Help with Hilo excursions

[pmymmw]

Hi,

 

We are in Hilo on 22nd September as part of out honeymoon on Tahitian Princess. We have the Circle of Fire Helicopter tour booked for the morning, finishing at around 11:30, but would really like to see Volcano National Park as well. Ideally we are looking for a 4 hour afternoon tour that we can do after the helicopter flight, but I have so far failed to find any. Does anybody know of a company that offers this? Alternatively, can anybody offer any other suggestions.

 

Thanks,

Mark

[PDAZ]

Congrats on your upcoming wedding! A possible suggestion is to check out some of the custom tour companies -- maybe they can set up a tour for you where they'll pick you up right when you land and whisk you away! You won't have a lot of time at VNP, but you should be able to get in a couple of hours if they can drop you directly back at the ship afterwards. Might be a bit pricey though...

 

Here's a couple of companies I googled -- no idea how good they are though:

 

http://www.lavatours.com/custom.htm

 

http://www.jackstours.com/eng/groups.html

 

http://www.polyad.com/charters/charter_groups.php

[holidayhelen]

You have not been on the Roll Call!!! We will be on the same cruise - there are 4 of us and at least one other couple coming over from the UK. When do you get married? I have asked this question previously and unfortunately not received much response - I hope you have more luck and will keep watching for ideas.

 

Helen

[PDAZ]

Well maybe with a group of you, the cost of a private charter wouldn't be bad at all!

[pmymmw]

Thank you for the responses. Still having no luck, all the tour companies start their tours in the morning, before we get back from the helicopter tour. I think we are going to wait until we get there and see what is on offer, either on the ship or on the dock. Worst case scenario we can always just rent a car for the afternoon.

 

Thanks,

 

P.S. We are getting married on 1st september

[jerseyjk]

Hi,

 

We are in Hilo on 22nd September as part of out honeymoon on Tahitian Princess. We have the Circle of Fire Helicopter tour booked for the morning, finishing at around 11:30, but would really like to see Volcano National Park as well. Ideally we are looking for a 4 hour afternoon tour that we can do after the helicopter flight, but I have so far failed to find any. Does anybody know of a company that offers this? Alternatively, can anybody offer any other suggestions.

 

You're probably not finding one because four hours ship to VNP and back is a tight schedule. There's countless threads about trying to do both a helicopter (or other such tour) and VNP and all the experts counsel against trying. It's an hour drive from Hilo to VNP without traffic or other delays. Two hours in VNP could get you around Crater Rim Drive, but it would be a hurried trip for sure. If you add the time to pick up and drop a rental car (and take the shuttle back to the ship) it's even tighter.

 

What time do you have to be back on the ship?

[pmymmw]

We sail at 5pm so I assume we have to be back on the ship by 4:30. The helicopter tour ends at 11:30 (and as it is ship organised I assume this is back at the dock) giving us a total of 5 hours.

 

We will have seen the park from the air (to a certain extent) but would really like to see the visitors centre and museum. Is this a more realistic ambition?

[PDAZ]

I think it might be pushing it to get the car rental, but if you do, I'd go to Volcano House over the Visitor's Center (it's right across the street) -- go out the back door of Volcano House and you're on the edge of the crater -- it's an incredible view.