Waimea and Kamuela are the same town. Your rental confirmation will say one, the road signs say the other, and neither is wrong. It sits above 2,500 feet between Kohala Mountain and Mauna Kea, which is why it is green, cool, and nothing like the coast twenty minutes downhill. This map covers the town itself, and the table below lists what is open on which day.
Table of contents
| Name | Category | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| 1Kuhio Hale Farmers Market | Market | Saturday 7:30am to 12:30pm at 64-756 Mamalahoa Highway. Mostly growers, not resellers. First Saturday is Vintage Saturday |
| 2Belle Vue Waimea | Lodging | Three units with volcano and ocean views on the edge of Parker Ranch. Now sells as vacation rentals rather than a B&B |
| 3Waimea Gardens | Lodging | Two cottages by a seasonal stream, $270 to $295 a night. Breakfast provisions in the fridge rather than a served breakfast |
| 4Anna Ranch Heritage Center | Attraction | $20 guided tour of a working paniolo ranch home. Tuesday and Thursday only, 10am and 1:15pm, reservations required |
| 5Big Island Brewhaus | Restaurant | Open daily 11am to 9pm. Island Mexican food and their own beers. No reservations, so expect a wait at dinner |
| 6Castle Waimea Country Lodge | Lodging | Rooms from $145, studios and suites with kitchenettes to $309. In town on Lindsey Road |
| 7Kamuela Inn | Lodging | Indigenous-owned inn in the middle of town, twin rooms up to suites. Breakfast included |
| 8Waimea Community Market | Market | Saturday 7:30am to noon at Parker School. The prepared-food market of the three. Wood-fired stone oven bread sells out early |
| 9Parker Ranch | Attraction | 130,000 acres, one of the largest cattle ranches in the US. Self-guided historic home tours, and the 4th of July rodeo runs its 62nd year in 2026 |
| 10Ulu Laʻau, Waimea Nature Park | Attraction | Free, 10 acres of native planting in the middle of town. Self-guided tour booklets on the office door, please return them |
| 11Pukalani Stables markets | Market | Two markets at one Parker Ranch address. Kamuela Farmers Market Saturday 7:30am to 1pm with live music, Pukalani Midweek Market Wednesday 8:30am to 1:30pm |
Waimea or Kamuela: the same place
Waimea is the town’s name. Kamuela is its post office name, because Hawaiʻi has three places called Waimea and the postal service will not run two post offices of the same name in one state. Kamuela is the Hawaiian form of Samuel. The practical effect is that you will see both all day: the zip is 96743 either way, your booking may say Kamuela while the highway sign says Waimea, and locals say Waimea. Nothing is a typo. We tell the longer version, and who Samuel was, in our guide to Waimea.
For a map, what matters is that this is upcountry, not coast. The town sits on the Hawaiʻi Belt Road above 2,500 feet, between Kohala Mountain to the north and the western flank of Mauna Kea to the south, and it is cooler and cloudier than anywhere on the Kona side. Bring a layer even in August. Waimea also has a wet side and a dry side, and the town straddles the line: the eastern end of town is green pasture and the western end runs dry and gold.
Drive times from Waimea
This table is the reason to base yourself here. Nowhere else on the island is within an hour of this many different things: a beach, a valley lookout, an airport and the Mauna Kea visitor station are all inside 50 minutes.
| Destination | Drive time | Miles | Route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hāpuna Beach | 19 min | 12.6 | HI-19 |
| Waikoloa Beach Resort | 28 min | 19.5 | HI-19 |
| Waipiʻo Valley Lookout | 30 min | 22.3 | HI-19 + Honokaʻa-Waipiʻo Rd |
| Kona airport (KOA) | 44 min | 36.6 | HI-19 |
| Maunakea Visitor Information Station | 49 min | 37.5 | Saddle Rd |
| Pololū Valley Lookout | 49 min | 28.3 | Kohala Mountain Rd |
| Kailua-Kona | 50 min | 39.0 | HI-190 |
| Hilo | 1 hr 8 min | 54.8 | HI-19 |
Take Kohala Mountain Road to Pololū. It is 28.3 miles and 49 minutes; going round by Kawaihae on Highway 270 is 37.1 miles and 53 minutes, so the mountain road is shorter, faster, and the better drive of the two, climbing through pasture with the coast below you the whole way.
The Mauna Kea line is the one people miss. Waimea is 49 minutes from the visitor station, against 46 minutes from Hilo and well over an hour from Kona, so a stargazing night from here costs about the same drive as it does from Hilo and you sleep somewhere cooler and quieter.
Around town, north to south
The eastern edge, towards Honokaʻa. Kuhio Hale Farmers Market runs on Māmalahoa Highway east of the centre, Saturdays 7:30am to 12:30pm. It is the smallest of the three Saturday markets and the one where most of the stalls belong to people who grew the food, harvested the day before or that morning.
Kawaihae Road, west of the centre. The lodging is out this way, strung along the road that drops towards the coast. Anna Ranch Heritage Center is here too, a working paniolo ranch home you can only see on a guided tour, $20, and only on a Tuesday or a Thursday at 10am or 1:15pm. Book it, or you will find the gate shut.
The centre of town. Waimea’s centre is a crossroads and two shopping centres rather than a main street, and it is walkable only in patches. Big Island Brewhaus is on Māmalahoa Highway on the eastern approach, open every day 11am to 9pm, brewing its own beer and serving island Mexican food, and it takes no reservations. Waimea Community Market sets up in front of Parker School on Saturday mornings, 7:30am to noon: this is the prepared-food one, and the bread from the wood-fired stone oven is gone well before the market closes.
South, on the Parker Ranch side. Parker Ranch runs to 130,000 acres, one of the largest cattle ranches in the United States, and still holds the July 4th rodeo, which reaches its 62nd year in 2026. Ulu Laʻau, the Waimea Nature Park, is ten acres of native planting in the middle of town, free, with self-guided tour booklets hanging on the office door. Return them. A little further south, Pukalani Stables on the ranch grounds holds two markets: Kamuela Farmers Market on Saturdays with live music, and the Pukalani Midweek Market on Wednesdays, which is the biggest in the area by vendor count and the answer for anyone whose Saturday is already spoken for.
What is on the map
Every pin links to our write-up, and the table lists days, hours and what things cost. Waimea is a town where the day of the week decides your options more than anything else. Three separate farmers markets run on Saturday mornings and they are close enough to do two of them before ten. On a Wednesday you get one, at Pukalani Stables. On a Tuesday or a Thursday you can tour Anna Ranch, and on any other day you cannot.
On lodging, this is a small market and it is not a resort town: an inn, a lodge and two sets of cottages, and the resorts are all twenty to thirty minutes downhill on the Kohala Coast. Castle Waimea Country Lodge starts at $145 a night and the two cottage properties run $270 to $295. Book direct with the small ones. They have few units and they fill.