Journey to Hawaii....The Big Island: Days 1 and 2

A Long Day of Travel

If there is one thing that is constant about a trip to any of the Hawaiian Islands it is that is a LONG trip!  Every time we go my husband and I toss around the idea of building in a stay over in Los Angeles or San Francisco so it breaks up the length of the flight.  We are always so anxious to just get to Hawaii and don't want to give up a day of our stay in the Islands that we end up giving up that idea fairly early on in our travel planning stage!  This was once again the pattern for our recent journey to the Big Island!

For those of you who haven't read my previous blog, our airfare was purchased with miles. In order to maximize the miles, this sometimes means taking some strange flights to get to where you want to go.  With this particular trip it was pretty straight forward Cleveland to Los Angeles and Los Angeles to Kona.  The only thing was the 7 hour layover between flights!  Most airlines fly to Hawaii from the west coast airports and usually just have one flight a day to each of the islands so this is quite common to have long layovers and very long travel days...even if your flights are on time.  My biggest tip for the travel portion is just to make sure you pack lots of things to do on the plane...and make sure to pack your chargers and power cords!!

Once our plane landed in Kona, you just knew you were somewhere on an island!  In fact it felt really remote.  I looked out the window and saw a truck with stairs coming at the plane!  I leaned over and said to my husband....uh...they don't have a jetway here...we have to walk across the tarmac!  That's just not something that you see at most airports unless you are on a small plane.  We arrived on a 757!

So we land on the runway and taxi toward the airport.  There are no gates....just these steps....the truck pulls the steps up to the doorway....we all disembark....parade across the tarmac and head to the baggage area.  The whole airport was outside!  Baggage claim was outside!  The evening was warm!  We were definitely in Hawaii!

After a short shuttle ride to the rental car lot and picking up our rental we were on our way to our home away from home for the next 10 days....The Hilton Waikoloa Village.  The resort was about a 30 minute drive from the airport and the first thing that we noticed was how dark this Island was.  I mean....dark!  There were only a few traffic lights and even fewer street lights.  Luckily we had our handy dandy Garmin to guide our way.

Once we arrived at the Hilton, we turned our car over to the valet and had bell services take our bags to our room.  We were exhausted and a little worse for wear from the long day of travel and we were greeted by Frank at the front desk when we checked in.  He was amazing!  He instantly made us feel welcome at the resort and gave us so many tips and pointers for maneuvering the resort as well as what to see there  and on the rest of the Big Island.  It was so good to see a friendly face at the end of the day!

After checking in, we headed to the boarding area for the tram and took the ride to our room in the Ocean Tower.  It was so dark outside that we really didn't get a feel for the resort other than it was large and looked nice.  Our luggage arrived at our room just as we were arriving...perfect timing.  The bellman took time to show us around our room and our lanai and pointed out that the ocean was out there even if we couldn't see it!  He told us where we would be able to see sunset and also filled us in on some of the things that the resort had to offer.  I have to say....our first impression was very good!  You just got that feeling of "Aloha".  We turned in for the night just after the bellman left and woke up to start our real "First Day" of the Big Island.

Waking up in Hawaii

One of my favorite things about traveling to Hawaii and arriving late in the evening is that the first view in the morning when you wake up is just amazing!  All of a sudden all those things that you couldn't see when you arrived are clear and you know you have arrived!

The First View from Our Room Hilton Waikoloa Village

Big Island Breakfast

After a lazy morning enjoying the view from the lanai, we headed on over to the Big Island Breakfast.  This was an amazing breakfast buffet.  We had read several reviews about how it is an expensive breakfast and at $30.00 a person a case could be made for that.....however, we felt that it was an excellent value for what you got.  Since we were Hilton Honors Diamond Members we received coupons for $10.00 each off of a dining purchase each day.  We also purchased the dining card which gave an additional percentage off (and paid for itself almost immediately) so the cost was not too bad at all.  Even if we had paid full price, we felt that this breakfast buffet was well worth the cost.  There was an omelet bar, a buffet of hot breakfast foods which always included, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and at least one other breakfast meat, breakfast potatoes, french toast with syrup, biscuits and sausage gravy.  Then there was another area of bagels and bread for toasting as well as cereals and milk.  

