We did the Big Island when our kids were really little (1 and 5) but there were some things where I don’t think age matters:

- the volcano erupted right after our visit, but Self tour worked fine. Going at night was cool.

- I really liked the black sand beach driving south / back around the island from Volcano. It had a number of sea turtles on it.

- the Point of Refuge was interesting for something different / some history

- I’m not sure I’d recommend this otherwise, but on a rainy day we went to the sea horse farm and it was pretty interesting.

- we didn’t have a sitter so didn’t swim with the rays and we were too late to tour coffee or chocolate plantations but both sound interesting.

- the free hula show at Queen’s marketplace was fun

We stayed near Kona except for a night in Volcano. The drive to and from beaches was long - especially with traffic and construction - so I’d recommend staying further north.

And of course schedule/ pay for a luau during your trip.

Go see Pearl Harbor and at least hike diamond head or one of the waterfall areas

One of my best memories ever is doing a snorkel tour of Captain Cook on an inflatable raft. It only held six people and the whole raft was our family. We were hassling the heck out of each other and the driver was like what? Un til he realized we all knew each other. It was much more fun than the larger "cattle" boats (I've done those too elsewhere in Hawaii). I think we did Sea Quest but Captain Zodiac also offers inflatable raft tours.

Near the end of our week in Maui, my daughter needed something less outdoorsy but still engaging. We signed up for a private glassblowing lesson. Won’t remember the name of the place but it was near the airport. Huge hit. They shipped us the glass fish she helped create.

These are great lists and I’ll add that my family really enjoyed the petroglyphs and seeing sea turtles. And eat at Teshima’s.

FAT ebike tour of volcanos national park was super fun with our kids. Get to go into the lava tube, see the cauldrons etc

The Mauna Kea hotel is the one with renovations being done.

Anonymous wrote:Big island - somehow we found a tour out to the lava fields and could see active lava up close. Hike to the green beach was far but lovely. Did horseback riding in the canyon, I think it was called Waimea and I recommend that! Also swam with sea turtle and did lava caves by the ocean with a tour group. Mauna Kea used to have an AMAZING Sunday brunch. I’d go and then enjoy the beach there after. I don’t think they still have that brunch buffet. The food and coffee at lava Java is excellent, went there for dinner a few times. Really enjoyed the observatory at the volcano at night. I’d skip the orchid farm and the coffee plantation. Honestly the tour operators on the island know what they are doing so look into what they offer and what’s interesting to you.

We really enjoyed the coffee plantation tour. But we don't have kids -- kids might be bored.

We did horseback riding in Maui here.
https://circlemranchmaui.com/.

It was a really easy ride (would probably be boring for a more experienced rider) but the scenery is gorgeous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with PPs on swimming at night with the manta rays -- an experience like none other. On the Big Island, we also really enjoyed the Buddha's Cup coffee farm and hiking to Pololu Valley. Definitely eat at Merriman's on the way to/from the hike.

Right now mana rays lots of construction I’d be careful booking that

Could you please rewrite this in standard English?

Anonymous wrote:Agree with PPs on swimming at night with the manta rays -- an experience like none other. On the Big Island, we also really enjoyed the Buddha's Cup coffee farm and hiking to Pololu Valley. Definitely eat at Merriman's on the way to/from the hike.

Right now mana rays lots of construction I’d be careful booking that

Big Island- Snorkeling in Captain Cook bay was amazing. It was my kids’ highlight. I also agree with the manta ray suggestion.