting type I saw was Pele’s Hair (wish I’d gotten a picture of it) - which looks like blonde hair.

From the Jagger Museum, which is basically the end of the road from that side of the park, we backtracked and stopped at the steam vents (no picture, what’s wrong with me??). Then back to the visitor center where we watched one of their videos about the history of the Hawaiian Islands and about the volcanoes. It was short enough and interesting enough that there were no complaints from the kids.

By then it was time for lunch and we headed to the Ohelo Café, a few minutes outside the park. We had the shrimp alfredo, which we also ordered when we were there 7 years ago. I had already started to dig in before I remembered to take a photo.



We also had the local fish. It was well cooked, but the flavors were all Chinese, which we weren’t really in the mood for (get enough of it at home).



The kids had the four cheese pizza and there were leftovers for dinner.

After lunch, we went back inside VNP and turned left (the visitor center and Jagger Museum are to the right). First stop was the Thurston Lava Tube. There were a lot of tour buses! Luckily, we were able to get ahead of a tour group while the guide was doing his narration.

This is the entrance:



Inside:




Up next: Chain of Craters Road

 

[wanderlust7]

We thought about hiking the Devastation Trail, but just as we got out of the car, the drizzle turned into rain. We decided to keep driving down the Chain of Craters Road. Luckily, the rain soon stopped. Rain was forecast the days we were in Volcano, but it never rained for long and it was usually drizzle.

A lava rock formation along the way:



Chain of Craters Road:



Kealakomo Overlook. What a nice place for a picnic. We ate our snack of Hawaiian chips (taro and sweet potato) and drank some POG juice (passion fruit, orange, guava) and lychee tea.



The view of the ocean below from the overlook:



Next stop was the Pu’u Loa Petroglyphs Trail. It was 0.7 miles one-way so I hesitated a bit worrying how DD would do. But DS was curious about the petroglyphs and wanted to do it. We tried to get DD to stay behind with DH, but if her big brother’s doing it, of course she wants to come too. The trail is a lava field, so parts we had to scramble over some lava and other parts had worn down paths. Not really difficult for an adult, but a little tricky for a 5 year old. DH held her hand, they went slower and she made it through okay.



Some pahoehoe lava along the way, with a rock stack on top (rock stacking – a popular activity for some reason ):



More pahoehoe lava with plants growing through the crack:



Finally, we make it to the wooden walkway where we could see the petroglyphs:





We could see fumes from here. I think this is from the lava going into the ocean.



After the hike, we kept driving and the next stop was Holei Sea Arch:



My picture is a little misleading because there were a lot of people here. I managed to lean a bit to get a picture with no people, but that’s why it’s crooked.

We could see fumes from here as well:



DH and I remembered that on our last trip, we had walked past the gate at the end of the Chain of Craters Road and had seen where a past lava flow had covered the paved road as well as a stop sign. We thought it would be interesting for the kids to see. DS was definitely interested. DD was urghhh…more walking?? But her brother was going so she didn’t want to stay behind either. So we walked past the gate on the paved road for about 0.5 mile to where it should have been. Only to find it had been paved over….

Oops.

Yeah, if I had read my updated Hawaii The Big Island Revealed book more carefully, I would have known it had been rescraped in 2014.



Well, it wasn’t a total loss. DH did find the sign post in the lava (though the sign itself is gone). DS found some cool looking iridescent lava:



We also had fun shaking these dried seed pods. They sound like maracas. That is until DH saw the sign describing them that said the seed are poisonous. Then we promptly dropped them on the ground. I think it’s only if you ingest them, but DS was so concerned he said he used 5 pumps of liquid soap to wash his hands when we got back to the vacation rental.



With the kids thoroughly worn out, we started the drive back to the park entrance, which took about an hour. We’d talked about seeing the lava glow from Jagger Museum again at night, but the kids had fallen asleep in the car and it wasn’t dark by the time we reached the entrance. So we went back to the vacation rental and had dinner of leftover pizza from lunch and whatever was left of the prepared foods from the grocery store the day before. Refreshed from their nap and dinner, the kids asked to go see the volcano at night, so off we went (yay for staying close!).

It was very crowded! Much more so than during the day - lots of tour buses, people and cameras of course. This was about 7:30 pm. I don’t know why I had pictured a quieter experience. The park is open 24 hours, so without kids maybe we would have gone back later at night. In any case, it was still very cool to see. DH took lots of photos, but it’s hard to truly capture it, especially with only a cell phone camera.



