Volcanoes, Chickens, and Seaweed: Traveling Big Island, Hawaii by Car
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Growing up between Utah and California, it felt like everyone I knew had a connection to Hawaii: family roots, favorite vacation spots, college memories. I have heard endless stories about the gorgeous beaches, amazing food, and the friendly culture that left me dreaming of my own trip there—honestly, it’s wild that my first visit wasn’t until I got into my thirties.
Even wilder? My first Hawaii visit wasn’t to the island I heard so many stories about—Oahu—it was the rugged, untamed Hawaii Island, better known as the Big Island.
Big Island is, unsurprisingly, the biggest of Hawaii’s eight main islands, and it has an incredibly diverse landscape. I traveled there with my husband and we loved exploring tropical paradises just thirty minutes away from mountain tops and lava rock-filled deserts. There is an abundance of otherworldly views and scenic drives.
Speaking of driving...exploring Big Island can’t be tackled in a few days on foot: you’ll need a car to get the most out of your adventure. I found a cheap car rental through Discover Cars, which gave me the freedom to explore all I wanted to see, from black sand beaches to volcanoes to rainforests with incredible waterfalls. And lots of chickens were spotted, too.
Ready to chart your own course across Big Island? Keep reading for the tips and route that turned my Big Island trip into an unforgettable adventure.
Big Island Navigation Tips
Flight to Big Island, Hawaii
We booked a flight from the mainland with American Airlines, which was my first time using them for an across-ocean flight. Luckily, everything went smoothly and after seven hours in the air, we woke up to sunny skies and a vast blue ocean below.
To make the most out of our trip, we flew into the Kona International Airport (KOA) on the west side of Big Island, drove to Hilo, and flew out of the Hilo International Airport (ITO) on our way to Maui. Kona seemed to have more options for flights and at better prices, but doing the reverse trip would work as well.
Both airports are a bit dated, but still very charming. I loved how Kona was basically an outdoor airport with shops and restaurants lining the big outdoor courtyard. The Hilo airport felt like being in a ‘70s school gymnasium, but with the comfiest lounge chairs I’ve ever sat in at an airport.
I usually book through Google Flights, but this time I used the Capital One Travel portal, exclusively for certain Capital One cardholders.
Where can I find cheap car rentals in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii?
My rental car for this trip was provided by Discover Cars. They offered me a booking credit in exchange for sharing my experience, and honestly, it made all the difference when driving around Hawaii. Having the freedom to see volcano craters and seaweed-strewn beaches on my own terms wouldn’t have been possible without it.
Discover Cars is a rental car aggregator, similar to Expedia, Booking.com, and Kayak. Their search feature is very user-friendly and takes out the stress of finding cheap rental cars.
I had no issues with Discover Cars, but since they compile a list of many rental car options in the area, some companies that are more unsavory than others may come up in the search. Keep this in mind when choosing a rental car and be sure to review the Rental Conditions thoroughly before booking.
When booking, I filtered out rental car companies with poor ratings and manual cars and sorted by price. Beyond that, I’m not too picky about what type of rental car I get, so I usually go with the cheapest reliable option. This time I went with a rental car from Thrifty, which had slightly better reviews than the other low-budget options at the Kona Airport.
When you pick up and drop off your car rental, you will deal directly with the rental car company personnel, not Discover Cars employees. Despite this, Discover Cars does communicate very frequently—they sent email and text reminders about my upcoming rental, checked in during the trip, and sent further reminders when it got close to the time I needed to return my car. This really eased my mind that I was not dealing with a scammy site and that I was being taken care of.
For this trip, we got a Nissan Versa sedan, which was small, basic, and a bit dirty on the exterior, but it worked well and fit us both and our luggage so we didn’t have any complaints. Besides, it had an adorable rainbow Hawaii license plate that complemented the car’s white exterior nicely, which was a happy reminder of where I was driving!
