This review is strictly for Cameron, our tour guide. He has set the bar for everyone else. I was…read moreamazed by his legitimate Aloha spirit (harder to come by than professed around the islands). He has the type of personality that I could see as a successful tv host on a discovery or nature channel type show. He offered a wealth of knowledge about the land, flora, fauna, history, and beliefs of Hawai'i. At every point he kept us safe, entertained, and informed. He has made Hawai'i my favorite of the islands. My only complaint about the tour has nothing to do with him, but with scheduling. I really didn't want to go to a hotel gift shop and would have preferred more time to swim or snorkel.

What an amazing experience. We booked a tour to see the lava fields and enjoy a snorkeling…read moreadventure and it was a full day of adventure. Keep in mind there is no snorkeling on this excursion and the area around the Hilton is not safe or appropriate for snorkeling. I am writing the review solely on the lava field excursion part. My wife was very dissapointed that there was no snorkeling as we purchased new snorkeling equipment. Roxy was our tour guide and was probably the most knowledgeable and professional tour guide we have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Roxy was knowledgeable in the history of volcanoes on Hilo and elsewhere, horticulture, bird species, animals, Hawaiian culture, tourist attractions, history of the Hawaiian Islands, tribes and Capt. Cook, beaches, teachings, burial practices and so much more. Roxy told stories of the early days in Hawaii and how it evolved. Also as a noted her driving and safety practices were impeccable. If you are planning to come to Hilo you must make it a point to reach out to Roxy. We spent approximately 8 hours on the tour and it was so enriching although the lack of snorkeling was a dissapointment . Highly recommended Mahalo

We loved our visit to Lavaloha! It was great for kids--interesting, and not too long or too short…read more Plus, there's the chocolate tasting, and you get to support a small business, which is wonderful. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone visiting the Big Island

A huge mahalo to the team at Lavaloha for their incredible hospitality during our visit! We came as…read morepart of a tourism class, and our guide, Jess, was fantastic. She gave us an amazing behind the scenes look at how the farm integrates sustainable tourism, eco-friendly farming, and local business practices. Jess was warm, super knowledgeable, and patient with all of our questions. Seeing how they do every single part of production on site and tasting their chocolate made the lessons from our course come alive. It was fascinating to learn how they truly utilize every single part of the cacao fruit--turning nibs into chocolate, husks into tea, imperfect beans into handcrafted soaps, and the remaining shells into compost. Thank you, Jess and the Lavaloha team, for supporting local education and delivering an unforgettable experience!

Must see near Hilo! Super inconspicuous from the road, but very cool spot where you can walk…read morethrough two caves. The entry point is a very steep staircase and the terrain is rugged inside the caves so best to wear closed toe shoes with traction. I'd budget 20-30 minutes to spend here as you can't walk too far into the caves.

Very cool experience to walk through 2 caves…read more Bring a flashlight / headlamp. Your phone flashlight won't be as strong but can work if you have no options. Ideal shoes would be hiking boots but gym shoes will work. There are steep steps going down and then uneven rocks until the cave. The cave is uneven as well. Parking: maybe room for 10 cars, so parking could be difficult. When we went around 1pm on a Saturday, we didn't have a problem. Park and walk across the street to enter. Bathrooms: I did see some. Didn't use them though.

