You change hotels three times in six nights: two in Kona, two in Volcano Village, one in Hilo, one in Waimea. The loop runs counterclockwise. You land at Kona, drive south past South Point to Volcano Village, then on to Hilo, up the Hāmākua Coast to Waimea, and back down the Kohala Coast to the airport. Packing three times keeps the driving legs short.
It suits a first visit that wants the whole island rather than one coast. Two things sell out first and need booking before you fly: the manta ray night snorkel and the Maunakea summit tours. The Waipiʻo valley shuttle on Day 6 needs booking too, if you want the valley floor. Park entry at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes is $30 per vehicle for seven days, cards only. Day one starts on the rental car shuttle at Kona airport.
Table of contents
- Day 1: Kona and the west coast beaches
- Day 2: Snorkeling and history south of Kona
- Day 3: Volcano Village and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
- Day 4: Lower Puna and the Red Road
- Day 5: Hilo, its waterfalls, and Maunakea after dark
- Day 6: Up the Hāmākua Coast to Waimea
- Day 7: Pololū Valley and the drive back to the airport
Treat the days as a template rather than a schedule. Trading a beach afternoon for a hike, or spending Day 4 back in the national park instead of driving to Puna, changes nothing else in the route.
Money-saving and trip-enhancing trip planning tips
With life getting so expensive it makes sense to save as much money on your trip as you can. These resources help you to save money (#1), to book the best tours and activities (#2), and greatly simplify trip planning (#3 + #4):
- The Discount Hawaii Car Rentals website is our first stop for a quote when we need a rental car. We like them (a) because they offer the BEST rates, (b) require no prepayment and charge no cancellation fees, and (c) because they offer additional benefits such as free extra drivers and reduced young driver rates.
- We put a LOT of effort in figuring out which tours actually are the best. Have a look at our curated tour section to see tours that get consitently good reviews *and* offer great value.
- Did you know we are giving away free itineraries for all Hawaiian islands? These are a great place to start planing your own trip.
- Our Trip Planning 101 Guide is a another GREAT place to start planning for 1st time visitors.
Day 1: Kona and the west coast beaches
There are no rental car counters inside the Kona airport terminal. Every company works out of an off-airport lot, so you exit baggage claim A or B, cross to the center median and take the shuttle. Once you have the keys, Kona is seven miles south down Highway 19, and it is where you sleep for the first two nights.
Drop your bags at your accommodation, or pick one off our list of accommodations in Kona. If you are arriving between December and April, this is the day to lock in a whale-watching cruise. The manta ray night snorkel books out further ahead than anything else on this itinerary, so reserve it before you fly rather than on the day.
Sunset Manta Ray Night Snorkel at Keauhou Bay
Manta rays at Keauhou's Manta Village feed within inches of the lit flotation board. Sea Paradise has operated here since 1985, making them one of the longest-running operators at this location.
from:
$130
What is a suggested tour?Our suggested tours are hand-picked tours that receive consistent good reviews, give back to the community, and work hard to minimize their impact on the environment. Read more about these tours on our website.Then head north on Highway 19, the Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway. The west coast beaches start about 13 miles out at Kua Bay, with Beach 69 and Hāpuna around 30. Kua Bay and Hāpuna both started charging non-residents in January 2026: $5 a person plus $10 for the car, card only. Kua Bay’s gates shut at 7pm and Hāpuna’s at 8pm.
Beach 69 has no state fee, but the access road is rough and there are no facilities and no lifeguard. Our pick of the 10 best Kona beaches covers the rest of this coast.
If you would rather not drive at all on landing day, the pier by the King Kamehameha Hotel in the middle of Kona is a short walk from town for a swim, with snorkeling on the far side of the pier.
King Kam beach in downtown Kona is a good place for a quick dip between activities
The two evening options don’t fit in one night. The manta boats leave from Keauhou Bay, south of town, at around $130 an adult, and the trip runs about two hours in the dark, which puts you back on the road well after sunset. If you skip it, sunset from the Kona Inn or any of the beachfront restaurants on Aliʻi Drive is the alternative. Tomorrow starts early either way.
Day 2: Snorkeling and history south of Kona
Get up early. You will still be on mainland time, so this is the one morning of the week where that works in your favor. Have breakfast in town over the water, or drive south on Highway 11 toward Captain Cook to the Coffee Shack, open 7am to 3:30pm and closed on Wednesdays, and order the Kona coffee.
Continue south to Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, the City of Refuge, where the ancient practice of absolution is laid out across the grounds. Entry is $20 per vehicle for seven days, or $10 on foot, and the entrance station takes cards only. Then snorkel at Two Step, 300 feet from the park entrance and one of the best snorkeling spots on the island. Local families swim here too, and the puʻuhonua sits right next door. Give the turtles room and watch your footing on the entry ledge.
Fast, Fun, and Family friendly Snorkeling Experience from Kona
Fast, Fun & Family Friendly Snorkeling in Kailua-Kona to two of Kona’s most underrated snorkeling sites - includes snack breakfast & picnic lunch
from:
$130
What is a suggested tour?Our suggested tours are hand-picked tours that receive consistent good reviews, give back to the community, and work hard to minimize their impact on the environment. Read more about these tours on our website.If snorkeling isn’t your thing, there are other outdoor activities near Kona for the afternoon. Slot them around the tours you already booked, not the other way around.
Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park on the shore south of Kona
Day 3: Volcano Village and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
Pack before breakfast. The drive to Volcano Village is 94 miles south on Highway 11 and takes a little over two hours, the longest leg of the week. Break it at South Point, the southernmost land in the United States, or at Punaluʻu black sand beach, where sea turtles haul out to rest. There is no entry fee, and the state asks visitors to stay 10 feet back from a resting honu.
Volcano Village sits at about 4,000 feet, where the NPS warns temperatures can run 12 to 15 degrees cooler than the coast and it can be rainy any month of the year. Pack a fleece and a rain shell before you leave Kona.
Drop your bags at a vacation rental in Volcano Village, then head into Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Entry is $30 per vehicle and covers seven days, and the entrance station doesn’t take cash. The Kīlauea Visitor Center is shut for a long renovation. Rangers and the bookstore have moved to a temporary Welcome Center at Kīlauea Military Camp, 1.25 miles past the entrance station, open daily until 4:45pm. The park warns of further closures and delays while a two-year rebuild of the summit buildings runs.
Ask the rangers there what is open that day and which free ranger-led walks are running. Nāhuku (the Thurston Lava Tube) and the Kīlauea Iki Overlook are the two stops worth building the afternoon around. The Kīlauea Iki trail itself drops 400 feet into the crater and takes two to three hours for the 3.3-mile loop; parking at the overlook is very limited, so rangers will point you at a longer start from the Welcome Center instead.
Have dinner in Volcano Village and go back up to the caldera after dark. Kīlauea has been erupting in short episodes with long pauses between them since December 2024, and it is quiet as often as it is not. Check the USGS daily update before you drive up. Uēkahuna and Kūpinaʻi Pali are open overlooks; the eruption site itself is closed to the public.
When an episode is running, the overlooks around the caldera show the glow above Halemaʻumaʻu after dark. Between fountaining episodes there may be no glow at all
Day 4: Lower Puna and the Red Road
You can go back into the national park and put in a full day on its 100-plus miles of trail, or drive down to Puna, the district Kīlauea has rearranged twice in living memory. Kalapana went under lava in 1990, and a new black sand beach has been rebuilding at Kaimū ever since. In 2018 the lower East Rift Zone buried over 700 structures and 30 miles of road, and added 875 acres of new coastline.
That eruption is also why the Red Road is no longer a through drive. Highway 137 now dead-ends at Isaac Hale, and the 3.6-mile stretch on to Kapoho has been a closed construction site since early 2025. Come at it from the Kalapana end, and treat Pohoiki as the turnaround rather than the halfway point.
From Kaimū, head east down the Red Road. MacKenzie State Recreation Area is open daylight hours with no entry fee and no drinking water, so bring your own. Isaac Hale, Pohoiki to everyone local, has a black sand beach that did not exist before 2018 and a boat ramp that has been closed since the lava filled it.
The Red Road, Highway 137, running between the palms in lower Puna
Finish with dinner in Pāhoa, a one-street town with a row of restaurants along the main road, then drive back up to Volcano Village for your last night in the rainforest. If you are not ready for bed, the Volcano House inside the park has a crater-rim lanai and a bar.
If you spend the day in the park instead, drive the Chain of Craters Road down to the coast, where the Holei Sea Arch stands out of cliffs 80 to 90 feet high
Day 5: Hilo, its waterfalls, and Maunakea after dark
This is the fullest day of the week and you won’t fit all of it in. If you booked the summit tour, seven to eight hours door to door takes the afternoon and the evening with it, so keep breakfast and the falls and drop the downtown walk.
Hilo is 28 miles north-east on Highway 11: the road drops off the volcano and runs straight down to the coast. Start with breakfast at Ken’s House of Pancakes, an old diner that opens at 6am, with window booths and waitresses you address as “auntie”, which is courtesy here rather than familiarity.
Downtown is a walkable grid of shops and galleries. The Pacific Tsunami Museum is worth an hour, but it is on a limited schedule during its own renovation and opens weekends only, 10am to 2pm, at $15 for adults. Turn up on a weekday and the door is locked. Hilo is tonight’s base, so if you still need a room, here is where to stay in Hilo. On a Wednesday or Saturday the farmers market is the better stop for fruit and a bento to take with you.
For mochi, Two Ladies Kitchen on Kīlauea Avenue makes it fresh to order.
The bayfront walk through Liliʻuokalani Gardens now stops at the water. A section of the footbridge to Coconut Island gave way under a county excavator, and the county has Mokuola closed until further notice. If you would rather swim, Carlsmith Beach Park and Richardson’s are a short drive out along the Keaukaha shore, and there are more beaches in Hilo past them.
Rainbow Falls and Boiling Pots are both inside Wailuku River State Park, a few minutes up Waiānuenue Avenue, and one fee covers both: $5 a person plus $10 for the car, non-residents only, card only, gates locked at 6pm. The Kaumana Caves lava tube, on up the same road, is free.
