Mauna Kea Summit Tour

Has anyone done the Mauna Kea Summit Tour? RCCL is offering it for $135.00.

If anyone has done it, can you please tell me what you thought of it in general? Was it hard to breathe at all? Was it worth the $$ that you paid? Did you enjoy the view from above the clouds? This is what I am most looking forward to....the view from above the clouds...

Doesn't anyone have any info on this tour?

I am worried about the altitude and lack of oxygen....have gotten lightheadness in Vegas!!!! :eek:

We are doing it on our own.... $40 or so for a jeep rental and driving up. $135 seems awfully expensive! There is a visitors center about half way up you should stop at for an hour or so to acclimate yourself to the altitude change. I guess the difference with the tour is that maybe they have oxygen tanks on hand if there would be a problem, but i have been at that altitude and was fine.

Thank you for the info.....we're not renting a vehicle so I only can do a tour through the ship or independently....haven't decided if I'm doing it yet and if I am then I'll decide, ships tour or independently.

Thanks again for the info.

We are doing it on our own.... $40 or so for a jeep rental and driving up. $135 seems awfully expensive! There is a visitors center about half way up you should stop at for an hour or so to acclimate yourself to the altitude change. I guess the difference with the tour is that maybe they have oxygen tanks on hand if there would be a problem, but i have been at that altitude and was fine.

Who are you booking your 4-w/d jeep through? Harper's is the only company which allows customers to drive across Saddle Rd. and up to the summit of Mauna Kea. Of course, you can always disregard the contract from the other companies, but Mauna Kea's summit is not a place you want to get stuck if you have a problem, and the rental companies will not help you. Just an FYI. Be sure to have a full tank of gas because the altitude guzzles extra and there are no service stations until you get back to Hilo (or west side if you're going from there). Also, it's not a "should," but rather a "must" to take the minimum 1 hour stop to acclimate at the Visitor's Center (about 9,000 ft). Even if you've been at altitude before, you never know. There are no facilities except restrooms at the summit. We've heard of people requiring airlift off because of altitude sickness--even those who are healthy and who've not had problems. (Not that you will; we did not, just the "walk slowly, breathe evenly, and walk carefully" that you expect at close to 14,000 ft.) Be aware that you will not have access to any of the observatories except the visitor's room at the Keck II (which is quite spectacular). The views from the summit are astonishing and awe inspiring. Finally, if you're going during winter be aware that the summit is often closed due to snow and ice in the winter months. Even in the dead of summer, wear long pants and bring a jacket, gloves, and a hat. Enjoy.

beachchick

beachchick, thanks for your info! I really appreciate it!

I'm renting through Alamo, and according to Wizard Publishing's website (big island revealed book), Alamo now allows you to drive on Saddle Road, but has a disclaimer that they won't send help if you should happen to run out of gas or anything. We are going on Saturday with the guided convoy, so I figure if anything should happen, we have a whole group to help us out.

I'm renting through Alamo, and according to Wizard Publishing's website (big island revealed book), Alamo now allows you to drive on Saddle Road, but has a disclaimer that they won't send help if you should happen to run out of gas or anything. We are going on Saturday with the guided convoy, so I figure if anything should happen, we have a whole group to help us out.

You're doing the University of Hawaii's weekend afternoon tour? If so, you'll love it! That's what we did. We had no interest in going on a "commercial" tour for $$$.

The UofH tour is wonderful for anyone willing to put in some effort. You'll meet at the Visitor's Center for orientation (there's a movie inside you're all supposed to watch; we watched much of it, but then snuck out) and acclimation. I suggest that you bring a picnic and have lunch at the Visitors Center; the university tour doesn't provide drinks or snacks or anything, but the Visitors Center shop has some items for sale. Then you convoy up the summit road (and they do require that everyone have their own, personal or rented, 4-w/d vehicle; no exceptions). At the summit, you'll spend some time getting adjusted while looking at the views and hearing some geology, history, etc. Then you tour at least one telescope (often the Keck, but you'll be the only people allowed in the viewing room; when we were there, one of the astonomers walked through and then decided to treat us to a demonstration of how the Keck works; it was incredible). Then sometimes you'll go to another telescope (it depends on scheduling and maintenance, etc.). Finally, you get to tour the entire UofH telescope, inside and out! Incredible afternoon. Definitely not for everyone, but we loved it and would do it again in a second.

Everyone must leave the summit by sunset. (That rule applies for everyone every day; no one except the astonomers and staff are allowed at the summit after sunset. Many people, especially those who take commercial tours, don't realize this and think that the "star gazing" will be at the summit; it won't.) Every clear night (about 320 per year) the UofH has stargazing at the Visitor's Center using two or three of their "smaller" (but still large) portable telescopes. That stargazing is open to the public and those who've just been on the tour are encouraged to stay for it. Many days they also have filtered sun gazing during the day; that was cool.

The thing with the rental car is that even though there would be people there to help you, there's not much they could do (except share some gas if you ran out or give you a jump). There's no service and no towing company or such. The summit road sections are somewhat graded gravel on a fairly steep slope. Not horrid by any means, but not the drive for everyone either.

