Recently Justin and I spent a little over a week in our new favorite place, Hawaii. And if you know us, you know we’ve been touting Mexico City as one of our favorite places in the world up until recently. The Big Island has taken that spot or at least they’re sharing it…a little. They’re sharing it a little. Hawaii is as lush and as beautiful as you think it is. The people were super nice, everyone seemed to care a lot about their island and the surrounding ocean. You also definitely feel like you’re in another country with the comforts of a Target being down the street.

While we were there we tried to do a mixture of touristy things as well as more local things. I kept a list of some interesting, unique and outdoorsy things to do while you’re adventuring around the Big Island.

1.) Humpback Whale Watching- We jumped on board a Zodiac dinghy with two very knowledgeable guys from an AirBnb experience. We didn’t know it but we were smack in the middle of the humpback whale watching season. They come to the warm Hawaiian waters every year between November to May with the peak season being between January to March. They go to have CUTE lil (big) babies. I highly suggest checking it out. We got to see the calf playing near his mom and being super curious about our very small in comparison to a whale boat.

2.) Ola Brewing Company & Kona Brewing Company- For how relatively small Kona is we were surprised that they had two really good breweries. We, of course, tried them both out while we were there. If you’re lookiing for a meal they both have food with Kona Brewing having a bigger, more restaurant style menu. I’m partial to IPA’s so I found Ola’s brews to be more my style. They have a pretty small and cute brewery that is all indoors with a view into the brewery itself. Kona has tons of outdoor seating with some pretty adventurous beers for you to try at their jungle-like outdoor seating. I definitely recommend visiting both, however!

3.) Snorkel with Manta Rays- While definitely being a touristy thing, I highly recommend it! Boating out to the manta ray snorkeling site alone was beautiful but the actual experience was a once-in-a-lifetime, bucket list kind of thing. Being giant filter feeders, they come to where the plankton is. The plankton is attracted to light so if you’re watching from the boat or the shore, you’ll see tons of boats with floating, lit up paddle boards trailing behind on tethers. We held onto the floating board while 6 foot wide mantas came soaring past us. Being so close to such a huge animal is simultaneously unnerving but super exciting. Do it!

Pretending our hands are coral so the seahorse has something to hold onto. It was SO cute!

4.) Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm- When we first went to Ocean Rider I was wondering why it was called “farm” and not “sanctuary”. Come to find out that a huge quantity of seahorses are fished out of the oceans which severely dwindle their natural populations. They mostly are taken out for personal aquariums usage so the forward thinking folks at Ocean Rider have created a “farm” in which they breed and raise seahorses for people to be able to order and buy for their aquariums and thus rehabilitating the ocean’s seahorse population. Also, there are resident biologists there that will help you to hold a seahorse and that’s basically as cute, adorable and wonderful as you’re thinking it is.

5.) Broke Da Mouth Grindz Restaurant- Named after a Hawaiian pidgin term meaning food so plentiful and delicious that it literally broke your mouth, this restaurant is definitely serving up big portions that you can share with lots of super delicious options. A lot of food in Hawaii is heavily influenced by Polynesian, Asian and indigenous Hawaiian recipes so you’ll for sure find something you’ll love. Not only are the portions huge and delicious but they’re also serving up tons of locals brews. Hawaii definitely surprised me with the massive amount of local craft breweries. While we were there we tried beers from these breweries: Waikiki Brewing, Hilo Brewing, Kona Brewing, Maui Brewing and Honolulu Beerworks with all of them being super unique and super good.

6.) The Famous Dole Whip-Now taken over largely by Disney, the famous Dole Whip originated from Hawaii. It’s essentially a pineapple flavored soft serve with lots of pineapple-y flavor. I’m not a huge fan of pineapple flavored things so I tried this mostly out of curiosity about the hype but I was pleasantly surprised. We actually just stopped by a local gas stations and got it from their soft serve machine. You don’t have to wait in long lines or pay through the nose to get this funky treat! Also, speaking of the gas stations, just drop by one for some pretty interesting snack choices. The food is SO influenced by neighboring Japan that it can definitely have you grabbing all kinds of interesting Asian fusion foods at the gas station. i.e.spam musubi.