Private Kulaniapia Falls Day Pass
Swim and play at a private waterfall on the Hilo coast to skip the crowds.
from:
$49
What is a suggested tour?Our suggested tours are hand-picked tours that receive consistent good reviews, give back to the community, and work hard to minimize their impact on the environment. Read more about these tours on our website.
Rainbow Falls is an 80-foot drop on the edge of town. Come early and the rising sun puts a rainbow in the spray, which is how it got the name
Then drive Saddle Road up to Maunakea. The visitor station sits at 9,200 feet, opens daily 9am to 9pm and costs nothing. Time the drive to be there for sunset.
Two-wheel drive is not permitted above the station, so the summit needs 4WD or AWD, and most rental agencies do not want you to take your car up to the summit, so check what your rental agreement allows. The nightly telescope program ended in 2019. A guided tour is now the practical way to get up top.
Maunakea Summit, Sunset, and Stargazing Tour
A small-group tour from Kona to the 13,796-foot summit of Maunakea: dinner at 9,200 feet, sunset above the cloud layer, and a private star show with an 11-inch telescope. Saturn, Jupiter, and the Milky Way on a clear night. 8 to 9 hours.
from:
$315
What is a suggested tour?Our suggested tours are hand-picked tours that receive consistent good reviews, give back to the community, and work hard to minimize their impact on the environment. Read more about these tours on our website.The tour above runs with Hawaiʻi Forest & Trail at $315 a person, takes seven to eight hours door to door and is 13 and over only. Its pickups are all on the Kona and Waikoloa side plus the visitor station itself, so from Hilo you drive up Saddle Road and meet it there. For altitude and what to wear, see our guide to stargazing on Maunakea.
Day 6: Up the Hāmākua Coast to Waimea
Check out after breakfast over Hilo Bay, then head north on Highway 19. The Hāmākua Coast is 57 miles of gulches and one-lane bridges between here and Waimea, and it is the prettiest driving of the week.
Turn off onto the Onomea Scenic Route, the old Māmalahoa Road, at the blue Scenic Drive sign between mile markers 10 and 11. Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden sits on it, open daily 10am to 6pm with last entry at 5pm, at $35 for adults. Back on Highway 19, ʻUmauma Falls is a drive-up viewpoint at $10 a head, and ʻAkaka Falls State Park is a 0.4-mile loop at $5 a person plus $10 for the car.
Keep going to Honokaʻa, an old sugar town with a row of galleries and second-hand shops. Tex Drive In on the highway opens at 6am and makes its malasadas to order behind a window you can watch. Highway 240 runs out of Honokaʻa and stops at the Waipiʻo Valley lookout.
The lookout is as far as you can go on your own. Waipiʻo Valley Road has been closed to all pedestrians since 2022 under a county emergency rule that has been renewed continuously, and vehicle access is limited to residents, permitted tour operators and Native Hawaiians exercising traditional rights. The valley floor is reachable only on a permitted shuttle tour, currently $67 for adults and $36.50 for children, and that has to be booked ahead.
The Waipiʻo lookout takes in the black sand beach and the taro flats in one view. Hiking down is prohibited, so without a shuttle booking the lookout is as close as you get
Finish the drive at Waimea, inland and high enough that you’ll want a jacket after dark (here is where to stay in Waimea). Merriman’s is the restaurant we send people to, and dinner runs 5pm to 8:30pm on a reservation. If you would rather eat by the water, Kawaihae harbor is down the hill on the coast and you can come back up to Waimea to sleep.
Day 7: Pololū Valley and the drive back to the airport
Waimea sits close enough to the north end of the island that the last morning doesn’t have to be a straight run to the airport. Take Highway 250, the Kohala Mountain Road, 19 miles of open cattle pasture over the ridge to Hāwī, then Highway 270 out to the end of the road.
That is the Pololū Valley lookout, and the view down the coast arrives the moment you park. Parking is the hard part: there are about a dozen stalls, the state counted an average of 597 visitors a day here in 2023, and much of the roadside parking people fall back on is on private land. Trail stewards turn cars away once it fills, so come early.
The trail down is 0.6 miles, steep in both directions and slippery after rain, with no restroom and no cell coverage in the valley. Carry water and sunscreen and give yourself more time for the climb out than the walk in. If you are up before dawn, this is a sunrise spot.
Then drive to the airport, and don’t double back through Waimea to do it. Highway 270 runs south from Pololū through Kapaʻau and Hāwī to Kawaihae, where it ends; Highway 19 takes you the rest of the way down the coast. It is 54 miles from the lookout to the terminal, and the Kings’ Shops at Waikoloa sit just off Highway 19 with 17 of those miles left to run, which makes them the last sensible stop for local grinds or souvenirs.
Kua Bay sits five miles north of the airport, less than a mile off Highway 19. If your flight is in the evening, it is the last swim of the trip
Leave the lookout at least three hours before your flight. That covers the drive, the fuel stop, the rental car return and the shuttle back to the terminal, and it leaves room for the one-lane bridge or the cattle crossing that always turns up.
Related: our other Big Island itineraries, one day through a full week.