We thoroughly enjoyed the Mauna Kea adventure. Branson and the team are chock full of excellent information about the Hawaiian history and culture, geology, and astronomy. And, I saw the Southern Cross, which always excites me.
However, the duration information needs clarification. Once AT Mauna Kea, the trip is 4 hours. This excludes the time to drive to the meet-up point with, in our case, the people coming from Hilo. Our drive from Kona was 1 hour to the meet-up. Then, we drove to the Visitor’s Center and hung out for 30 minutes to acclimate to the elevation. THEN, we drove to the top to watch the sunset. This all added up to 2 hours each way from the Kona pick-up, on top of the 4 hours of sunset and stars.
Also, each van had up to up to 9 people.
The sunset and stars were all we could have hoped for a more. The overall duration just needs clarification.