Of course it's entirely up to you, but the rental companies do mention that they look at the exterior to try to gauge if you've gone on off-road (which is not allowed, and which a good part of the road from the Visitors Center to the summit is). You might need to wash the car before you return it. What time does your ship leave? The UofH tour didn't get back to the Visitors Center until almost 5, and it's still well over an hour back to Hilo from there.:eek:

Believe me, I don't want to discourage you; not at all. Our Mauna Kea summit day was one of the best experiences ever.:D It's almost impossible to describe fully. But, I do encourage you to consider checking with Harper's about a possible 4-w/d rental with them because that's one of the things they do. It will be much more expensive, but we considered it $100 well spent (and still cheaper than a commercial tour that wouldn't have given us half the experience). If for some reason Alamo doesn't have a 4-w/d for you when you get there, you will be SOL if you're planning on doing the UofH tour. Make sure you get a guarantee from them that the jeep will be 4-w/d. (Just don't tell them why.);)

beachchick

Beachchick, you are a wealth of information! :) Your description of this excursion all by itself has moved Maui up on our list of priorities for islands to visit again. Thank you for taking so much time to share with the traveling community here!

Well, that is very nice to hear. One little thing though, Mauna Kea is on the BI, so you'll need to go there (but don't skip Maui!). Keep in mind that anyone with any respiratory condition, pregnant women, and children younger than 16 are not allowed up to the summit. Also remember that you can't scuba within 24 or 48 hours (don't remember exactly as we only snorkel) of the summit tour. (I don't know if any of these things would apply for you, so it's just an FYI.)

Maui and the BI are our two favorite islands of Hawaii. I recommend that you definitely visit both for your next land trip.:D

beachchick

Please make sure you read the fine print at Harpers. They have a huge deductible even if you take their insurance. I took all insurance and got a flat tire on the road to Mauna Kea (paved road). Harpers blamed it on me, and the final cost (my cost) was over $800. Beware!!

Please make sure you read the fine print at Harpers. They have a huge deductible even if you take their insurance. I took all insurance and got a flat tire on the road to Mauna Kea (paved road). Harpers blamed it on me, and the final cost (my cost) was over $800. Beware!!

That's a good point. Fortunately, our regular auto insurance covers us for all rental cars, so we didn't have to worry. But many companies don't cover it, and the costs for any kind of servicing up at Mauna Kea can be astronamical, so to speak.;)

beachchick

Hi Sharon,

If you have issues with altitude sickness (like I do), think carefully about doing this tour. It sounds wonderful and I'd love to do it but, for myself, the tour isn't worth the risk. I was actually admitted to the emergency room in Vegas once because I wasn't acclimating to the altitude. I have never felt so sick in my life and don't want to repeat the experience...especially in the middle of our Hawaiian vacation. (Driving from Phoenix to Sedona also kicked my butt once.)

The best thing you can do is talk with your doctor and perhaps he or she can help you make the decision that's right for you personally.

If you do this tour, I'd love to hear how it goes! It's something I'd like to do someday but maybe when I have more time on the islands to get used to the altitude slowly.

Good luck!

Andrea

If you do decide to do it yourself, acclimate at least 45 minutes at the Visitors Center before heading up to the summit. The tour operators usually acclimate for a short while down at the Mauna Kea turn off and then again at the Visitors Center. And they always carry oxygen.

Andrea, thank you so much for the info......we have decided not to do the summit tour......not worth the risk to me of getting sick, etc.

To those that are doing the tour....ENJOY!!!

I've been to the summit a bunch to times. I get to visit the Big Island two or three times a year. I enjoy hiking here in LA, and thought I'd be fine at the summit of Mauna Kea. I was right, but my friends had a lot of trouble! We did everything we were supposed to do, including trying to acclimatize at the Onizuka Visitor's Center for about an hour. We got to the summit, and one friend got really cranky and then tired, so we cut our visit short. The other person started to get dizzy on the way back down and it was real slow going. Not a fun trip for me, but thankfully I was driving, not them! BTW, the Visitor's Center is named after Ellison Onizuka, a native of kona who lost his life in the Space Shuttle Challenger accident in the '80's. Interesting. Also, the best companies that take groups up to the summit are in Kona, and not offered on the ships from what I understand.

Has anyone done the Mauna Kea Summit Tour? RCCL is offering it for $135.00.

If anyone has done it, can you please tell me what you thought of it in general? Was it hard to breathe at all? Was it worth the $$ that you paid? Did you enjoy the view from above the clouds? This is what I am most looking forward to....the view from above the clouds...

I haven't done it through the ship but I did do the Sunset and Stargazing. The view from the summit is beautiful. We had no trouble breathing. OUr guide was wonderful and briefed us beforehand on precautions. No one had any problems and no one needed oxygen. But the air, was so crisp. We stopped at the Visitors Center to acclimate and eat dinner. It took about 45 minutes. But he said that part is crucial (acclimation) to get your body use to.

I hear that recently, the people who have gone on the sunset and stargazing show have an even more spectacular site when the clouds part. They have a view of the river of lava and the waterfall of lava.

