Explore. Style. Create.: Travel

8/28/2016

Long time no writing... Life has gotten crazy but I really wanted to share my recent (few months ago) trip to Kona, Hawaii. Kona is on the big island of Hawaii, this was the first time I had been on the big island. I have been to Kauai and Maui before so it was fun exploring a new island! My friend was in Kona at the YWAM (youth with a mission) training to go on her outreach in Panama and Haiti. My mom and I went to visit her during my spring break and her mom went for a few days as well, so girls trip to Hawaii! It was so much fun to get to spend time with all of them. Mackenzie had been living on the island for about three months so she knew a lot of fun local stuff to do which was fun to have insider tips while we were there. We were only there for about 4 and a half days so there are many things we still could have done but we did a lot of fun things with the time we had!

Where to Watch the Sunset

Old Kona Airport

Our favorite spot to watch the sunset was at the Old Kona Airport. The old airport has been turned into a recreational area. The used to be runway is now the parking lot and on one side is the ocean and the other side is a walking/jogging path which is also really pretty with lots of colorful plants! The ocean side has a lot of lava rocks which make for a gorgeous sunset with the contrast. These photos don't even do it justice on how gorgeous the sunset really was!

Queen's Bath

Another spot we loved was Queens Bath. This is in somewhat of the same area as the Old Airport. It won't pull up on a map but you get to it by turning near where the tennis courts and the pool is. Park back by the fence where the houses are and there is a path to get on the other side of the houses where the ocean is! It was really pretty and was right next to the old airport so it was the same idea!

Lands End

Lands end consists of black lava cliffs. The waves come crashing up the sides creating huge sprays. It was another gorgeous spot to just go and walk around and also catch the sunset! I would highly recommend going there!

What to do in Kona

Rays at the Bay

This is a restaurant in the Sheraton Hotel. You can go eat, have drinks and watch the manta rays as they go on their dive. The manta rays go on their dives at night where the moon spotlights in the ocean. This restaurant has created their own spotlights where the rays dive so you can see them from the viewing deck. We only got to see one Manta Ray but it was just a cool vibe in the restaurant with the live music and drinks. The best time to view them is at 8:00 p.m. so we went for desert and drinks which were so good! Make sure to make a reservation because it can get busy at this time. Ignore the bad picture but the drinks were really cute!

Alii Drive

This is one of the main roads in Kona with a lot of shops. It's a cool area to walk along and just hang out. The third Sunday of every month they hold kind of a street fair market that was really cool to go to. Vendors come out to sell things and there are a lot of free food samples, which was obviously the best part. If you go when they are doing this be sure to stop by the cheesecake stand because it was literally the best cheesecake I've ever had (the salted caramel and the lilikoi were my favorite flavors). You can drive down the whole Alii drive which is gorgeous or you can park and enjoy what it has to offer. We spent a lot of time down on the pier there and the beachy area around it.

Also a great spot to pick up some local boys lol ;)

Snorkeling

We went snorkeling down by the pier on alii drive. It was a nice convenient spot. We saw a lot of different fish and the best thing was we saw dolphins. We jumped off the pier and were swimming around when a group of about 8 dolphins came swimming around where we were. It was one of the coolest things and it's not rare to see them around this area either. They were putting on a show with all of their jumping and spinning! Other great snorkeling spots around are two step beach, kealakekua bay (one spot we didn't make it to but REALLY wish we would have, I have some friends that went there and said it was so gorgeous and the snorkeling was amazing!).

Hula Daddy Coffee Farm
You can tour this coffee farm and also get free coffee tastings! It's a fun thing to do and try out and the coffee was really good. I would recommend checking it out if you have some free time!

Other

There are a lot of other great things to do in Kona like the flume water slide (Mackenzie went there and absolutely loved it and said the hike there was gorgeous). This was another things I would have done if we had more time! Paddleboarding is also a fun thing to do and you can bring your snorkle gear with you as well. Kayaking tours and many more fun things!

Places to Eat:

I thought I would share my favorite places we ate while we were there, because there were a few places that really stood out to me!

Splashers

We went to this place on our last night but I wish we would have gone earlier because I would have loved to go back. This is right on Alii drive and is open air seating. The vibe of this restaurant is really fun. We sat at the bar which was fun to get to meet some new people! The food and drinks here were really good so all around it was a good experience!