Many rental car companies in Kona, Hawaii may try to convince you to upgrade your rental to a jeep or other vehicle with all-wheel drive, but that is complete nonsense unless you are visiting the summit of Mauna Kea and a few other remote locations. All roads we drove on, including throughout Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, were totally doable in our little sedan.
Booking a rental car with a different pick up and drop off location can be a pain logistically, but it was super easy to do when booking with Discover Cars. There were many car rentals in the Kona Airport with the option to drop off in Hilo at no extra charge.
Where are the best places to stay on Big Island?
Big Island is soooo chill. I’ve heard about the hustle and bustle of Oahu and have experienced the lively Maui resort scene—Big Island is nothing like that! Our road trip covered most of the island, but we only came across two cities and a handful of very small towns. Tiny churches and schools, local cemeteries, and chickens galore dotted the landscape.
Because of this remoteness, there are really just three main areas to stay on Big Island. The most common is where we flew into: Kona. The main town in Kona is Kailua and there are plenty of stores and restaurants there to fuel your adventures. We stayed in a very unique location, a bit outside of Kailua called Dragonfly Ranch. More on that eccentric experience later!
If you’re looking for a nice resort vacation, check out another area on Big Island: Waikoloa Village. We didn’t have time to make it that far north on our trip, but my parents have spent a whole week there and say it is beautiful. I’ll take their word for it.
For a more residential community, base yourself in Hilo. It is on the greener side of the island, with closer access to many of the nature spots in my itinerary (including Hawaii Volcanoes National Park). We got a Hilo, Hawaii Airbnb for two nights and loved the convenience of staying in a city with amenities, but still just minutes from secluded nature spots. The only downside about the studio we stayed in were the loud roosters and abundant chickens. From around 4am to 8am, they cockadoodledoo-ed and every time we left our room they surrounded us. Like I said, wild chickens roam freely all over the island!
How do I get to other Hawaiian islands from Big Island?
If you’re wondering how to get around Hawaii, it’s actually super easy, thanks to Hawaiian Airlines! After our time in Big Island, we flew with them to Maui, which was less than an hour flight. You can get to most of the main eight Hawaiian islands this way, including Oahu and Kauai. It was my first time flying with them and I found it to be one of the most pleasant airlines I’ve flown with. All the flight attendants were so friendly and fun and they provided complimentary local POG juice.
The only downside to booking with Hawaiian Airlines are the limited flights available each day. For example, we wanted to get to Maui during the first part of the day, and we only had one option from Hilo. Some locations, like Oahu, had more options, so you will just need to do your own searching to find what works for you.
Big Island Self-Guided Driving Route
After visiting rainforests and beaches in New Zealand, Mexico, and Costa Rica, I was worried that Hawaii wouldn’t “wow” me and that I would find it overrated—but boy was I wrong! Hawaii has earned its place as one of the most worth-visiting destinations in the USA.
The map shows some of my favorite Big Island Activities that I highly recommend to any DIY road tripper, in order of when my husband and I visited them.
See the green pins in the map above for the exact locations we visited and loved.
The teal pins are places that we missed this trip, but would make a great addition to an adventurous Big Island road trip.
The purple pins are places we stayed.
Big Island Activities
Kona Food
Kona is known for its coffee and there seemed to be a coffee shop on every corner! We’re not coffee drinkers though, so I unfortunately don’t have any recommendations. But don’t worry—they’re everywhere, as are coffee plantations, some of which you can tour.
What I can recommend are some great food locations: Broke da Mouth Grindz and the Sack N Save Kona location.
Broke da Mouth Grindz is an authentic Hawaiian restaurant that serves plate lunches containing meats, rice, mac salad, and a variety of other sides. We chose to eat there because it was highly rated and then later found out that Guy Fieri has eaten there!
The restaurant is super casual. The food is made to order, so it does take a bit of time for it to be ready—which was a good reminder to me on day one to slow my pace and enjoy being on island time.
I ordered the furikake chicken (which is basically fried chicken with seaweed sprinkles) and kalua pork and my husband ordered a special they had that day that included eggs, spam, and braised beef. We actually ended up liking each other’s meals better than our own. The portions were HUGE so we ate half our meals the first day and then switched meals and finished each other’s halves the next day for lunch.
