Hawaiigreentours.com

[amylynn68]

I found this site (hawaiigreentours.com) on one of the postings here somewhere. I noticed they have a tour of Hilo that includes Liliuokalini Gardens, Black Sand Beach, Rainbow Falls, Mauna Loa Farm, VNP, and Akatsuka Orchid Gardens for $60 a person. The site says it takes about 5 hours and they stop at VNP for lunch. Has anyone done this tour? Is it too much stuff in that time span, and is lunch included? Any comments would be great. Thanks

 

Amy

[CC Help Michell]

I found this site (hawaiigreentours.com) on one of the postings here somewhere. I noticed they have a tour of Hilo that includes Liliuokalini Gardens, Black Sand Beach, Rainbow Falls, Mauna Loa Farm, VNP, and Akatsuka Orchid Gardens for $60 a person. The site says it takes about 5 hours and they stop at VNP for lunch. Has anyone done this tour? Is it too much stuff in that time span, and is lunch included? Any comments would be great. Thanks

 

That seems like an awful lot to do in five hours to me! From the airport, it's a minimum 45 minute trip each way to and from VNP -- that leaves 3.5 hours for all the rest of the driving, lunch, and actually seeing any of the sites. The website says at VNP you stop at the Jagger Museum, Halemaumau Crater (there's a short hike out to and back from the crater to actually see much), and the Thurston Lava Tube (another short hike down to the tube, through it, and back up). If you spend just 15 minutes at each of those (which is not enough time in my opinion), plus another 45 minutes driving around Crater Rim Drive, plus say... 45 minutes lunching at Volcano House? -- that's another 2 hours, 15 minutes. At that you skip the Visitor Center, the steam vents, Kilauea Iki overlook, Chain of Craters Drive, etc. so you'd only be hitting a few of the highlights at VNP.

 

That leaves 1 hour, 15 minutes to visit Liliuokalani Gardens, the black sand beach, Rainbow Falls (all in the Hilo area, according to the site), plus the Mauna Loa factory, and the Akatsuka Orchid Gardens (which are on the way to/from VNP). I don't see how even driving to all those places is even possible, let alone getting out of the van and visiting them, if this tour is really only 5 hours long.

 

On the other hand, they say they pick you up about an hour after your ship docks and return you to the ship one hour before sailaway. On the NCLA itineraries that would be about 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM, which is more than five hours. You might want to call the tour company and ask how long they spend at each stop on the tour -- maybe even request an email detailing the itinerary? You could also inquire whether for the $60 price lunch is included, or if it's what is commonly called a "no host" meal -- meaning you pay for it.

[JLC@SD]

I found this site (hawaiigreentours.com) on one of the postings here somewhere. I noticed they have a tour of Hilo that includes Liliuokalini Gardens, Black Sand Beach, Rainbow Falls, Mauna Loa Farm, VNP, and Akatsuka Orchid Gardens for $60 a person. The site says it takes about 5 hours and they stop at VNP for lunch. Has anyone done this tour? Is it too much stuff in that time span, and is lunch included? Any comments would be great. Thanks

 

Amy

 

.......sounds like a lot to do in five hours.....probably will be a "drive by" tour of most places. The Black Sand Beach is the farthest away......driving there and back will take three hours....:)

[Lenken]

Because I had accidently booked our rental car for the wrong day, we took a van tour in Hilo and went to all those places. One of the reasons you can get to all those places is that the driver knows where he/she is going and has a planned route, as opposed to having a rental car and being in a strange place. There were several van tours waiting at the pier and I just went down the line and asked their prices and where they went. One driver finally cut his price to fill his van so the trip would be a go. I had really wanted to see a black beach and the one we went to was close to downtown Hilo, not the one further down the coast. It was enough to give you an idea of what a black sand beach looks like and it was near a pretty little park. Everyone in our party, which included 3 seniors, really felt the trip was worthwhile and reasonable. I didn't feel that we were hurried at any of the stops. It was raining in Hilo, which I understand is normal.