If you have never tried spelunking or want to hike an authentic lava tube aka not Thurston or just…read morewant a guided vs chance it experience at Kumana Caves then Kilauea Caverns of Fire is your stop. Ensure you have very good closed toe shoes with some tread, do not wear flip flops, it is not cold down there so a t-shirt is fine, the ceiling does drip water, so if that makes you cold, wrap a light jacket around your waist if needed later you can wear it. It is a little slippery down there so be aware. The lava tube in total is 41 miles (it would take 3-4 days to hike all of it out to the ocean) you will hike just a small portion of it about 0.75 miles which is still a hoot and a half. This was Pele's personal lava tube if you are into Hawaiian history, some elders were buried down here, so lava tubes are considered sacred by the locals, do. It desecrate them. I did not see any skull or bones down there! No bugs down there, no other creatures, one small frog near tube entrance. The cavern is located a little off the beaten path, here are some directions: -If you head towards Hilo Airport (Hwy 11) towards Volcano Village. -Look for mile markers on right side of road, you will pass mile marker 10, -Half way up before mile marker 11 is Kurtistown Assy of God Church, -Make a left turn directly across from Kurtistown church onto Kuauli Rd -Continue down road to dead end, turn Right onto Old Volcano Trail -That road will ever left, follow road and pass mile marker 5 -Turn right on Ale Rd (aka F Rd) you will be on a dirt road from here -Further up turn on 7 Rd, 3rd driveway up is sign for Kilauea Caverns of Fire, you made it! Steve is in the house there along with Cinnamon the dog Cost is $80 per person for ~3hr adventure tour down the guided lava tube. You will be provided a hard hat, turn knob on back of hat clockwise to tighten. Some gloves and an all important flashlight. If your in a group the more flashlights the better, makes for better pictures. This will be your last restroom break before you head down the tube so check if you need to go. The tube entrance is a short 5 min hike through the jungle backyard to the dramatic entrance, walk down the leader to the tube mouth entrance. This is where the adventure begins, you need to walk over lava rock which has fallen in, some are sturdy, others will rock, there is no set path so carefully shift your weight from foot to foot ensuring your strides are not too wide apart so you can right size yourself if you need to. Once you are past the rocks about 100 yards, some of it is down hill, other section is uphill, you have gloves, later the floor does level out and ceiling is high so you can walk normally for the majority of the tube. You will walk about 0.75 mile and then walk back the same path. You will see how molten lava as it cooled formed the walls of the lava tube, many different rock formations (stalactites they hang down from ceiling and stalagmites they go up from floor), what looks Ike soda straws, lava bubbles, shark tooth on ceiling, ledges, and many different mineral content in walls. Since lava is predominately iron with some magnesium and sulphur gases you will see all sorts of lava rock colors (yellow, orange, green, purple, etc). You will get a nice work out with the walk and Steve the guide is very knowledgeable about the history of the tube, lava flow and some Hawaiian history, he has been down the tube 100 times and walks with ease. He will guide you where to be careful, some ceilings are low and you will have to bend down mid way (not crouching) for about 1 min. The family and I really enjoyed the experience, Steve our guide was personable, the family and I felt safe with him, and highly recommend this tour for all spelunking aficionados and those who want an adventure. Walking on the rocks is a little tricky, so good shoes and take your time shifting your weight from foot to foot, only proceed when you know you have a good foot hold, you could bring down a water bottle as a few gulps on the way back are needed and refreshing. There is a water dispenser back at the office. 5 stars

Before you read this- go book your tour! Steve and Monica were wonderful! We had a bit of a…read morescheduling issue in coming out to see them and they were more than accommodating so that we could explore the caverns! Also, they have hard hats for you which, even if you try really hard, you will need! Monica took us into the tubes and was an excellent guide, she showed us all the different kinds of lavas and was so patient when we wanted pictures and even snapped a few of us herself! This was such a cool experience, so happy we got to do this!

Everything was amazing the people there were so nice, the cabins were amazing, and the pets are…read morereally sweet too. They have a Tv in the barn and a speaker for music and they play the news for us while serving us food as well. In conclusion the ranch is one of the best ranches you can go to.

Beautiful site, comfortable lodging, WONDERFUL family!! We unexpectedly stayed during the tsunami…read moreand were treated so well, it turned to be an awesome experience

I'm so grateful to Yvette for being our private tour guide. If you're going to spend the whole…read moreweekend with someone, you'd want them to be fun, friendly, and have amazing ideas for places to go. We laughed the whole time and Yvette is really funny and quirky. I included pictures of where we went bc I forgot the names to everything lol. We didn't have to worry about a thing, Yvette took care of everything for us. She brings life, fun, magic, and adventure into everything she does! She's so sweet and caring as well. You'll be well taken care of and laugh your butt off with Yvette! She's so nice and flexible, I never felt uncomfortable with her. Next time we go to Hawaii, we will for sure reach out and try the other things we never got to try with Yvette!