Before leaving Kona, we stopped at Sack N Save for local Hawaiian snacks! Grocery shopping is one of my favorite things to do in unfamiliar places because I love seeing the local offerings that I can’t find in my own city.
Sack N Save is part of Foodland, a famous Hawaiian grocery store, known for their fresh and plentiful poke. My friend who grew up visiting family in Hawaii highly recommended trying the poke there, but sadly we didn’t get the chance.
We did, however, get lots of snacks that were either grown/produced in Hawaii or can only be found in Hawaii. This included an entire case of strawberry guava juice, tuna jerky, Maui-Style onion chips, chocolate, and coconut crusted macadamia nuts. It was great to have all those delicious snacks throughout our road trip! (And, in case you’re wondering, we did not buy an entire spam loaf, as pictured above, but we did eat spam on several occasions.)
Dragonfly Ranch
For our first night on Big Island, we stayed about 30 minutes south of Kailua-Kona at Dragonfly Ranch. I found this place through Capital One Travel and also saw it on hotels.com and booking.com. When we pulled up, I was immediately enchanted by the giant treehouse that contained several guest rooms, two kitchens, and a large patio overlooking the ocean.
The staff at Dragonfly Ranch was super friendly…almost too friendly…so friendly that for two introverts like my husband and I, we kinda just wanted to hide in our room to avoid them. However, that didn’t work—our room was in the center of the treehouse, surrounded by walking paths. Every wall had windows with curtains that were slightly too small, revealing the outside. The bed was raised on a platform in the center of the room, easily visible from the windows, making us feel exposed the whole time.
In addition to all that, the bathroom was basically outdoors—there was a giant window across from the toilet and the stone/bamboo shower had cracks in it that revealed outside. I’m sure the intention is to help guests feel extra immersed in nature and I would have loved it if it felt just a tad more private.
Other than our privacy concerns, Dragonfly Ranch was a lovely place to stay. Tree frogs sang all night and I even found one of the cute tiny coqui frogs in our shower! (The ranch does provide earplugs for sleeping in case the frogs are too loud.) The landscaping was also beautiful and the breakfast in the morning was very refreshing. We sat on the spacious patio overlooking the jungle and ocean, eating all types of jams and rare, juicy white pineapple, while trying to keep geckos from licking the sweet fruit juices off our plates.
Snorkeling
One of my favorite activities to do in any ocean is snorkeling, so we went several times in Hawaii. If we had time to return to Dragonfly Ranch after, we could have used some of their snorkel gear for free. They are located just a few miles down the road from several local snorkeling spots. We opted for Honaunau Bay, more commonly referred to as Two Step Beach.
Two Step Beach is one of the best snorkeling spots in Hawaii’s Big Island. The water is a vibrant blue and there is a section of black lava rock in the shape of two steps that make water entry much easier than just plunging in and finding a way to climb out.
Before jumping in the water, we ate our leftovers from the night before on the lava rocks overlooking the bay. It was prime people-watching time as hordes of people slipped into the water and then dragged themselves out, dogs chased sticks, and a local Hawaiian shouted warnings and instructions for people visiting the area, making sure everyone was respecting the environment and having a safe and good time.
Finally it was our turn to get in and I found the two steps to be very helpful as I made my plunge. While snorkeling in the bay, the current can be strong, so be cautious as you swim and pay attention to your surroundings. Sadly my fins don’t fit in my carry-on luggage, so we didn’t have actual snorkeling gear, besides one mask and snorkel and one pair of regular goggles. Despite this, we were still able to enjoy seeing yellow tang, a rainbow-colored parrotfish, seaweed, and lots of coral.
Pro tip: Two Step Beach is located next to a National Park Service site (see the next adventure on the list), so I was able to park at the site for free with my America the Beautiful Annual Pass and then walk to the snorkeling spot just a few minutes away, avoiding parking fees and a crowded parking lot at the beach. Both locations have restrooms or port-a-potties.