That concludes our awesome and educational day in Volcanoes National Park!

Up next: Hilo and Punalu’u Black Sand Beach.

 

[wanderlust7]

Still working on where to stay at volcano and whether to fly into Kona and out of Hilo (did that when my son was a baby, so haven't been back for 20 years, omg am I that old?).

If you're going to the Kona side too, that would save a lot of driving. I would have definitely gone that route if I could have made it work time/money wise. But my problem was we were going to the volcano first and there are no direct flights to Hilo from home.

Since you're going back to HNL, I think there are lots of flights out of Hilo. Interisland flights on Hawaiian using AA miles are 7500 one-way, if that makes financial sense for you. Availability seemed to be good when I looked. I guess that just leaves the car rental - if the one-way rental is a lot more expensive or not.

 

[happymommy]

I looked, and so far I can use miles and our rental car is fine with drop fee, like $200 or so.

We may end up doing this - my childhood friend may be home (lives in Kailua-Kona) and my kid wants to meet him! He did at videography on some cool films (most recently the one directed by Leonardo DiCaprio called Before the Flood). Her class watched it so she is stoked to meet him! Funny, as as neighbors I recall the day he was born! That was back in Missouri!

 

[pam95]

Awesome report and pictures! Can't wait to read more. We're hoping to go to the Black Sand Beach as well.

 

[cgattis]

@wanderlust7 do you think there's a best "touring plan" for VNP to avoid some crowds, like maybe which things have the least capacity, so try to do earlier maybe? Or later? You know--the Peter Pan of Volcanoes??!? LOL

 

[wanderlust7]

@wanderlust7 do you think there's a best "touring plan" for VNP to avoid some crowds, like maybe which things have the least capacity, so try to do earlier maybe? Or later? You know--the Peter Pan of Volcanoes??!? LOL

The crowds are nothing like the theme parks. I think I mention it because of the contrast. There are stretches of the park that have very, very few people, and then we hit a popular spot and then it's suddenly - oh people! oh cars! oh tour buses! Not sure how to describe it, but sometimes it can feel a little like we're on the moon and then all the people pull me back to earth.

The Peter Pan of Volcanoes.... I guess the closest thing would be Thurston Lava Tube. There are stairs to get to the entrance and the tube itself is not that wide, if you get behind a tour group I imagine it would be slow going. But it might be possible to squeeze past them. We were there about 1:30 pm, if that helps. It seemed to be a pretty busy time in the parking lot. I would imagine earlier or later would be better.

For night time lava viewing, if the lava lake if still going when you go, definitely try to go later...after 10 pm maybe? Just a guess. I would think many of the tour buses need to get back to the Kona side and that takes over 2 hours. The overlook area stretches across a wide area though, so even though there were a lot of people (the most people anywhere in VNP that we saw), we could still find a spot to see. It's just without all the people, I think it would be a much more magical experience.

Honestly though, don't worry too much about it and just enjoy at your own pace.

 

[wanderlust7]

Today we went to Hilo. First stop was to pick up a picnic lunch from Kawamoto Store. This was a friend’s recommendation; otherwise it probably wouldn’t have come on my radar. It’s a takeout place (no seating whatsoever) with food made in batches and put in a display case. Things are sold by the piece – examples spam musubi $0.80 each, Korean chicken wings $1.10 each. They also have bentos, but we decided to order by the piece. We got the spam musubi, Korean chicken wings, shoyu chicken, tempura (shrimp, sweet potato, string beans), and long rice noodles (this is sold by the container size). The shoyu chicken we only ordered 2 pieces, but the girl helping us said the pieces were small so she gave us an extra piece – it was a lot! She didn’t write anything down when taking our order. I was impressed, though she did end up forgetting a couple things.

Kind of a bad picture, but here’s everything we got (total $38):



Everything was good. The tempura had gotten cold by the time we ate it though, so the leftovers we heated up later in the oven were much more delicious. DS ended up liking spam musubi and ate a lot of it this trip. Maybe too much - he got sick of it by the end.

On the same friend’s suggestion, we also picked up some mochi from Two Ladies Kitchen, a couple blocks down the road from Kawamoto. The most expensive ones are the strawberry mochi ($3.50 each!). I guess the strawberries are really expensive. The other ones are about $1. I picked a bunch of fresh fruit ones – grape, pear, and mandarin. The mochi is really good, very fresh. Paired with the fresh fruit, I kind of felt like it’s not much different than eating a bite of mochi and then a bite of fruit. My favorite ended up being the lilikoi flavored (square one) – just mochi, nothing inside.



