We were so lucky that we had Mia as our guide on this full day tour of all the major Big Island attractions. She made it wonderful, sharing stories about the history and culture of the island.
The tour started early, at 6:45 AM and it about 12 hours long. It’s great if you want to be able to sample all the different things that the Big Island has to offer. While you will spend a lot of time on the road in the van, it’s a beautiful drive.
Highlights were:
1. Kona coffee plantation where we sampled excellent coffee and had their tasty apple-banana bread.
2. The volcano which had three different stops. One was the visitor’s center. The second is the crater observation point. And the third stop was a lava tube that you can hike through. Amazing!
3. Lunch at the black sand beach where we saw turtles and had a Asian bentos.
4. The water falls in Hilo were impressive and made for great photo ops.
The tour was well organized, informative, and we would recommend it for coupes or small groups that don’t want to drive themselves. Mia had tons of snacks, water, and was able to provide detailed rating for each bathroom on a five point scale which people on the tour appreciated very much.
The only improvement I would suggest is to provide a detailed itinerary in advance. It would be great to know all the stops with the approximate times spent at the stop.