Hawaii Volcano National Park Shore Excursion
Description
I work every Tuesday when the Pride Of America or any ship is in Hilo!!! We drive north of Hilo to see the surf spots were we will drive slowly down a narrow road. I will narrate to you about the surfers as they catching waves. We drive over old bridges through the lush jungle seeing many waterfalls. I will tell you about the plants, history, and real estate. We stop for iced coconuts if the vendor is there, then we will stop for whipped icecream. We stop to feed the wild pigs in one area if they're there. Then we will shop at the volcano village for things made in hawaii at the gift shop, and you can get food at the store to go. In the Hawaii Volcano National Park we will walk in a lava field to look for peacock lava, and I will take pictures of you inside of a fissure. I will take photos of you at all of my stops, and I will tell you the hawaiian mythology story's. I will bring fruit to sample from my farm, or stop at a fruit stand so you can buy fruit.
Tour Options
Itinerary
I drive to the Ice Pond, and get out to show turtles and fish. Liliuokalani Garden, i look for nene geese, and identifying plants. I will show you the sign with the local fish, and tell about them. I don't work for NCL!
We will drive over old bridges through lush jungle seeing many waterfalls. I stop to let you take pictures an feed the prawns while standing on a old woodenbridge. We will look at a river flowing through a lava tube. I will tell you about plants, history, and real estate. I like to keep a fast pace fun tour, so you see as much as possible. You will see things nobody else on the Cruise Ship will see on my tours.
At Rainbow Waterfalls the countycharges 5$. I will take photos, and show you an optical illusion for 20 minutes. We will stop for iced coconuts if the vendor is there for 15 minutes, and we stop for whipped icecream for 30 minutes. Then we stop to, and look for wild pigs to feed in one area for 10 minutes.
We will get food to go at the Macadamia Nut Farm an sample macadamia nuts. I will tell you about the processing of macadamia nuts and let you shop.
We will listen to Hawaiian music on the way up to the Volcano village which is a 35 minute drive. We spend about 45 minutes there.The first stop in the Hawaii Volcano National Park is the Crater overlook, where I will tell you about Hawaiian mythology. The next stop is Steam Vents, where I will show you how to make the vent steam a lot more. Next, we will visit the Volcano House for shopping. After that, we will go to a Lava Field with a fissure, and there we will look for Peacock Lava, and I will take pictures of you standing inside of a fissure. The last stop in the park is a Lava Tube. We will take photos, and I will tell you about native birds and plants. We spend 2 hours in the Hawaii Volcano National Park. Then it is a 35 minute drive to the Macadamia nut farm.
We head to Big Island Candies to sample chocolate, candies, and Kona coffee. You can watch them make chocolate behind the glass. You can get drinks, and food.
We will go to a Blacksand Beach to take photos, look for turtles, fish, and nene geese. Then back to the Cruise Ship.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- The total duration of the tour includes the travel time
- It is a requirement for travelers to sign a release agreement.
Reviews(136)
The Hawaii Volcanoes NP and Hilo tour was really fun. Our host, Don, was knowledgeable about the NP park, trees & plants, Hilo, and HI culture AND very friendly and flexible throughout the day. I usually don't but even enjoyed stops at Big Island Candies and Mauna Loa Nuts stops - great appreciation of how these businesses are run. This was an awsome snapshot of Hawaii island.
Don was a wonderful guide, knowledgeable, friendly, accommodating to all on the trip. Could not have asked for a more enjoyable trip. Saw way more than expected. Would highly recommend this tour.
Where do I start.... We were to meet at the cruise ship terminal at 10am (he - Don - advised he had a doctor's appointment at 9, but would be there at 10am), he would to be holding a sign with the tour name on it. We went down 20mins early to find no one there with our tour sign. We saw this man standing up near the door madly waving a white paper or something similar and guess what, that was him. Apparently we weren't notified of an earlier time as we were the last 2 on the bus. My husband was squeezed into a seat at the back of the bus with 4 other people. When we got to our first stop my husband approached Don about how tight the seating was and this was what followed.... He reached up to the luggage holder above the seats and pulled down a Camping Chair (no joke a camping chair) and said, "this is exactly what I have this for". He told my husband to set it up in the aisle of the bus when all the other passengers were in and sit there. I can't begin the think this was in any way legal..... and it certainly wasn't safe. Many times the camp chair wasn't even folded out and my husband seated before he started driving. It became a habit where all the other passengers would grab onto my husband and steady him while he set up his chair as the bus took off. The driver drove rather erratically as well taking chances instead of waiting for the traffic. At one point he was tailgating a car and telling us to watch how he could make it take the first turnoff to get out of his way. The tour itself was good and we were there one day after an eruption so got to see all the debris on the rooves and all over the ground from the day before. At the lava tunnel the driver sat in the bus as it was raining and just pointed us in the direction of the tunnel and said he wasn't going out in the rain. We did it on our own and just had to meet back at the bus. We did this tour because it said we would go to places others didn't go because Don knew the area so well. Funny thing, but everywhere we went there were always lots of other tours. Overall, loved the tour, but seriously..... get rid of that driver!!
You where late because you ate breakfast.
Don was amazing and ensured that we got to the volcanoes in time to see it erupt. He allowed planty of time to spend there.
Volcano National Park was awesome. Guide was very helpful pointing out different lava types in the lava field. Took us to several stops in the park. Tour includes multiple stops in the Hilo area of Hawaii- some are strictly a gift shop stop (Mauna Loa and Big Island Candy) . Our bus was full and sitting in the back row of the bus became very cramped for five average size adults. We left the tour early in part because the weather deteriorated and because we couldn't fathom sitting in the back seats so uncomfortably for three more hours.
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This tour was amazing! Don was an excellent guide and took us to the less busy beautiful parts of Volcano National Park and all of Hilo. We saw amazing waterfalls and rainforests. I talked to some other folks who booked through the cruise line and we had a much better experience booking ourselves and really got lucky finding Don who is so knowledgeable about Hilo and the surrounding area and even gave us a couple of tips for our next port Kona.
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I could not give it a 5 star because the trip was booked to see the National park and we never made it into the park! Our tour guide brought us to other sites first and then by the time we headed to the park … we were in a line of traffic and the park had closed its gates… my only concern was that his office never contacted him to let him know the Volcano was erupting and that the park was closed. He did take us to other sites but we were never offered any refund for the entrance fee to the park that was included in the price of our excursion.
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Awesome day in spite of the rain. We got to see and do so much more than similar excursions. Don was amazing at keeping us organized and providing interesting information.
125$ www.tourvolcano.com
Great stops/sights. Too much extraneous commentary
Hawaii Volcano Tours www.tourvolcano.com 125$!!!!!!
Easy to book and great communication from tour operator Don. Smaller group size is perfect and he customizes as we go so we didn’t miss anything we wanted to see. Don is friendly, very knowledgeable and a great tour guide! He went the extra mile when we forgot our bags of macadamia nuts on the bus and made sure we got them back which was greatly appreciated as they were gifts. Great value for your money a whole day of adventure. Highly recommend this tour for anyone who wants to make sure they don’t miss anything. Kilauea wasn’t fountaining on our day, but still had a lot of fun!
125$ www.tourvolcano.com same tour!
