Hawaii Travel Guide

The Land of Fire and Ice

How big is the Big Island? Bigger than the rest of the state put together.

Big enough to contain as many microclimates as a continent, from snowcapped mountains (two of them) to rain forest, from desert to live volcanic landscape. Big enough that one side is struggling economically, while the other side, seemingly a world away, is booming, with new vacation homes popping up along the shore, second homes for the West Coast's dot.com elite.

All the islands have a wet and dry side; on the Big Island, it's the wet windward side that is struggling with the shutdown of the sugar plantations. The wet side still has the island's principal town, Hilo. With its bay, its vast green spaces, its lovingly restored historic downtown, Hilo has real charm. It's no longer the business center it once was during the plantation days. It remains the administrative center, and its small university may be preparing its people for a brighter future, as the rich farmlands slowly turn to biotech and diversified crops.

Except during the annual Merrie Monarch hula festival, Hilo never has become a popular tourist destination. That's partly because it rains so much here. Several years ago, 14 inches of rain deluged the town in 24 hours. Since this was an atypically severe storm, the Red Cross set up a shelter, but hardly anyone used it. "To most people, it was just another wet day in Hilo," said a relief worker.

The Hilo coast is lush and tropical, but the area's biggest draw is "mauka" (toward the mountain) on the slopes and summit of Kilauea Volcano, within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. If the volcano is still erupting, as it has since 1983, the occasional rivers of lava to the south flowing into the sea amid plumes of steam are an astounding sight.

The real economic growth can be found on the dry side of the island, in Kailua-Kona and along the Kohala Coast. That area draws the direct flights, the most visitors, and that's where developers have planted their resorts, dazzling luxurious ones aproned by golden beaches against a dramatic backdrop of sprawling black lava fields. The resorts of the west coast of Hawaii are a must to experience for the savvy traveler willing to drop more than a few dollars for a lavish helping of luxury.

Missing here are Hawaii's characteristic green ridges and valleys. Instead, there are desolate lava fields, looking like the rubble-strewn surface of the moon. Rising from the lava fields, each elegant resort is a self-contained oasis. Most have golf courses that seem like works of art, twisting and turning along the rugged coastline, with the fairways and greens set into the black lava like so many emeralds.

Most of these resorts seem designed for visitors to arrive and simply stay on the property until it is time to leave. To do so is a mistake because there is much to experience on the Big Island-remote valleys with high wispy waterfalls; molten lava; snowfields covering cinder cones; coffee-growing highlands; agricultural valleys growing macadamia nuts, avocado and citrus; ranchlands filled with grazing cattle; the ruins of ancient Hawaiian temples and places of refuge; modern astronomical observatories and natural-energy laboratories.

The other islands may fulfill your fantasies of a tropical paradise. The Big Island's wonders will redefine what you ever imagined Hawaii could be.