We took the food to a picnic bench in a park by the bay (think it was part of Queen Liliuokalani Garden). The vacation rental had a small cooler and ice packs in the freezer that we used to bring some drinks along. After lunch, we poked around the tide pools a bit. DD had to go to the bathroom, so we ended up crossing the foot bridge to Coconut Island.

Finally, I have a picture of that!



We then headed to Punalu’u Black Sand Beach. It’s the opposite direction from Volcano as Hilo, so not exactly efficient touring, but oh well. We ended up parking at the southwest end parking lot, which is where the tour buses park. I had remembered something in the guidebook about a quieter end, but I didn’t remember specifics at the time. I’m looking at it now and we should have gone to the northwest lot. The kids wanted to play in the sand and we headed further from the parking lot to near the lifeguard station. It’s not really great sand to play with (pretty coarse), but they were just itching to play in the sand. As they played, I watched a tour bus load of people take pictures, leave, and then another tour bus load come. It started raining, but the kids didn’t care and still wanted to play. I hid under a tree and took pictures of a much emptier beach as everyone left to hide from the rain.





We saw sea turtles on the beach here last trip, but no such luck this time.

Interesting fact – there aren’t many black sand beaches because they’re relatively fleeting. The black sand is made up of broken up a’a lava. As it’s washed into the sea, it’s not replenished. This is different from white sand beaches, which are made up of organic material of coral or shells from parrotfish poo-poo. DS’s eyes got wide when I told him this fun little tidbit.

Closer view of the black sand, with the popular rock stacking.



Up next: More of Hilo and driving to Waikoloa

 

[cgattis]

Today we went to Hilo. First stop was to pick up a picnic lunch from Kawamoto Store. This was a friend’s recommendation; otherwise it probably wouldn’t have come on my radar. It’s a takeout place (no seating whatsoever) with food made in batches and put in a display case. Things are sold by the piece – examples spam musubi $0.80 each, Korean chicken wings $1.10 each. They also have bentos, but we decided to order by the piece. We got the spam musubi, Korean chicken wings, shoyu chicken, tempura (shrimp, sweet potato, string beans), and long rice noodles (this is sold by the container size). The shoyu chicken we only ordered 2 pieces, but the girl helping us said the pieces were small so she gave us an extra piece – it was a lot! She didn’t write anything down when taking our order. I was impressed, though she did end up forgetting a couple things.

Kind of a bad picture, but here’s everything we got (total $38):



Everything was good. The tempura had gotten cold by the time we ate it though, so the leftovers we heated up later in the oven were much more delicious. DS ended up liking spam musubi and ate a lot of it this trip. Maybe too much - he got sick of it by the end.

On the same friend’s suggestion, we also picked up some mochi from Two Ladies Kitchen, a couple blocks down the road from Kawamoto. The most expensive ones are the strawberry mochi ($3.50 each!). I guess the strawberries are really expensive. The other ones are about $1. I picked a bunch of fresh fruit ones – grape, pear, and mandarin. The mochi is really good, very fresh. Paired with the fresh fruit, I kind of felt like it’s not much different than eating a bite of mochi and then a bite of fruit. My favorite ended up being the lilikoi flavored (square one) – just mochi, nothing inside.



We took the food to a picnic bench in a park by the bay (think it was part of Queen Liliuokalani Garden). The vacation rental had a small cooler and ice packs in the freezer that we used to bring some drinks along. After lunch, we poked around the tide pools a bit. DD had to go to the bathroom, so we ended up crossing the foot bridge to Coconut Island.

Finally, I have a picture of that!



We then headed to Punalu’u Black Sand Beach. It’s the opposite direction from Volcano as Hilo, so not exactly efficient touring, but oh well. We ended up parking at the southwest end parking lot, which is where the tour buses park. I had remembered something in the guidebook about a quieter end, but I didn’t remember specifics at the time. I’m looking at it now and we should have gone to the northwest lot. The kids wanted to play in the sand and we headed further from the parking lot to near the lifeguard station. It’s not really great sand to play with (pretty coarse), but they were just itching to play in the sand. As they played, I watched a tour bus load of people take pictures, leave, and then another tour bus load come. It started raining, but the kids didn’t care and still wanted to play. I hid under a tree and took pictures of a much emptier beach as everyone left to hide from the rain.





We saw sea turtles on the beach here last trip, but no such luck this time.

