A Circle Island Tour + Volcanoes + Farm Tour + National Park visit experience by Wasabi Tours. Back to all Big Island tours.
Tour Summary: Guides check eruption status the morning of your trip and reorder the route to improve your chances of seeing active lava. One small-group loop covers Kona coffee, Punaluʻu turtles, two waterfalls, and Volcanoes National Park.
he Waipiʻo Valley lookout, a short stop on the loop with views into the valley tied to King Kamehameha. Image credit: Wasabi Tours 
ʻAkaka Falls drops 442 feet, reached by a short rainforest walk from the parking area. Image credit: Wasabi Tours Rainbow Falls in Hilo, the second and smaller of the two waterfalls on the tour at around 80 feet. Image credit: Wasabi Tours The Halemaʻumaʻu crater lookout in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, where active lava sometimes appears. Image credit: Wasabi Tours The Thurston Lava Tube, a short walk through a lava-formed cave. Interior lighting can be out after storms. Image credit: Wasabi Tours The Kīlauea Iki lookout over a crater floor that was a lava lake in 1959. Image credit: Wasabi Tours Groundwater hits hot rock at the steam vents, one of the quick walking stops inside the park. Image credit: Wasabi Tours Punaluʻu Black Sand Beach, where green sea turtles often haul out onto the sand. Image credit: Wasabi Tours A working Kona coffee farm stop: harvesting and milling explained, with a tasting at the end. Image credit: Wasabi Tours
4 Tour Highlights:
- Guides track live eruption status the morning of your tour and reorder the route to improve your odds of seeing active lava
- Continuous local history and culture commentary on the long drives
- One loop covers a Kona coffee farm, Punaluʻu Black Sand Beach with sea turtles, two waterfalls, and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
- Small group capped at 13, so the day stays a van rather than a coach
Important: Wear comfortable clothing in layers as temperatures vary from warm to cool. Covered walking shoes are required.
Tour Information:
| Price: | Adult | Youth |
|---|---|---|
| (excluding taxes & fees) | $249 | $239 |
Tour Provider: Wasabi Tours
Activity: Circle Island Tour + Volcanoes + Farm Tour + National Park visit
Tour start time: between 8:00 AM and 11:00 AM (depending on pickup location)
Duration: 11 hours
Departure from: Kailua Kona
Pick-up available? Yes! Pick up is possible from all resorts and hotels in Keauhou, Kona, Waikoloa, and Kohala area between 8 and 11 am. Get in touch for possible Kona airport pickup.
Included: Picnic or bento lunch (teriyaki chicken, fish, vegetables, and steamed rice with assorted juices, snacks and bottled water).. All national park entrance and admission fees. Jackets and rain gear (when needed).
Cancellations: Minimum 24 hours notice for groups of 1-5, 48 hours notice for groups of 6 or more, and 72 hour notice for private groups to receive a full refund
# Read more about this tour
Guides on this tour check the live eruption status the morning of your trip and rebuild the day’s order around it, putting Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park at whatever point gives you the best odds of seeing active lava. One group saw the eruption stop within about an hour and a half of leaving the park. That part is real luck, not a guarantee, but the planning is built around chasing it.
What reviewers mention before they mention any single stop is the talking. The drive between sites is long, and the guides fill it with continuous local history and culture commentary rather than dead air. On a roughly 11 hours day, that running narration is the difference between a shuttle and a tour, and it is the most-cited highlight across thousands of reviews.
The loop covers the island’s range in one go. A Kona coffee farm with a tour and tasting. Punaluʻu Black Sand Beach, where green sea turtles haul out onto the sand. About two hours inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park: crater lookouts, steam vents, and the Thurston Lava Tube. Rainbow Falls at around 80 feet. ʻAkaka Falls at 442 feet, reached by a short rainforest walk. The Waipiʻo Valley lookout. Stop order rotates depending on eruption activity, so your day may not run in that sequence.
What you don’t have to think about
Almost every logistic is handled. Round-trip hotel pickup from Kona, Keauhou, Waikoloa, and the Kohala resorts. All park entrance and admission fees. A picnic or bento lunch, snacks, bottled water, and assorted juices through the day. Jackets and rain gear come along when the weather calls for it, which on the Hilo and Volcano side it often does. Reviewers single out the steady supply of food and the frequent bathroom breaks, the kind of small things that decide how an eleven-hour day actually feels.
Total walking across the whole day runs about 1.5 miles, all of it light and easy, and the tour takes guests ages 5 and up. Groups cap at 13 in the vehicle, so it stays a small-group setup rather than a coach.
Is an eleven-hour day too much?
People who go in nervous about the length come out saying the day felt full rather than rushed, which is the right read on it. This is one tour standing in for what most visitors spend two or three separate days doing. If you have limited time on the island and want the coast, the falls, the coffee, and the volcano in a single pass, this is the efficient way to get all of it.
Two honest planning notes. The road to ʻAkaka and over to the Volcano side is winding, with a lot of side-to-side movement, so motion-sensitive guests should plan for it. And the Thurston Lava Tube interior can go dark and unlit after storms or power issues, so lava-tube lighting, like active-eruption visibility, is not something the operator can promise on any given day.
What you are really paying for is judgment: a guide reading eruption updates and weather in real time and deciding, that morning, what order gives your specific group the best day. The fixed stops are the same for everyone. The sequencing is not, and on this island the sequencing is what determines whether you catch lava or miss it by an hour.
# [Video] A look at Big Island Grand Circle Island Tour
# About Wasabi Tours
Wasabi Tours is a locally owned and operated company specialize in guided small group tours on the Big Island. Their multilingual guides (speaking English, Chinese, and Spanish) are all park ranger trained with years of experience guiding fully narrated tours on the island. They have a wealth of knowledge about the history, cultures, geography, wildlife and botany of Hawaii.
Wasabi Tours has been in business since 2006 and strives to create tours that allow guests to not only discover highlights of the island, but also to explore off the beaten paths. They receive consistent stellar reviews both for the content of their tours and for their professional and knowledgeable tour guides, and we are confident you will be in capable hands with them.
# Affiliate Disclaimer
Booking through this page costs you nothing extra and is made directly with Wasabi Tours. We earn a commission from the operator, not from you, and it is what pays for the research that keeps lovebigisland.com free and free of paid placement. We only list operators we would send a friend to. Details on our affiliate links are here.