At one time, NCL had offered a Sunset and Stargazing tour that originated from Hilo, they take the people up to Mauna Kea for Stargazing, and then back to Kona for the night. Then you would meet the ship in Kona the next day.

We LOVED our cruise excursion taken from the Carnival Spirit on Hilo, Island of Hawaii back on April 24, 2004: Mauna KeaSummit Tour. This is an excerpt from our cruise report.

Mauna Kea is a sacred place with the ancient history, cultural sites, and magnificent beauty created by fire and ice. The ancient Hawaiians considered it the home of Poli’ahu, the snow goddess. Today it is the world’s premier spot for astronomy. This memorable journey took us to the peak of the Pacific, the 13,796-foot summit! The view atop Mauna Kea can only be described as majestic moonscape and looking down on the clouds is mesmerizing. The tour included a ride through Downtown Hilo, Rainbow Falls, Mauna Loa lava flows, Kipuka Pu’u Huluhulu Native Tree Sanctuary, Onizuka Center for International Astronomy, and the world’s largest telescope at Keck Observatory. Jackets were provided and we wore long pants and comfortable shoes. This was a very informative fully guided tour. The minibus stopped in the parking lot atop Mauan Kea by the observatory on the top of the mountain. The observatories that we saw from the outside were:

1. The NASA’s 1st Observatory has a 24 inch telescope that was built primarily for satellite tracking and later was given to the University of Hawaii:

2. The Lowell Observatory contains a 24 inch telescope and was later donated to Leeward College on Oahu:

3. The University of Hawaii’s Observatory has an 88 inch telescope that when it was dedicated it was the seventh largest optical/infrared telescope in the world;

4. The Canada, France and Hawaii Observatory has a 3.8 meter telescope dedicated infrared telescope;

5. The United Kingdom Observatory has a 15 meter submillimeter antenna to look at the short radio wavelengths emitted by vibrating molecules in space;

6. The James Clerk Maxwell Observatory is a joint venture between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands and is one of the world’s leading observatories at submillimeter wavelengths;

7. The Keck I and Keck II Observatories were built by the University of California and Caltech. It is a 10.4 meter novel lightweight technology using multiple mirrors and automated control mechanisms to support a segmented mirror four times larger than anything before it. It transformed optical and infrared astronomy world-wide by being able to make observations that previously were impossible in a whole night of observing now can be accomplished in an hour or so, enabling many observations and real statistics to be obtained for the first time on critical faint objects like quasars and galaxies. For the first time astronomers can make reliable measurements of the density of the universe, and cosmology moves from guess work to measurement. The twin telescopes can work independently, each with its own suite or instrumentation. They also can work together, directing their two light beams down into a sophisticated beam combination room below the workshops. Keck was the firs large observatory to achieve this goal in 2001. The 10 meter aperture of a single Keck telescope provides a maximum theoretical resolution of about 50 milliarcsec at infrared wavelengths. With both Keck beams combined the maximum aperture increases to about 100 meters for a ten fold increase in resolution. This is equivalent to resolving a dime about 25 miles away and is the kind of fine resolution necessary to examine many astronomical sources;

8. The Gemini North Observatory has an 8 meter telescope that has a thin meniscus design and has controls on the mirror surfaces and all telescope parts that can be adjusted to maintain position and curvature as the telescope structure moves under gravity. It is a twin to the later built Gemini South located in Chile;

9. The Very Long Baseline Array or VLBA, consists of 10 identical 25 meter radio dishes spread across the United States from Hawaii to the U.S. Virgin Islands. All these dishes are operated remotely from Socorro, New Mexico and the data are transported fro subsequent combination and analysis. The 10 VLBA dishes effectively form a single “synthesis” telescope with an effective aperture of 8,500 kilometers;

10. The Submillimeter Array which is a collaborative project between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan. This array of eight, 6-meter dishes exploits the synthesis and interferometry aspects of physics to form a versatile telescope for observations in the submillimeter region. A single submillimeter dish has relatively poor resolution of about a dime at 100 yards away. By combining several dishes together with larger baselines this can be improved by factors of 10 to 100. Each individual disk can be relocated by a large forklift to provid a compact array which maximizes the resolution or the dishes can be spread out to almost 1 kilometer baseline to achieve maximum resolution, but with reduced sensitivity.

We did enjoy the “Sea to Sky” experience on this adventuresome journey! We also saw the snow atop the mountain and all of the various observatories located atop the mountain. The altitude affected our breathing somewhat in that it required us to take deep breaths and move slowly. The box lunch included a bottle of water and a very large and delicious deli sandwich with chips and cookies. The tour lasted approximately 6 hours and was well worth the price.

I'm so glad that someone lese remembers the old summit and overnight through NCL! It was cool, but kind of wierd since you had already paid for your night on the ship. It failed and was canceled. I've used Mauna Kea Summit Adventures. They're the oldest and most reputable company that I could find. It cost about $150 including dinner, a heavy parka, and the stargazing. It was REALLY cold (November), so dfon't count on the parkas to keep you warm! Here's the website to book direct:

http://www.maunakea.com/