Past that was an entire room of food.  There was an assortment of fruits, cottage cheese, salad with dressings, banana bread, muffins, pastries, and another whole hot food section of soup and mahi mahi and rice.  You name it....it was likely on this buffet!  Then there was an entire table of juices to choose from, coffee, tea, soft drinks were all included.  

If you wanted to treat this as a brunch it was certainly possible to do that.  So to defray some of the cost of the breakfast I would suggest eating a bit later and turning it into two meals.  I guarantee you will not leave hungry!

 The first day we had a wonderful server by the name of David.  He was a delight as he made us feel at home as he waited on us and told us stories of the Big Island.  Service in Hawaii takes a little getting used to for us Mainlanders....things move at a little slower pace.  We call this "Hawaii Time".  Just be prepared to slow down and relax and take your time!

One thing that we noticed when arriving for the Big Island Breakfast, you were much more apt to find a longer line if you arrived at the same time that tram arrived.  If you walk to breakfast and time it properly you make it in between tram arrivals and have a shorter wait.  Even if you do have a wait, it doesn't take long to be seated so just relax and slow down!

A First Look Around

After breakfast we did a quick look around the resort.  It truly is a beautiful place and this would be one of many walks around the property.  In fact it took us the entire week to get to the entire thing!  We were still finding new details up until we left!  Here are a few of our first impressions:

There were so many things to see!

The Kohala Coast

About midway through the afternoon we decided to take a short day trip up the Kohala Coast up to the Pololo Valley Lookout and through the mountain area of the Island before we ended up at Ruth's Chris for dinner.  It was a beautiful drive up the coast and we were able to see whales breaching in the ocean from the roadway!  It was an amazing sight to see and really peaked our interest to book a whale watching adventure!  We continued on our way and when we arrived at the overlook it was a whole different set of scenery.  

Just didn't really expect to see horses grazing along the cliffs!  This was a beautiful area and well worth the hour or so drive up the coast.  It makes a nice little day trip with a big payoff.

After leaving the Pololo Valley Overlook we headed back into the small town of Hawi.  We passed a small church on our way that just grabbed our attention.  It just looked so pretty sitting on a hill.

We also had to stop and take a quick look at the King Kamehameha statue in town.  He is such an important figure in Hawaiian history.

After leaving Hawi, we turned down Route 250 and headed through the mountains.  I swear if you didn't know you were in Hawaii you would have sworn you were in the western United States!

 Who knew there were cacti in Hawaii??  We also were fascinated by the duck like birds that were near the cows.  It seemed as though each cow had it's own bird.  Great thing about smartphones is that you can look it up while you are thinking about it!

Turns out these birds are not ducks but rather are Egrets!  Again...who knew?  Well maybe some people do but not this girl from Ohio!  The Egrets stick with the cows and help control the flies and pests for the cows while eating bugs and things that the cows wrestle up from the ground when they graze.  The cows weren't all that happy when we stopped to take their pictures!

Time for Dinner

After our trek to the northwestern portion of the Island we ended up in Waimea on the Kohala Coast for dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.  If you have read any of my blogs you know that my husband and I are huge fans of the Ruth's Chris franchise!  We try to get to one any time we are on vacation since we don't have one that is close to us at home.  This Ruth's Chris was a little different in that it didn't offer valet parking and was in a plaza.  However, there was no need to worry..there was lots of parking available.  

There was indoor and outdoor seating offered at this restaurant and dress was island casual as most restaurants in Hawaii are.  They had a bar area which was both indoors and outdoors as well as a nice sized dining room and outdoor patio.

It was a nice end to the day and we headed back to our resort to get ready for another road trip the next day!

Coming up Next:  Day 3 of our Big Island Adventure - Coffee Farms and More

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