Big Island Hotels and Resorts – Which Area to Stay?

• Intro
  
• The Big Island of Hawaii Hotel and Resort Areas
• Kailua-Kona / Kona Hotels and Resorts
• Kohala Coast Hotels and Resorts
• Volcano Hotels and Resorts
• Conclusion and Recommendations

The first part to finding a hotel or resort on the Big Island of Hawaii is to first determine which area of the Big Island best matches your interests.

In this article I discuss the main areas on the Big Island where tourists usually stay in hotels and resorts, giving the advantages and disadvantages of each based up my wife’s and my vacation experiences there.

We also have links to our reviews of specific Big Island hotels we stayed in as well, and at the bottom of this article we our other Hawaii articles that may be of interest (we are continually adding more)

The island of Hawaii is often called “the Big Island” to avoid confusion between the island of Hawaii and the state of Hawaii. The state of Hawaii includes the Big Island but also encompasses the islands of Maui, Kauai, Lanai, and Molokai as well.

The island is rather big as it name implies, but there are three main areas that tourists usually stay in hotels and resorts when visiting the Big Island. These areas include:

• Kailua-Kona – the main town area on the west side of the island
• Kohala Coast - the area with the top luxury resorts and some incredible beaches
• Volcano – the main attraction on the island is worth an overnight stay

An ideal vacation itinerary would actually include overnight stays at all three regions, and this is discussed further in the conclusion.

Kailua-Kona is sometimes referred to as Kailu Kona (no hyphen) or just Kailua or just Kona, and sometimes the region around the town is called Kona. Kailua-Kona is the main town on the west (sunny) side of the Big Island.

It has a main strip along the ocean front area that is a prime tourist area with restaurants, bars, shops, and markets. It is very laid-back and less upscale and commercial than say Lahaina is on Maui.

The main reasons people tend to choose to stay Kailua Kona at least a night or two are:

• Hotels and general costs are cheaper than at the Kohala Coast
• The hotels are part of the main strip with its restaurants, bars, and other attractions, and everything is in very convenient walking distance.
• There are more after-dark activities to choose from
• The cheaper hotels provide a good base of operations if you plan to spend your day away from the hotel doing other activities.
• It has a very laid back, not so upscale feel.
• Many of the different boat excursions leave from Kailua Kona

We chose the Royal Kona Resort when we stayed in Kailua-Kona, but we also strongly considered the King Kamehameha Hotel.

The main drawbacks to Kailua-Kona are:

• very few sandy beaches – the King Kamehama has a tiny one next to the pier but that’s about it.
• the hotels are not luxury resorts, more like 3-star, and some are just budget motels.

To find the great beaches and luxury resorts, you have to go 30 to 40 minutes north to the Kohala Coast.

The Kohala Coast region of the Big Island has the 4-star luxury resorts with world class beaches. There are a series of these spread along the coast north of the airport.

The Kohala Coast resorts tend to be self-contained, isolated little communities. They are not closely strung together like the Kaanapali beach resorts in Maui; the Kohala resorts are isolated and can be several miles away from their nearest neighbor resort.

The main advantages to the Kohala coast are:

• Very luxurious 4-star resorts
• Some have world class beaches
• A good variety of resorts to choose from to match your personal tastes
• Often many activities available within the resort

The main disadvantages are:

• Pricey – both in terms of room rates and expenses like dining
• It is usually a 20-40 minute drive to town if you want more variety or an activity or something the resort does not offer
• After-dark activities can be pretty limited at some of the resorts

When we stayed in Kohala on our vacation, we chose the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort primarily because of its world class beach, but there are plenty of options in Kohala to match your own priorities.

The volcano is one of the main attractions on the Big Island, and really the main reason to spend the night there is so that you have more time to explore the volcano. There are also a lot of bread & breakfast and cottage type places in the area, which may be an advantage depending on your personal taste.

The caldera region of the volcano is a mountainous region with the associated climate (colder), and this will be reflected in the lodging; no beach resorts here, but you may find fireplaces.

We stayed at the Volcano House, a hotel inside the national park and on the rim of the volcano, but it may come down to what your priorities are. The rooms were pretty bare, but we were just staying one night so we were not that picky since we really just needed some place to sleep. The fact that it had its own restaurant and bar made it very convenient though. If you plan to stay in the area for more than one night there might be better lodging options.

Each of the key Big Island hotel and resort areas have very different, specific reasons why people choose to stay in that particular area.

The main thing is to make sure that you do not have unrealistic expectations about Big Island hotels and resorts found in a particular area that you are staying in and to make sure that you pick the Big Island area that matches your interests.

As I stated above, we think the ideal vacation itinerary is to spend the night at all three regions of the Big Island if possible and to have a plan to take advantage of each of their strengths.

On our last stay at the Big Island, we spent a couple nights in Kailu-Kona, then the volcano for one night, then finally Kohala. We chose Kohala last because we thought it best to hit the nicest hotel last instead of “downgrading” hotels in the middle of the trip, and we thought we would get all of our activities out of the way first, then spend more time lounging on the beach at the end of our trip.

Another approach for the Big Island, though, might be to hit Kailua-Kona last because you will not care so much about after-dark activities at first because it will take some time to adjust to the time zone.

As I mentioned, the after-dark activities are often more plentififul in Kailua Kona than other regions. The first few nights you are in Hawaii you might be going to bed at 7pm because of jet lag, but it might be later in the trip when you want the option to walk across the street and find a bar that is not totally dead at 9pm.

Our other articles so far:

• Hotel Review - Hapuna Beach Prince Resort - Big Island Hawaii
• Hotel Review - Royal Kona Resort - Big Island Hawaii

• Place of Refuge - Pu’uhonua o Honaunau – Big Island Attractions

Other Links

• Compare Rates from Major Travel Sites
  
• Go Hawaii - Official Tourism Site
• Hapuna Beach Prince Resort - Official Site
• Trip Adviser Reviews - Hapuna Beach Prince Resort
• Yahoo Travel Reviews - Hapuna Beach Prince Resort
• Royal Kona Resort - Official Site
• Trip Advisor Reviews - Royal Kona Resort
• Yahoo Travel Reviews - Royal Kona Resort
• Hawaii Island Vacation Information and Reviews (links to all of our reviews)

(All photos in this article are my own and are protected by copyright as is the text.)