North West Big Island Guide

North West Big Island Guide – Some Tips from Hawaii Brokers to get you started……

The pool at Halii Kai – Waikoloa Beach Resort

Waikoloa Beach Resort
There are two shopping centers with restaurants, etc. Kings Shops and Queens Shops.
There is a great beach and bay to swim in referred to as “A” Bay.
Make sure to go to Lava lava beach club as you can have drinks and pupus with your feet in the sand.
Live music nightly as well.
Hotels are the Hilton and the Marriott or you could stay at a vacation rental condo like Halii Kai pictured above.
If you do a search on VRBO and Waikoloa Beach Resort in Google you will find plenty of rental options.
One of our favorite places to suggest for people to stay is Halii Kai because they have a pool right on the ocean with a bar (and food service) and music.

Up the hill from Waikoloa Beach Resort is the town of Waikoloa Village.
There is a new shopping center that should be open in mid 2022.
They already have a night market from 4 to 8PM on Saturdays that has live music, food trucks and various vendors. If you have a few to feed – we recommend the whole fried Opakapaka from TK Noodle House. Also not to miss on the food side of things… in the “old” shopping center (Waikoloa Highlands Center) is Pueo’s Osteria for great “home made” Italian food (moving to the new center soon).

Another resort to check out is the Mauna Lani Resort

The hotels are more expensive than at the Waikoloa Beach Resort.
The restaurants are a tad less kid friendly and there is a bit less shopping, etc.
Auberge Hotel
Fairmont Orchid
The beaches for each hotel are great though.
And there is a beach club which is pretty cool for beach and protected ocean swimming
There is a pizza place, a Tommy Bahama and a few small restaurants in the shopping center.
https://www.shopsatmaunalani.com/ for a map and info about new places coming mid 2022.

In addition to doing things at the resorts – there are many things to do on the Big Island in general

Go to a Luau at Mauna Kea Resort (they have the best on the Big Island and the hotel property is worth seeing)

Go to the Volcano (if you go at night – you will probably see lava.- it is cold and close to 2 hours away – but worth it)

Drive around – the Big Island has tons to see – from the Hamakua Coast (which you will see when you drive to Volcano)
to places like South Point (the most southern spot in the US) which you also can see when driving to Volcano
Visit Historic Honokaa or Hawi for lunch and shopping (both places are small and quaint towns worth a stroll)

Go to Kona and the visit the City of Refuge (go snorkeling here as well)

Go to Kealakekua Bay and snorkel and kayak

Even if you did not do any of the above you absolutely must do this:
Manta Ray night time Scuba/Snorkel Adventure
Any company is probably as good as the next (although I did hear one complaint from a friend)- so you should do your own research on ratings – but the actual event is not to miss.

If you like the beach –
Hapuna Beach State Park – rated a top ten in the world beach many many times
and if you want to get a little away from the crowds – goto the better beach called
Beach 69 (Wailea Bay)

And if you like snorkeling and diving – the whole coast between Hapuna and Mauna Lani Resort
can be accessed via Puako Beach Drive – which has beach access points that are worth exploring.
Turtles are plenty – so please be aware as they look like lava rocks if you aren’t looking!