Club Wyndham Mauna Loa village condos and the Big Island of Hawaii

We recently took a spring break trip with our son and his girlfriend. The trip was to fit into the spring break schedule and hopefully be somewhere fun and exciting. A bonus if we can go some where none of us have gone.

The big island was calling.

We were able to get a 2br condo at the Mauna Loa village and we’re very happy with the resort. This resort is part owner occupied and part rental timeshares through Club Wyndham Vacations, originally Shell Vacations. There are several ways to rent these resorts and it seems like they aren’t that popular as we booked them only 3 months in advance.

The cons first: it is not on the ocean which can be a negative. Next, view is not amazing as it is a garden view. I believe most of the rooms are garden view. The pools are tiny, but there are a lot of them.

The pros: it is just a short walk to Keauhou Bay which is a destination for many of the snorkeling tours. On Wednesdays and Fridays the resort next door has a farmers and art market. Lots of sgood food, clothing, art and more. The rooms are comfortable and big.

Keauhou Bay park

This is by far the best reason to stay here. Grab your towel and snorkel gear, take a quick 10 minute walk and you are here:

We snorkeled this whole bay and saw tons of beautiful fish and turtles. The water wasn’t as rough as some of the beaches since it is somewhat protected. There is a canoe club that operates out of here and a lot of tour boats.

There is a small black beach to enter into the water. It’s a little rough on the feet but not too bad. Some of the other beaches are much more difficult. I used the rock wall to steady myself.

We purchased our snorkel gear for about $30/each at Walmart when there on the island.

Car rental is necessary

If you want to experience the big island, you will want to rent a car no matter what resort you are in. This one in particular really needs a car rental.

GAS STATIONS CLOSE EARLY! So don’t be like me, get your gas early and don’t think you get gas on your way back from your day.

Volcano National Park

Volcano National Park is a must see. We took one day and did the following:

• Punalu’u Bake Shop
• Thurston Lava tube trail
• Punalu’u black beach (best coconuts)
• Kīlauea Iki trail (same stop as lava tubes)

The Punalu’u black sand beach was stunningly beautiful. I’m using that word a lot. It’s hard not to. It is not soft sand, so bring water shoes. There are tons of turtles here, we all had our snorkel gear so we geared up.

You will find this a lot with my posts, I’m not the most brave or coordinated. The three were able to get out into the ocean.

I struggled on the rocky shore and got pummeled and thrown around the beach by the strong waves. I’m a great swimmer, not a good rock walker. I am sure there is some video out there of me trying to get up out of these waves and being thrown up and down the beach. I gave up and just watched them.

When everyone was done, we bought some coconuts from a guy in the parking lot. He would get the coconuts from the trees there and machete chop them so you can drink the coconut water. Then open it for you and make a little scraper from the coconut itself. $5. We got 2. They are amazing.

Pololu Trail and Lookout

There are two choices here. Drive to the parking lot and just do the lookout, beautiful. Or, park along the road before the lookout point to do the hike.

For this day trip, we had these stops:

• Pololu Trail
• Fresh off the grid roadside restaurant
• Hawi quaint town: Kohala Coffee Mill
• Hāpuna Beach

The Pololu Trail hike is steep with loose dirt. Hot and exposed for a lot of it. Bring: good hiking shoes, lots of water, snacks and don’t plan on using a bathroom as there aren’t any at all.

The views are incredible on this hike and it does go all the way to the beach. You are not allowed to swim in the beach. Give yourself time and enjoy it. I turned around at about halfway as I just don’t like going downhill that steep. Most people love it.

The nearest bathroom (port-a-potty clean) just happens to be at this great little stop “Fresh of the Grid”. Beautiful location with a little hut that serves smoothies, poke bowls and more. Get the poke salad. The bowl was just plain. The smoothies amazing. The fish was super fresh. And it had these lounge chairs you can relax looking out over the pasture to the ocean. A wonderful little side trip on the way back from the Pololu trail.

Then we started our drive back and stoped at this quaint little town, Hawi, and got some coffee at Kohala Coffee Mill. Delicious coffee and homemade ice cream.

Our last stop was at a Hāpuna Beach on the way home. It was very popular beach but had no running water. It was a great stop, despite the lack of services, and we spent an hour or two in the ocean.

Swimming with the Manta Rays

This was definitely the highlight of our trip. There are a lot of different tour groups that offer this. We opted for Manta Ray Advocates as they start at the beach and you snorkel out to see the manta rays. The other tour groups start at other piers and boat to this location. All the tours snorkel at night as that’s the best time to attract them.

The Manta Ray Advocates work out of the beautiful Mauna Kea Beach Resort. We opted for going early and having dinner there (we made reservations) and had a great time before the snorkel.

The experience of swimming and snorkeling at night from the beach and back was magical. I would 100% recommend this especially from this tour. We only had us, 4 people, and one other couple. The boats had 20-30 people. The smaller group was very personalized.

It was awe inspiring. We didn’t get picture but they took videos. I’ll share one of them.

Hilo and zip lining

We had about a 2 hour drive to Hilo. First we stopped off at rainbow falls. We stopped to get a quick bite to eat and then we dropped off my son and his girlfriend to zip line among private waterfalls. Our day included:

• Rainbow falls
• What’s Shakin’ Smoothies
• Zip lining
• Kaumana Caves
• Most beautiful sunset

The kids enjoyed zip-lining, even though it was raining a little. We didn’t do a lot on our portion of the excursion. Went to an awful Vietnamese Pho restaurant (got rave reviews on yelp), walked around trying to stay away from the homeless, and went to the caves. We should have just brought some peanut butter sandwiches and went to the falls.

Rainbow falls was nice. This is 100% accessible. There is a section that is steps, but it isn’t necessary. The best views of the falls are wheelchair friendly. No hiking or walking, the parking lot is at the falls. Free to park. Great quick beautiful stop.

We stopped at this quaint spot, What’s Shakin’ Smoothies to let the kids grab something quick to eat. It wasn’t quick but it was tasty. A little out of the way but looked like a local favorite.

The Kauman caves were interesting. Parking is on the opposite side of a pretty busy local highway. So it’s a bit of a run across a busy road. Another free stop. I didn’t go down to the caves (can you tell I’m a wimp haha). My hubby did and said you really need a headlamp and plan to climb over and around rocks. It sounds like you can do quite a bit of exploring if you have the right equipment.

The best part of this day was the sunset on the drive back. It was phenomenal. We stopped several times as we were all in awe.

What a beautiful way to end the day.

Waikoloa, a surprise stop

We had a full free day where nothing was planned. We slept in and thought we would try to go back to Mauna Kea Beach resort. They were not welcoming and we were not allowed to go to the “public” beach at their property.

So we scrambled and found a restaurant that looked nice. We had such a great time. Our afternoon was:

• Lava Lava Beach Club restaurant
• Hilton Waikoloa Village

It wasn’t a busy day but that’s what we needed. We had tons of food and drinks at Lava Lava Beach club. So so yummy. Then we went to the grass lawn and played ping pong and giant connect four.

Then we paid for parking and went to Hilton Wakaloa Village hotel. We walked around and stopped at one of the restaurants for drinks while the kids paddle boarded on their lagoon. No one seemed to care that we weren’t hotel guests. It was super chill and fun.

It was more than a hotel review

My intent of this post was to just give a hotel review but it just got away from me. The big thing about the big island is that there is so much to do. We were only there 6 nights and could have been another week. The location wasn’t super close to much (other than the amazing snorkel spot), but it felt like we could get anywhere easily.

If I was to go back to the big island, I would stay here again. Very comfortable for 2 couples and a great location for me.