Interesting fact – there aren’t many black sand beaches because they’re relatively fleeting. The black sand is made up of broken up a’a lava. As it’s washed into the sea, it’s not replenished. This is different from white sand beaches, which are made up of organic material of coral or shells from parrotfish poo-poo. DS’s eyes got wide when I told him this fun little tidbit.

Closer view of the black sand, with the popular rock stacking.

LOVING this report!! Can't wait to get there! Thanks for all the detail!!

 

[wanderlust7]

Today we were moving from our little vacation rental in Volcano Village to HGVC Kings’ Land in Waikoloa. But first we made several stops along the way. The first stop was the Moana Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. I hadn’t planned on stopping here, but we kept seeing it on the way to/from Hilo, so thought why not. Turning in from the main road, we had to drive a bit past macadamia nut groves to the factory. They have big picture windows into the factory – that’s basically their “factory tour”. It was Saturday though, so all we saw were a couple employees and the machinery cleaned and bagged up. There is a store where we had some samples of the different flavors. We didn’t buy any macadamia nuts here though since I read on Yelp that Costco/Target/Walmart is cheaper.

Next stop was Big Island Candies where we had more samples. They have samples of 100% Kona coffee too. There are windows into their production area here as well and we saw employees chocolate dipping cookies, but no machinery going. They have some weird flavors - we tried the potato chip macadamia chocolate. Eh - it was okay. My friend said he tried the Korean BBQ macadamia chocolate, but we didn't see it. We got some chocolate dipped shortbread cookies and some macadamia chocolate. Kind of pricey, but very ono (Hawaiian for delicious). They have a lot of gorgeous packaging. Great for gift giving, but if you're just going to eat it yourself (like us), it's cheaper to buy in the paper bags or bento trays for chocolate.

Next stop was the Hilo Farmers’ Market. We ended up carrying the cookies and chocolate because we were afraid it would melt in the car. Oops...should have gone there last. Anyways...since it was Saturday, the Farmers' Market was in full swing. One side is clothes, jewelry, art, etc., the other side is fruit, produce, and some prepared foods (I remember seeing summer rolls, noodles, musubi). We got a lot of huge and sweet longan! Yum!! Also got a small bag of lychee even though the stall owner said it was a little tart when we asked (early in the season). They were pretty sour, but I couldn't pass up a chance to try local lychee. We also got flower hair clips ($3) and a turtle necklace ($4) for DD. Prices seemed good compared to some of the places we saw later.



Then it was time for lunch and we went to Dragon Sushi Kitchen, in a little hole-in-the wall food court just around the corner from the Farmers’ Market (cash only!). We had the salmon poke bowl, soba noodles, hand rolls, grilled salmon roll, and cucumber roll (DS's usual). My favorite was the salmon poke. The grilled salmon roll was just okay – why did I order cooked salmon in sushi?? There’s also a shaved ice place in the food court, which really hit the spot.

After lunch, we looked in a few of the stores nearby, but thought things were a little expensive, especially compared to the Farmer’s Market. Then it was time to drive to Waikoloa.

A photo along the way:



I should mention that there’s construction going on Saddle Road. I looked it up and it’s supposed to be completed in August this year. When we drove to Volcano, it was a Wednesday, so the construction was in progress. It gets reduced to one lane and the construction crew let one group of cars go in one direction while the opposite direction has to wait. We lucked out and got into the group that was going and didn’t have to wait. It’s a pretty long stretch of road with lots of cones. On the way to Waikoloa, no construction was in progress (weekend), so both lanes were open. There was lots of heavy construction equipment parked, which was interesting for the kids to see.

We checked into Kings’ Land, dropped off the luggage, and then rushed off to go to Costco before it closes (since the next day was Easter Sunday and Costco would be closed). The road from Waikoloa to Kona is only one lane in each direction, so you can only go as fast as the slowest car in front of you…. But we made it in time. Just 2 observations about the Costco on the Big Island – the selection of poke is pretty limited, unlike the Costco’s we’ve been to on Oahu, and they do not have churros!!

Up next: HGVC Kings' Land

 

[wanderlust7]

The next 4 days are rather a blur. The itinerary was basically this:

Day 1: pool
Day 2: pool
Day 3: pool
Day 4: pool



This is so different from when we traveled without kids. Every day would be touring or excursions. On the last day, as we’re getting ready to leave, we would say to each other - oh, we haven’t explored the resort at all…or used the pool….

Anyhoo – I think I’ll cover by topic for the next 4 days of the trip.

