We loved staying at the Mauna Lani because the snorkeling off the beach was amazing. It is pricey though.

I recommend night snorkel with rays, Volcanoes Nat'l park (stay in the park, and the best view of the caldera is actually from the restaurant), snorkeling, and stargazing at the summit of Mauna Kea at a night program done by the observatory (fyi, it's freezing up there, you will need coats for this).

Another question for the helpful Hawaii experts! If you had 12 days not including travel days (ie from/back to East Coast and between the two islands), how would you split them between the two? Flying into Big Island so that is where jetlag more likely.

Kailua-Kona is overrun with tacky tourists on cheap cruise ship day. It has a rock snorkel beach with mostly dead coral and a tiny sand beach by the pier. You will drive half an hour or more to get a sandy swimmable beach or snorkeling. Magic Sands can be rough.
Kailua-Kona has "affordable" rentals that may be oceanfront not beachfront.
There are unhoused people along the sidewalk and the snell of pot in the air. You may question letting your kids roam alone
Waikoloa Resort has shopping centers not a village. It also is safer.

We've been to the Big Island a few times. We stayed in Kailua-Kona on our first trip, and figured out we much prefer staying in the Waikoloa area. Most recently we stayed at the Westin Hapuna. The beach at the hotel is wonderful. We love the diversity of scenery on the Big Island!

Big Island and Kauai are a great combo - those are our two favorite islands in Hawaii.

Anonymous wrote:We stayed 6 years ago at what was then the Sheraton in Kona (for one night) and rented a house very near by for multiple nights. It was 3 families together and I didn’t organize it, but it was a LOT of driving to get to nice, sandy beaches. The coast near Kona was rocky and okay for tide pooling but not really swimming. I was sorry I didn’t organize a tour of a cocoa or coffee plantation in advance and they were all sold out when I was there (as was swimming with the manta rays). My immediate family did split off for a drive to Hilo and a visit to volcano National Park (along with a drive back along the southern coast) and I was glad we did that. We stayed at the Kilauea lodge for a night in Volcano.

The Big Island just isn't a sandy beach kind of island and it's disappointing when you are expecting Kauai or Oahu-type beaches. We have found that visits there do demand a ton of driving and that's just how it is. We were warned to go in a mindset of roadtripping, not quick jaunts from place to place. I think that I would have been really disappointed if I had been expecting everything to be close together and for beaches to be sandy.

Exploring the Big Island is similar to exploring the CA coast or states out west- once you commit to a couple of hours of driving per day and some big shifts in weather and landscape, it becomes easier to appreciate it.

Don't miss the petroglyphs or seeing the sea turtles, and consider a day of exploring via horseback.

We stayed 6 years ago at what was then the Sheraton in Kona (for one night) and rented a house very near by for multiple nights. It was 3 families together and I didn’t organize it, but it was a LOT of driving to get to nice, sandy beaches. The coast near Kona was rocky and okay for tide pooling but not really swimming. I was sorry I didn’t organize a tour of a cocoa or coffee plantation in advance and they were all sold out when I was there (as was swimming with the manta rays). My immediate family did split off for a drive to Hilo and a visit to volcano National Park (along with a drive back along the southern coast) and I was glad we did that. We stayed at the Kilauea lodge for a night in Volcano.

Anonymous wrote:We love the location of the Grand Hyatt in Kauai. Beautiful property. Pools are fun for kids. Rooms are outdated though. Also, nice condo options nearby to rent.

I love the big island!! We usually stay in the four seasons there, though the Hilton also isn’t too bad for cheaper option. You must do a day trip to the volcano.

We will be at the Grand Hyatt in July on points, but paying cash it’s over $1200/night this summer for a standard room.