My review is for my tour in Florida, but I really wanted to leave a review on how awesome Yvette…read moreis!It was my first time coming to Florida and I absolutely loved it, thanks to Yvette! The private tour guide, took me everywhere I wanted and showed me many historical places, like the southernmost point in Keywest! Also, of course we went to Miami & visited the Versace Mansion, and walked around Ocean Drive. I had never tried Cuban food, and Yvette ( the private tour guide) took my mom and I to the best Cuban restaurants, like Versailles on Calle Ocho, and La Carreta! She also took us to a very beautiful mall called Aventura Mall. Thank you Yvette for making my first time in Florida a memorable experience.

8/6-8/7/26 - Samples and items neatly showcased in this quaint store. Decided to purchase a couple…read moreof cute omiyage boxes containing 12ea Hawaiian Dark Flower Gems and confirmed markdown price. Was advised by the lady behind the counter system was down and my receipt would be texted to me. The next day, I received a receipt but noticed the discount had not been applied. Spoke with a gentleman who quickly and efficiently handled and texted me a receipt showing the refund. This was confirmed when I received my credit card statement. For excellent customer service, 5 stars! The dark chocolate was good, too, on top of vanilla ice cream (almost too pretty to eat)!

(This one is about the farm tour)…read more There are three ways to experience the offerings from Honoka'a. You can buy direct from their website, stop by their retail store or go all in and do the farm tour. While I very much am not a chocolate person, and no, this tour wasn't going to change that, I am a tour person who is far more interested in how things are made/done than the actual finished product. If you're going to do the tour, head to the below link and chose a date/time/number of people. honokaachocolate.com/pages/farm-tours It's worth mentioning that yes, the price is $95 per person which to me is on the high side. We did several other food-based tours during our time on the Big Island and that number is a... big number. The front half of the tour is at the owner's house where the orchard and tasting area are located. It's not hard to find and the provided directions are perfect. You get to see the trees up close and there is a lot of great information shared by Mike about every step of the process including answering whatever questions there are about anything you see along with several tasting samples. After this wraps up, you make a short drive to the retail store in downtown for a brief look at the production equipment and a few more samples before you're cut loose to buy stuff from the store. As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm not a chocolate person and nothing I sampled is going to change that. I did appreciate one of the samples more than I thought I would (Barrel Aged Bourbon Bar) but the rest were just meh, and the Cacao Tea was...not something I ever want to have again. But that's just me. I bought several bars for gifts and to the best of my knowledge all were inhaled and appreciated. Overall, I appreciate the information provided on this tour and getting down into the nitty-gritty of the germination-fermentation-weather-growing process/cycles-harvesting/drying-etc. Very Alton Brown with going all of the way down to a very molecular level of detail. If you're into chocolate as most people are and if you like to understand where the things you eat come from, this is a good one.

DO NOT BOOK! I booked a tour online and showed up at 5am and no one was there!! They did not answer…read moremy calls, texts, or emails. So I was stuck at the park in the dark at 5am by myself and very upset to not see lava. Still awaiting my refund ...

News of the recent Kilauea volcanic activity on the island of Hawaii reminded me that I still…read morehadn't reviewed EpicLava, and my phenomenal experience with John and his wonderful team this past Christmas. The word epic may not even do justice to the ethereal experience of watching these rivers of liquid fire up close; the flowing lava is 2,400 degrees hot! The 5-mile hike over pahoehoe lava fields starts at 4AM, so that by the time the blazing sun is in the sky, you're well-nigh finished with much of the exposed hike. These folks have an unwavering focus on the safety of the group; they pace the hike according to the capabilities of all the individuals in the group. John's passion about this geological marvel is contagious. John and Jessica advise visitors to wear long pants, long-sleeved shirts, long socks, and sturdy, closed-toed shoes for the hike; they provide gloves (along with water and snacks) for the hike. This is because the sand particles covering the lava flow crust have the sharpness of broken glass, and can cause serious cuts if they come in contact with the human skin. By the time I had finished the hike, I had already planned my next trip with this team of lava explorers.