Historic Hawaiian Village
For a piece of Hawaiian history, we loved visiting Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, right next to Two Step Beach. Much of the ground coverage is old lava flows from the volcanoes in the distance, which heavily influenced how people lived there hundreds of years ago. We saw a large wall built with lava rock, along with lava rock chairs and board games. They also had a lifesize canoe on display, huts for worship and living, and tiki statues.
I’d definitely recommend going there if you want to learn about a unique Hawaiian village where royalty ruled and women and children dwelt with law-breaking refugees.
Hawaiian Sweet Bread Pit Stop
After we explored Pu’uhonua o Honaunau, we embarked on the longest drive of our trip: across the island to Hilo via the southern route, passing through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Our first pit stop on the trip was Punalu’u Bake Shop in Naalehu. The bake shop sells Hawaiian sweet bread, malasadas (delicious fried dough filled with jams and puddings, pictured above), massive eclairs, and shortbread cookies.
We ate malasadas there and bought some sweet bread for the road, which made for a great treat with our strawberry guava juice from Sack N Save. The setting was very beautiful and relaxing, with lovely plants and a mural on the grounds, as well as a beautiful pond where I spotted a stray grey cat taking a sip of water.
Black Sand Beach
Our next pit stop was the beautiful Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, where I spotted my first giant sea turtle in Hawaii, just laying undisturbed on the beach. The sand was jet black and looked like crushed oreos. I kinda wanted to grab a handful and try it. The dark color was a beautiful contrast to the green seaweed on the beach, the turquoise water, and the white foamy waves.
The weather was a bit overcast and the waves were really choppy when we visited, so we only stayed for about half an hour. Lifeguards are on duty during the day, so if you visit during better weather, take a swim in the ocean!
We walked along a small cliff overlooking the pristine beach where some families were flying kites and picnicking. We also spotted several invasive mongooses, which apparently have taken over the island, eating native birds.
Volcanoes
Visiting Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was the highlight of the trip for me. We went on two different days. The first day was the only bad weather day (or, more accurately, hour) where it rained and was pretty cold, especially since we were still a bit wet from snorkeling and rose a couple thousand feet in altitude.
We zipped up our rain jackets and walked to the viewpoint for Kilauea. It was incredible to peer down into an active volcano crater and see dozens of steam vents, including the main one that towered high into the air. Sadly, it had erupted just a few days before we were there and we didn’t see any lava flow, but it was incredible nonetheless.
The next day, we came back and devoted most of the day to a self-guided Hawaii Volcanoes National Park tour. The main visitor center was under construction, but there were other stations, like the military camp, where we could buy souvenirs, talk to rangers, and fill up on water.
The National Park Service has a really good mobile app that has several self-guided Hawaii Volcanoes driving tours. We mostly stuck to the Crater Rim and Chain of Craters driving tours and saw some amazing sights. Here are our highlights:
Kilauea Overlook: We visited this spot twice, once in the rain and again during clear skies. The crater is a lot bigger than I imagined and there is a path to walk along and see it from different angles. One part of the path even has steam vents, so watch where you step and don’t be surprised when you smell the wonderful stench of sulfur!
Volcano House: Right on the edge of the Kilauea Crater sits a hotel with an expansive view of the crater below. We enjoyed the view by resting on rocking chairs in the main area and then got a magnet souvenir from the gift shop. They also have a restaurant in the hotel and a small art gallery across the street.
Kilauea Iki Crater Hike: We visited the Kilauea Iki Crater overlook and spotted something unexpected below: people inside it! We decided to venture down the steep zigzagging trail and made it into the crater where several recent eruptions have occurred. It was a really neat view and a great hike through both rainforest and volcanic rock. Just be warned that inside the unshaded crater can get very sunny and hot and coming back up is steep!
Devastation Trail: We didn’t make it very far on this trail, but what we did see was barren and wide open, an unexpected Hawaiian desert. A cinder cone that was developed in the ‘50s during an eruption can be seen along the trail.
