Travel Tuesday: Family Fun on da Big Island of Hawai’i

    
Hello World!  Yes, it has been a while, hasn’t it?  We’ve been very busy with the finishing of our Kitchen remodel, celebrating Dahlia’s 2nd birthday and also traveling.

Each year, we love to travel to new places and our recent trip was to the Big Island of Hawaii.  Though it wasn’t a new place for Jason, it was for me.

It was a pretty cute story of why we chose to stay at the Hilton Waikoloa Village.  Jason and his family stayed at this hotel when he was 10 and remembered it being an amazing place and thought Dahlia would love it too.  And so, that’s exactly where we stayed and she did enjoy herself very much.

Here is a list of the amazing stay, where we played and the yummy eats we tried on da Big Island:

Stay:

 Hilton Waikoloa Village

As mentioned above, my husband Jason had always talked about this hotel and his fond memories with his family.  I was so curious that when we finally decided on the Big Island, we knew we had to stay here.

   

   
Pros:

• Super Kid-Friendly
• Great Outdoor Play Space – Pools, Waterslides, Dolphins on Site, Man Made Beach, Kayaks, Stand up Paddle Board, etc.

• The Kohala Spa – I booked a Lomi Lomi Massage here that was ahh-mazing and the facility was also very nice.  I could’ve spent the entire day there if I could have.

•  Lots of amenities like boat service, (which Dahlia loved & I couldn’t help but say “we’re on a boooat” every time we rode), shuttle service and many different restaurants on site.

Cons:

• This is not a good hotel if you don’t like to walk or wait for a boat or even a shuttle to take you around everywhere. It is a huge resort and can seem inconvenient (especially when your husband leaves the car keys in the room not once, but twice 🙂 Good thing Jason was training for a half-marathon.)

• Restaurants can get pretty pricey.  We ate a couple of times at the hotel and spent way too much for the meals we actually got.  Luckily, we rented a car so we could buy food outside of the hotel and also go to beaches.

Play:

Outside of the hotel, we explored a lot of the island and came across these amazing family-friendly places.

• Onekahakaha Beach Park – (Hilo side) There was so much to explore & there were very shallow tide pools so the little ones like Dahlia can play.

  

• Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens – (Hilo Side) This donation-based zoo is the only one in the United States located inside of an actual rainforest.  Open from 9a – 4p, we were able to see lots of animals & native ones as well.  This Zoo also had an amazing play structure for big & little keiki.

  

  

• Rainbow Falls – (Hilo Side) This is a perfect waterfall to see with the family because it is literally a one-minute walk from the parking lot and is also accessible.  It’s great if you are on the Hilo side for a day trip and makes for the best pit stop ever.  There are many other waterfalls on the Hilo side, but with Dahlia’s patience, we decided seeing one was just enough so we could have more beach time.

• Kua Bay – (Kona Side)  This is by far one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to!  It is small, but stunning.  You will never want to leave this place with its soft white sand and clear blue & turquoise water.  The pictures don’t even do it justice, it’s that nice.  You’ll just have to go see for yourself one day.

  

• Hapuna Beach – (Kona Side) – This is another beautiful beach & we were lucky enough to spend 2 afternoons being beach bums here.  There is a $5 parking fee unless you are a local.  They also have a snack shack not too far from the water where you can also rent items like umbrellas.  This is a public beach but has the charm of a private one.

  

• Drive from Kona to Hilo – If you come to the Big Island, it’s best that you rent a car and go explore!  The drive from Kona to Hilo took a couple of hours and there are many things to see along the way.  If you are doing a day trip, I’d advise going early in the morning so you get back when the sun is setting.  It can be a scary drive late at night.  There’s active volcanoes for crying out loud!

Eat:

The best part about going to Hawaii for us is always the yummy food.  We love to eat like locals and being on the Big Island was no different.   Here are some of the favorites from this trip.

Da Poke Shack – My husband & I take our poke eating very seriously and whenever we eat it on the Mainland, we always complain how it’s never the same as in Hawai’i.  Well, my friends, this poke was some of the best I’ve ever had.  Fish is as fresh as can be and we literally talked about framing the photo we took of the photo in our house 🙂  It’s a work of art and should be celebrated as such.  In addition to their poke, their salads were amazing and very fresh and the kahlua pork we ordered to Dahlia was just as tasty!

Big Island Grill – This was a great place to come after soaking up the sun all day.  They had all your traditional Hawaiian eats.  My husband couldn’t resist getting his Loco Moco fix, while I opted for the shrimp & roast pork combo which I shared with Dahlia.  All together, we shared the yummy and sweet Taro Cheesecake (It had purple in it so I had to try it :))

Dragon Kitchen Sushi – This was in Hilo in a small food court kind of place.  This is the perfect lunch spot because the food is fresh and it’s also budget-friendly.  We loved that they serve brown rice here.  We got the California Roll, Soba Noodles and a Spicy Tuna Poke Bowl.  Yum!

Lava Lava Beach Club – There were not many places in Waikoloa itself,  so we came across this gem on the way to our hotel.  We saw signs and checked it out on yelp and decided to give it a try.  We came here for dinner, so unfortunately, we weren’t able to see the amazing views everyone speaks of but they did have live music playing which was nice & also had a great vibe.  The food was a bit pricey and good not great.  Cocktails were good and lots of people here were visitors which we didn’t mind because traveling always makes for great conversation.  Here I had the Hukilau Chowder which was creamy and good as well as the rib teaser.  My husband got the teriyaki steak that he loved and ate so fast I couldn’t take a picture of it!

Big Island Candies – This place is cookie heaven.  Their shortbread cookies do not compare to the others and what’s great about the store is you can try almost anything!  Their service is great and it’s fun to see the workers hand dipping the cookies in person.  This makes for a truly unique experience.

  
   
Broke Da Mouth Grindz – This was a place we almost didn’t go to because of time, but we came on our last day just before we left and boy are we glad we came here.  The food is amazing!  I can’t even begin to describe how tasty the short ribs are.  They tasted like they’ve been marinating for weeks.  Everything on their menu seems to be made with care and love and definitely feels like Hawaii on a platter.  If you are on the Big Island, you must stop here!

  

Ken’s House of Pancakes – Located on the Hilo side, Ken’s offers their food 24 hours.  Why can’t the Denny’s or iHops all be like this place?!  Food here was served generously and hits the stop after a long day of travel.  We shared the MacNut Pancakes, I had the grilled Mahi Mahi which was fresh and tasty, Dahlia had the Saimin which tasted comforting and again, my husband ate so fast I couldn’t take a photo of his omelette with hash brown.  Needless to say, we all left satisfied and ready to conquer the rest of the day.

  
And there you have it folks, a relaxing vacation is one where you sleep well, enjoy the sun and eat plenty.  That is exactly what this vacation was for us for the most part (I mean we have a 2-year-old, who are we kidding :)).  We also understand that we can’t possible do everything we may want to on our trips now that we have her with us and we are OK with that.  Whether we were chasing after Dahlia or bribing her to put sunblock on, it means the world to us that she is able to travel with us and experience these adventures as a family and we are grateful every single day.

…on to the next aa

 Cheers!