Plan for Hilo

[teachtocruis]

Hello,

 

We will be on the Sapphire for our cruise to Hawaii in December. We have a rental car reserved for our day on Hilo. We are torn with what to do. The things we would like to see are: VNP, Black Sand Beach, Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls. I think we are planning to much for the day there. Any opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks

teachtocruis

[Budget Queen]

What is your port time?? If 10-11 hours, it is doable. I suggest you just leave it open. Focus on VNP and spend your time there first. Depending on how long you linger, you can figure out what else you can add.

[Solimar]

I highly recommend a visit to the University of Hawaii's Astronomy Center. It's a fascinating interactive experience where you get a chance to simulate the use of the telescopes- and even email yourself a picture of how the skies looked on any day of your choosing. They also had a very impressive IMAX type of theater that showed a film of the constellations projected on a ceiling screen that gave a historical perspective and explained about the HI astronomy myths. We loved it as adults, but if you have kids- even teens, I'm sure they'll really get into it.

We went as part of a ship excursion that included lunch, but we felt that the time allotted was not enough and the lunch was nothing to brag about.

We're doing the HI cruise is Feb again and this time plan to rent a car so we can go on our own!

You may be able to find out more info if you Google the site.

[Jagger11379]

Which black sand beach? if you think Punalu'ua, then probably you will not have time for the falls. From VPN to Punalu'ua and back it is about 1.5 hrs roundtrip. Wr wrwe on Pride of America from 8am to 6 pm and did the VPN and Punalu'ua and got back to Hilo abot 4:30PM.

 

You can go to Richardson beach next to Hilo and then you may have time for the falls.

 

Also, depends how much time you spend in VPN. If you don't plan to drive the Chain of Craters road, ypu may have time for Akaka falls.

[teachtocruis]

Thanks for all the suggestions. We have been to VNP on a previous trip so we will probably skip that this time.

Yes, Punulu'ua is the beach we were/are planning to go too. We also want to see the sea turtles.

So we are now thinking of heading to Akaka Falls as soon as we get our rental car and then head to the black sand beach. It seems as if this will be a lot of driving, but these are the 2 things that we really want to do.

We are on Hilo from 9-6.

teachtocruis