First up – our unit at Kings’ Land. We had a 2 bedroom unit on the second floor (3 floors total) in building 3 (phase 1). At first, I was a little disappointed because it seemed a little far from the main pool. But once we walked it, it wasn’t bad at all. Building 6 would be the closest to the main pool. Building 3 is in front of the Serenity Pool, which was convenient the one afternoon we used it and had the whole pool and hot tub to ourselves for a bit.

Everything in the unit was in good shape. The only 2 things I noticed were the rust on the shower head in the master bath and on the rack in the dishwasher. The patio furniture was very comfortable and I had breakfast out there a lot. I kept wondering how they keep it so clean. I meant to get a picture of the balcony and the pool from the balcony…and then forgot. You can kind of see it in this picture:



Kitchen:



Master bedroom:



Huge master bath needs 2 pictures:





Second bedroom:



TV in second bedroom. Thought the kids would love that, but we didn't even turn it on.



Second bath:



Up next: Kings' Land pool and activities.

 

[alohamom]

Oh wow, thanks so much for all the Kings Land condo pics

 

[wanderlust7]

I don’t seem to have many pictures of the Kings' Land grounds or the pool – too busy relaxing I guess. The pool is huge (they call it the “Super Pool”), with different areas, all connected together. DD’s favorite area was the children’s pool, where the water is only ankle deep. There’s a small slide there that she and DS went down I don’t know how many times. I think they call it a “beach” area, but really they’re pebbles, not sand. The pool is pebble bottom as well.



About pool chairs – Easter Sunday was the only day we had issues finding chairs in the shade. It was a sunny day, not overcast like many of the other days we were there. The other days were less crowded. I’m not sure if it’s a weekend thing or an Easter Sunday thing.

On Easter Sunday, they had egg hunts for the kids. It was separated by age, 1-6 and 7-12, different locations and times. Registration was required (which we didn’t know about), but they were doing them on the spot and waited until everyone was done before starting. They gave out cute Easter egg shaped bags to collect the eggs in. There were prizes for finding 1 of 3 golden eggs hidden in the plastic eggs. The prizes were big gift baskets filled with…stuff…I didn’t look too closely. We didn’t win and the kids were a little disappointed (DD especially). I think they would have been happier if there were no prizes at all. It’s a generous touch though. They also had the Easter bunny and a free photo booth with funny hats, glasses, wigs, etc. you could use.

This was the age 1-6 location in the clubhouse courtyard. Eggs galore!



DD liked doing the arts and crafts activity they had every day at 11 am. This was the schedule when we were there (nothing on Sunday maybe because of the Easter activities):

Monday – coconut frond weaving. We thought it might be a basket, but turned out it was a fish. We were given printed instructions (about 12 steps), the CM (for lack of better word) demonstrated and then walked around helping. Of all the events we did, this one required the most instruction. I’ve made these fish (with ribbon) when I was young, so after a bit, it kind of came back to me.

Tuesday – Hawaiian shell bracelet making. Self-explanatory. This one was very popular.

Wednesday – Hawaiian kappa cloth design. You can pick a small or bigger cloth bag. They have a bunch of stamps, and then you just stamp whatever design you want. They have some examples for ideas. I picked 3 stamps (flower, bird, and gecko) and then stamped it in staggered rows. DD kind of just stamped it wherever.

Thursday – Hawaiian lei making. We didn’t do this one because after I read the description and realized it was using ti leaves and not flowers, DD didn’t want to do it anymore.

Friday – petroglyph rock design. They give you a little package of self-hardening clay that you can shape and carve pictures on to make into a magnet or ornament. It was fun for the whole family. DH’s was impressive – in the shape of the Big Island with a sea turtle carved on it.

Saturday – towel buddies. We had to leave for the airport so didn’t get to do this one.

On Sundays and Wednesdays, the resort has free shaved ice from 1 to 1:30 pm. The shaved ice is pretty coarse, but hey it’s free.

On Thursdays at 5 pm, they have their Spectacular Hula Show at the clubhouse courtyard. Don’t miss this! It’s a 45 minutes show similar to what you might see at a luau – for free! They have male and female hula dancers, plus the piece de resistance - an awesome fire dancer.

One last amenity that we used a lot was the DVDNow machines near the front desk. It’s free to use, 2 disk limit at a time. They have movies and PlayStation games, though the game selection is not great (maybe they were all checked out). It was nice watching a movie after having dinner in the unit.

Up next: Hilton Waikoloa Village (i.e. the hotel side)