Hilo, Hawaii Port Reviews

Volcanoes tour is a waste of time and money

Our chosen excursion was the Land of Frozen Fire. We visited an area where the 2014 and 2018 Kilauea eruptions occurred. It was fascinating, enough so that I did more research on it. This was the absolute best part of the tour. The eruptions changed the entire coastline and permanently altered life in the local area. I would not call it a “black sand beach” as indicated in the tour description because there isn't any sand (and there isn't any beach). Large, chunky "sand" is created when the lava touches the water and explodes, but it will be many years (if at all) before the area we saw will be a beach as people commonly understand that term. You can’t get close to the water. It was quite a drive to get to the eruption area, and we had approximately 1/2 hour there to look around. We had 20 minutes to look at the painted church, which was enough time. It was just OK. The shopping part of the tour was a bust because there was only one store, a hotel gift shop that sold tourist garbage, toiletries, and snacks, and you had to hunt around to even find the store. (We did enjoy the pack of feral cats in the parking lot.) We were given 45 minutes to “shop” and use the restroom. Honestly, I think the shopping part of the tour was added just to make it a longer tour, and I would have preferred to have that extra time at the coastline to walk around because there were pathways in the eruption area that we didn’t get a chance to explore and wanted to. Some people in our group had mixed reactions to our driver. I liked his stories about how the eruption affected him and his friends personally and how many people lost everything (the eruption destroyed two neighborhoods). It's one thing to hear about a tragedy on television; it's another to hear from someone who lived through it. Others thought our guide deviated from the point of the tour which they claimed required talking about local culture. Since the tour description didn't include a local culture discussion, I think that was an unfair criticism.

Did a Viator tour of Rainbow Falls and Volcano National Park. Solid tour overall. Driver was knowledgeable but talked for 6-7 hrs straight. That got old!! Tour went and hour longer than scheduled, which was ok; however, I think everyone had heard enough stories. The sights on the tour were fabulous.

Not real impressed . Went to a little town called paia but it was a run down town waste of time , we had been told by guest service it was a good place to shop ……NOT

Small town feel. Saw Farmers market and lots of Ferrell chickens.

We did the Volcanoes National Park. To me personally this was fantastic.

Walked to two parks with black sand beaches and many lava formations.

If someone has never been to Hawaii, this place is a dump and not one you want to visit. Kona is the nice area for Hawaii.

Good port to rent a car. Drove through volcano's national park and Akaka Fall. Much cheaper than taking an excursion. Pick you up and return you to the dock.

Rented a car and drive to Volcano National Park. First time I’ve ever seen a volcano and it was amazing!! The lava tubes and the steam vents were outstanding.