Big Island: Mauna Kea Summit og stjerner lille gruppe eventyr tur

Wonderful experience stargazing at the Mauankea summit area with Hawaii Forest & Trail yesterday. Our guide, Jeff, was fantastic--kind, funny, and deeply knowledgeable about the island and the skies. Reaching the summit to watch the sunset was incredible, but the best part of the experience was stargazing with Jeff. It was magical! I was really impressed with his knowledge and passion. Tour was a highlight of our trip to the Big Island. Given the length of the trip and the quality of the experience (comfortable van, parkas, gloves, and blankets provided, as well as delicious dinner and the most delectable cookies, I would say the trip is priced quite reasonably. My husband doesn't love tours and I was nervous how he would feel about it, but he was effusive about our guide and the opportunity to stargaze in such a remote location--high praise! I am eager to return to Hawaii to try another of their tours! Mahalo to Jeff for making the visit memorable.

Our experience was incredible. Jeff, our guide, and as incredibly knowledgeable on anything volcano related, Hawaiian culture, understanding island ecology and had a vast understanding of our universe! He was funny too. He really was the highlight of the trip, alongside the sunset and stargazing. Would highly recommend, and ask for Jeff!

This was a awesome experience for me and my family. We wanted to take this tour in 2019 but our kids were too young so we would not have beel allowed to go beyond the visitor's center. In total, we paid $1320 for the 4 of us. Our meeting place for pick up was at 3:45pm at Queen's Marketplace (we were staying at Fairmont Orchid) and I believe we got back to our car at around 1030pm or so (7+ hrs in total). It was a small group of 12 that fit comfortably in the tour van. The van was roomy and had plenty of windows to look out of. Jeff, our tour guide, was welcoming, knowledgeable and polite. You can tell that he loved what he did and that he cared for our safety! As a heads up to those who are shy, we had a little ice-breaker before the tour started where we gave a little intro about ourselves. It was a great way to get to know a little about everyone on the tour. It was nice that the tour included a hot meal, snacks and hot chocolate while at the visitors center while we acclimated to the altitude. This is where I noticed a bit of dizzyness as an effect of the 9000+ ft altitude. It didnt last long though and I was good to go soon after. The ride beyond the visitor's center lasted an additional 30-40 minutes and it was a bumpy one! It will all be worth it once you reach the top and experience the views, the air and the openness as we watched the sun setting. It was awesome! It does get cold but the tour provides parkas, thankfully. Afterwards, we drove down a bit to stargaze. This is where Jeff set up telescopes and we had hot chocolate and snacks. It was AMAZING to be able to see stars, galaxies, moving satellites, etc. in such a clear sky. We loved the tour and my daughter remarked it was the highlight of her time on the Big Island! We were wondering about the tip amount to give to Jeff. But, considering the amount of time he spent with us, ensuring our safety and keeping us entertained, we felt it was more than appropriate to tip $100 for our family of 4.

AMAZING SUNSET AND STARGAZING! Jason was a FANTASTIC tour guide. Keeps you entertained on the drive up, full of excellent information, and conscientious of his passengers. The tour is wonderful- gorgeous sunset views, the dinner is actually quite delicious, and excellent star gazing. Highly recommend! A once in a lifetime experience!

There is nothing that can describe this amazing tour! Eugene, our tour guide, took our family to the top of Maunea Kea and provided us with so much interested facts about the area! We had a nice warm meal and finished with stargazing. He was so knowledgeable about everything we saw! This was an amazing experience, highly recommended!

So well run from pick up to drop off! Food was excellent! Stargazing was magical! Wilson (our guide) was simply the BEST——so knowledgeable! Experience of a lifetime for sure!

We experienced a superb sunset at the top of Mauna Kea

Our tour guide was Jeff. He was fantastic. He was very knowledgeable about the seed collection/conservation, the summit, and stargazing. He was very kind, encouraging, and patient! This experience exceeded our expectations. The chicken stew was delicious. Loved the added attention to detail, which included super warm parkas, mittens, hot chocolate (yum), and chocolate dipped macadamia shortbread cookies. We had ample time at each stop, never feeling rushed. The can was very clean and in great condition. Highly recommend this adventure when you’re in HI.

This was recommended by friends and the first thing we reserved this spring. Our host/driver/guide was Jeff. He was fantastic the whole trip. On the way up he gave us some history of the Hawaii, the geology of the island and what makes Maunakea the perfect spot to star gaze. Sunset was gorgeous but even better was our evening stargazing. Jeff had two telescopes - one we used our eyes and rhe second that we will receive the file of all the stars we gazed at. This truly was a small group of 12. Highlights was only 8% moon so we saw Jupiter, Venus and Mercury with our naked eye and seeing both northern and southern constellations. Definely dress warmly - although it was in the low 50s and coats and more are provided. Leave the driving to an expert, it is extremely dark on the way down with twists and turns in the road.

We had a great door to door tour with Hawaii Forest and Trail. Jason was our local Hilo native tour guide, history, geology, volcanolgy expert, safety officer and humorist for our 8 hour adventure. HF & T provided a comfortable 12 person van for our group and picked us all up in Kona at our hotel Courtyard Marriott King Kamehameha. Jason was bright and cheerful and made the whole experience very enjoyable and interesting. The adventure; Interesting drive up the coast to the saddle road and then up the road to the observatories. Jason was full of information about the area, wildlife, native and invasive plants and animals and Hawaiian history. HF & T was very conscious about everyone’s safety with the large altitude changes and how everyone felt. A couple stops were made along the way to help people adjust. Jason provided a nice hot small meal of soup/stew in a thermos with tea and bread at the Visitor Center stop. The drive itself up the steep mountain thru several climate zones was very interesting. Then we got to the top of the mountain. It was out of this world cool. Seeing all these huge scientific Big Boy telescopes was fascinating. To look out from the top of the world to the sea of clouds was breathtaking. Maybe part of that was the altitude and the cold 😂. Then to watch the sun slowly set in the west, the colors were just beautiful. It was truly peaceful, spiritual. People were just quiet and thoughtful. It was very moving. One of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced and I’m old and I’ve done a lot. 🙂 Then we waited as the sky turned dark and Jason set up his telescope and he showed us the beautiful dark sky on the top of Mauna Kea with no light pollution. What you could see with the naked eye and your phone camera was pretty amazing. Looking thru Jason’s telescope was a real treat. Then when we got home HF&T set us digital photos taken with Jason’s telescope. These are really beautiful. We reserved this tour several months ahead for my adult son, his partner and myself after doing a lot of research about different tour companies. HF&T was consistently rated the top tour guides for this adventure. We made this the Grande Finale adventure of our week on the Big Island. It was the perfect climax to a wonderful week on a beautiful island with warm and friendly locals. Thanks to Jason for safely getting us back down the mountain and back to our hotel. Pretty sure everyone fell asleep on the way back. Mahalo Jason and HF&T for a wonderful experience.