Nahuku Lava Tubes: As lava flows cooler and hardened, these incredible tube-like caves were formed. The walk through them is a long winding tunnel, which are lit from 8am-8pm, otherwise it would be pitch black inside.
Holei Sea Arch: We actually didn’t make it all the way to the end of the Chain of Craters road where this is located due to the long drive and the day ending, but I really wish we could have seen this sea arch. It was formed out of lava rock and when there are active lava flows, you may be able to see them flowing from the cliff into the cool ocean.
Waterfalls
There are two main popular waterfalls near Hilo. We only had time to visit Akaka Falls, located north of the city in Akaka Falls State Park. The drive there was beautiful as it followed the coastline past green jungles and pastures.
The hike to reach the falls is a short 0.4-mile loop through the rainforest, including some stairs and bridges. The falls are stunning as they drop 442 feet to an untouched gorge below. The walking path is also stunning and I loved getting a close up look at Hawaiian flora, including purple spiral stems and a colossal banyan tree whose dripping branches looked like a giant mammoth’s shaggy coat.
The other waterfall close to Hilo is Rainbow Falls, part of Wailuku River State Park and located within city limits. At 80 feet, depending on the rainfall, it can be wider than it is tall. Although it is only a quick stop off the side of the road, we didn’t have time to make the detour on our Big Island road trip.
Hilo Food
Hilo is a great place to base yourself, for the outdoor activities and proximity to nature, but also for the food. We had fish tacos and a stuffed beef burrito from a busy food truck, Tacos Jalisco. For dinner on the one cold day in Hawaii, we warmed up with delicious ramen from Tetsumen, loaded with classic toppings, like a gooey boiled egg, pork belly, and seaweed.
Another night, we dined at Pineapple’s Island Fresh Cuisine, in the downtown area. The outdoor seating was lovely, but the food was just decent! I got the Hilo local plate and loved the kalbi short ribs, but the barbecue sauce on the kalua pork wasn’t my favorite. My husband ordered a fish platter. The highlight of the menu was definitely the dessert—we got both the lilikoi pie and the haupia dream dessert, and ate the leftovers for breakfast the next morning!
Activities We Missed
There are a few spots on my map above not mentioned yet. We didn’t have time to see the entire island on our Big Island driving tour, but if we did, I would have loved to add these activities we missed.
Southernmost point of the United States: I love travel superlatives (like how Magic Kingdom in Disney World is the most visited amusement park in the world, or how Great Smoky Mountains National Park is often the most visited national park each year), so I was really bummed we didn’t have the time to visit the southernmost point of the United States.
Mauna Kea Summit: If you measure from its base below sea level, Mauna Kea is actually the largest mountain in the world, even taller than Mount Everest. The road to the very top is rough and requires four wheel drive, but there is a visitor center below. When we picked up our rental car from Discover Cars, we asked the employee if we would be able to make it up to the Mauna Kea Visitor Center in our sedan. He advised us not to waste our time on the drive since the weather was overcast and the clouds surrounded the visitor center at that altitude. Next time I’m on Big Island, I’ll cave and either get a jeep rental or book a jeep tour to reach the summit and be above the clouds for a perfect sunset.
Waipi’o Valley Lookout: North of Akaka Falls is a lush green valley that leads into the ocean via a black sand beach. The hiking trail down to the beach sounds challenging, but rewards adventurers with gorgeous views of the area. I would definitely check this out on a future visit.
My Final Thoughts on Discover Cars
Overall, I found Big Island to be an incredible place with adventure at every bend in the road! I definitely recommend booking a rental car to get the most out of your trip to be able to explore on your own terms.
Discover Cars is a great place to find cheap rental cars in both Kona, Hilo, and all over the world. Dropping the rental car off at the end of the trip was a fairly smooth process, which helped us get on our flight to Maui with time to spare.
Keep an eye out for my next post where I cover all things Maui—the bougie counterpart to our laidback DIY Big Island road trip—including a luxury resort, a world class helicopter tour, and delicious dining at high end restaurants.
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