7.) Island Breeze Luau- Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy touristy but we had to do it, right?! I did some research into the various luaus because what I didn’t want to do was to be carted around like cattle and watch people of Hawaiian ancestry doing non-traditional, touristy things just to please the mainland tourists. I wanted to learn something about the extremely interesting history of Hawaii as well as the other Polynesian islands and for it to be more about culture than free mai tais (there were those too but also culture). This luau in particular taught you about the different dances and culture of various Polynesian islands as well as food preparation and Hawaiian songs and instruments. I felt we left with a little more knowledge about the island and it’s first nations people.

8.) Finding Narnia in Hilo- This one was a bit of an adventure. When I looked up waterfalls in Hilo it didn’t come up. The only way I found it was I heard a couple of girls who worked at Makani’s Magic Pineapple Shack talking about “finding Narnia” and then I asked the girl who worked at Hilo Brewing about it and she gave us some directions. I’m going to be honest, I’m not going to detail how to get there. It truly is a local’s place and it doesn’t seem to get crowded or loaded down with tourists. All I’m saying is that if you really want to find it should you find yourself in Hilo on the Big Island, then talk to some locals and they’ll direct you. What I will say is that it’s so beautiful that is looks manufactured. The getting to the actual waterfall was a bit dubious and sketchy in places but we managed. There are also lots of other easier to find waterfalls should you not want an adventure. ;P

9.) Makani’s Magic Pineapple Shack- I had no idea this place was as popular as it but boy is it popular! It has super instagrammable ice creams, shakes, yogurt bowls, etc. that are so colorful and prettily displayed that they’re dying to be on someone’s PInterest board. Not only are they pretty but they’re also really good. The place itself has a really cool, chill vibe that you’'ll enjoy in downtown Hilo.

10.) Take the Coastal Drive from Kona to Hilo- For a beautiful drive and scenery check out the Hawaii Belt Road and Mamalahoa Highway —the 125-mile trip takes about three hours to go from Kona to Hilo and it’s definitely worth the drive. Put on some Jack Johnson and cruise along the coastline. Along the way you’ll see a lot of the different landscapes Big Island has to offer as well as some views you’ll want to stop on the side of the road to capture. While we were heading to Hilo we saw some beautiful landscapes-waterfalls, the massive volcano in the middle of the island and a lot of different birds, animals, flowers, etc.

11.) Hilo Brewing Company- Previously Mehana Brewing, Hilo Brewing Company is still an up and coming brewery that has a lot of interesting brews. While you can’t buy a pint at the actual brewery, you can buy a flight and enjoy it while actually sitting in their brewery among the workers. We really enjoyed getting to see how the business was running, getting to talk to the employees and talking about the different beers they’re planning on making in the future. Definitely go pop into Hilo Brewing!

12.) Wait For The Green Flash at Honl’s Beach- Because of Hawaii’s endless horizons & big, open sky, the Big Island is where you can increase your chances of seeing the elusive green flash. Created by the sun quickly changing colors before it drops below the horizon, the green flash is often talked about but only the lucky few get to see the strange sight. Around sunset, you’ll see groups of people gathering together on beaches in hopes of seeing the flash. We didn’t see it the entire time we were there but I guess we just have to go back now! Darn! There are some nice local beaches where you can find a seat on some lava rocks and wait for the sun to set. When you’re driving down Ali’i Drive you’ll see some pretty nondescript signs saying “public beach access” where you are able to walk through some alleys between houses and out onto the beach front. Turtle Beach is a small, cute and very unknown lil beach that’s good for just chilling and watching the sunset. It’s has tons of urchins so I definitely wouldn’t recommend swimming there. Honl’s Beach was probably our favorite. It had bathrooms, easy access from the road, some palm trees to lounge under and had a good area for swimming.

Turtle Beach aptly named because of sea turtles sunning themselves on the beach.

After all the places we’ve been around the world Hawaii is definitely one of my favorite. The people were chill, the food was good, everything was beautiful. Consider the Big Island for your next adventure. You won’t regret it!