Volcano House has been taking guests since 1846, which makes it one of Hawaiʻi’s oldest hotels and the only one inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. It also runs the Nāmakanipaio cabins and campsites. The Volcano area has just one other hotel: Kīlauea Lodge, a historical lodge with an on-site restaurant in the village itself.
This page is for travelers deciding where to base themselves for the park, in cloudy rainforest with unpaved side roads and no chain stores. Our take: for most stays here, a rainforest cabin rental is the better value, and rentals in Volcano run cheap by Hawaiʻi standards. Read on for when each hotel still makes the better call.
We make the full case for renting over a hotel on our accommodation comparison page. Around Volcano, your own cabin with a fireplace and a hot tub in the rainforest is hard to match in a hotel room. If you would rather book a hotel, though, here are the two real options.
Volcano House: the only hotel inside the national park
Volcano House is the only hotel inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, set on the rim of Kīlauea caldera. It reopened in June 2013 after a full renovation, but its history on this spot dates back to 1846, making it one of Hawaiʻi’s oldest hotels. The hotel has 33 guest rooms, some with crater views, plus a dining room overlooking the caldera, a lounge, snack bar, gift shop, and regular cultural events and demonstrations.
View from the Volcano House overlooking the Halemaumau crater.
Volcano House also manages the 10 camper cabins and 16 campsites at Nāmakanipaio Campground.
Kīlauea Lodge: rooms and a restaurant in the village
Kīlauea Lodge sits in Volcano Village, about a mile from the park entrance, and is the area’s only hotel outside the park. It is now run by Highway West Vacations, and its on-site restaurant is open seven days a week for lunch, dinner, and a Sunday brunch with live music. Lodging is nine guest rooms across two buildings, a honeymoon suite, and a one-bedroom cottage on the property.
Kilauea Lodge & Restaurant is a historic, cozy mountain retreat in Volcano Village
Why choose one over the other?
Between the two, pick Volcano House if you want to wake up beside the caldera and skip the dark drive back into the park at night. Kīlauea Lodge makes more sense if a dependable on-site dinner and a village base, with rentals and the local shops nearby, matter more. For most other stays, we would still book a rental.