This was by far the WORST and I mean the WORST tour I've ever taken! To begin with, there's no such thing as a Volcano Tour here, period! Ever since Kilauea decided to erupt back in April, this tour should have been canceled--or else, call it a different name--period! The tour did not take us anywhere near the volcano, of course. Instead, they took us on a really long and boring tour around Hilo and some other natural attractions i.e., water falls, and a black sand beach. Other than that, all you see is the exiting town of Hilo, a nice Japanese park in Hilo too and have lunch at the Hilo mall. They also had to stop for some other people at the airport--the ones who actually booked a helicopter lava tour?. Of course, we had to wait for them sitting on a bus for I don't know how long. What bothers me the most about this tour is that even when they knew the Volcano National Park and Jaeger Museum had been closed for quite some time, they didn't even bother to contact me to let me know about the modifications they did to the tour--which, like I mentioned, had nothing to do with volcanoes at all. Instead, they just changed the scheduled altogether and that was that. I had to actually contact them directly to find out about the status of this tour. They person who picked up the phone sounded like a clueless high school kid with absolutely no knowledge of the services her company was offering (not Viator, by the way). The only redeemable feature of this tour was our guide Leroy, who was super nice and professional. He was able to tell us many interesting stories about Hawaii, which were very enlightening and entertaining. My daughter and I ended up taking a Lava Tour on a boat instead with a different local provider. That was a really an unforgettable experience. So... bottom line, if you want to do something, anything remotely related to volcanoes, this tour AS OF NOW is definitely not for you.
I absolutely loved the tour. I'd strongly recommend it for anyone looking for a fun and informative day tour from Hilo. The tour guide was informative and entertaining and we were lucky enough to be able to view some volcanic actions from Halemaumau after the fog had lifted. I can't wait to return to Big Island and take the tour again.
Wonderful tour, I highly recommend it. Captain Rob clearly loves Hawaii and is extremely knowledgable in all aspects of volcanology. Fascinating and informative.