Our Hawaiian Christmas Vacation in Kailua-Kona, Hawai'i

My parents have always dreamed of celebrating Christmas like “The Kranks” and skipping the holiday fuss by going on vacation instead. Finally, in 2020, their "Christmas with The Kranks" dream became a reality.

​We booked flights to spend the week leading up to the holidays in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i and were unbelievably excited for our vacation to start.

Before we left, we were tested for COVID-19 by a trusted Hawaiian partner testing location . We had to take a very particular test, within a 72-hour timeframe, and upload it to a specific website in order to get onto the island. It was an entirely new process to all of us and honestly, we struggled a little bit through all of the confusion.

Our negative COVID-19 results.

If you want to read more about the complicated process, please read my more detailed blog post about “Hawai’i’s COVID-19 Travel Procedures” here!

Luckily, we did everything correctly and had no issues getting to the island. We were even re-tested once we landed at the airport, and all of our tests came back negative! After we landed in Hawai’i and put all the stress of traveling behind us, we started our magical Christmas in Kona!

You can see exactly what the process was like in my YouTube video below.

Where we stayed:

We booked an Airbnb situated between the airport and downtown Kona only about 10 minutes from the beach. We chose this spot because of its prime location, price, and private pool!

​Our hosts turned out to be amazing too! Every night, they gave us recommendations for things to do in the area. Without them, we would have missed out on many incredible things!

A rainbow over our Airbnb one of the evenings we were there!

You can read more about this awesome Airbnb and book a stay, here.

Map courtesy of Wanderlog, an itinerary planner on iOS and Android

Day One, Thursday: Downtown Kona and Kua Bay

Kona Farmers Market -

First we checked out the Kona Farmers Market to get some breakfast and fresh produce for the week!

The market was located downtown off the Main Street in Kailua-Kona, Ali’i Drive.

We picked up some star fruit, apple bananas, rambutans, mangoes, and several other fruits. Then, we grabbed coffee from Papa Kona and sat on the beach to enjoy our fresh breakfast. 

Our fruit haul from the Kona Farmers Market.

Kua Bay -

We had originally planned to visit Manini'owali Beach, but the night before, our Airbnb host’s recommended Kua Bay. When we plugged Kua Bay into our GPS, we discovered that they were the same place! Now, we were even more excited!

My Lensball in Kua Bay.

​We got there around 10 a.m. and were immediately in love. The little white-sand beach was beautifully strewn with stark, black volcanic rocks. We claimed a private spot with an outcove into the water and laid down our stuff right away. We ran into the water and couldn’t stay out of it the entire day.

Our favorite spot in Kua Bay!

You can see more from our visits to Kua Bay in our YouTube video here!

Kekaha State Park -

​After all of our fun at Kua Bay, we packed up and headed back to town. On the way, we pulled over at Kekaha State Park to see what another beach was like!

Kekaha Kai State Park entrance.

NOTE: We drove the wildly bumpy and pothole-riddled road then walked down to the beach. We did this in our rented, compact car and would NOT recommend it! It took us forever and the speed bumps were a major hazard to the car.

We explored the nice beach and walked around some little, freshwater pools. Our Airbnb hosts told us, later, that their favorite secret beach is in Kekaha State Park on a 45-minute-long hiking trail! We didn’t venture that far before we got hungry and hopped back in the car!

The entrance into the park.

My sister looking at at Kekaha Sate Park.

A lava formation on the beach at Kekaha Kai State Park.

Dinner at Papa Kona

We drove back down to Papa Kona, but this time, it was for a sunset happy hour and dinner. We all enjoyed delicious plates of seafood, Hawaiian pork, rice, and cocktails! We even got to see a whale breach near the horizon while we were eating. It was truly dinner and a show!

Read more about all of the restaurants we tried across the Big Island, here in my "Where We Found The Best Food On Hawai'i" post!

The sunset from Papa Kona Restaurant.

The Char Siu Pork.

Day two, Friday: Petroglyphs and Snorkeling with Manta Rays

Puakō Petroglyph Park -

To start the day, we drove over to Puakō Petroglyph Park and walked the trail marveling, questioning, and admiring the carved images. It was amazing to learn about the people who seemed ancient but lived only hundreds of years ago. When we had seen all that we could, we walked out and drove to our next stop, Queen’s Bath.

Puakō Petroglyph Park.

More petroglyphs at Puakō Petroglyph Park.

Even more petroglyphs at Puakō Petroglyph Park!

Queens Bath -

Queens Bath!

Queen’s Bath is a small, fresh water spring, tucked away right off the beach. We walked along a sandy trail for a few minutes before we found the secret little pool.

​My mom really wanted to find it, yet I was the only one who got in! It was freezing cold, and full of little shrimps, but very, very cool to hop in and look around for a bit.

When we left we walked to the water and almost instantly discovered sea turtles swimming in the water!

​It was incredible to see them in their natural habitat.​ The turtles would only be the first wildlife we saw that day, because that night, we had scheduled a night snorkeling excursion to see manta rays! 

Sea turtle sighting outside Queens Bath.

Night Snorkeling with Manta Rays with My Kona Adventures

When the sun set, we took off into the darkness with My Kona Adventures to look for these gigantic sea angels.

It didn’t take long, after we were in the water, for us to start seeing the humongous creatures.

I keep emphasizing their size because their wingspan can be up to 14 feet!!! Theses rays came so close that we were within, what our guides called, “licking distance” of them. It was CRAZY!

You can see much more from this once-in-a-lifetime experience in my YouTube video and blog post here!

Day Three, Saturday: South Point, Green Sand Beach, and Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park

The Big Island Gypsy Guide in the Apple App Store.

Before our day started, we downloaded an app called “Big Island Hawaii Gypsy Guide” to enjoy some educational audio while driving around.

​This was one of the best decisions of our trip. The guide provided great information and told us where we should stop for good views, interesting information, and historical points.

South Point -

The App guided us all the way down to South Point - the southern most point in the United States!

​We only hung out here for a couple of minutes to take a few pictures and watch some cliff jumpers dive into the ocean. None of us were brave enough to take the plunge ourselves, and also we had other places to be! So we hopped back in the car and drove to our next nearby destination.

The southern most point of the U.S.A

Papakōlea Green Sand Beach -

The green sand! The pictures don't do it any justice.

Not far from South Point is Papakōlea, and it's Green Sand Beach. This was on my dad's list of places to see so we really planned our day around here. We planned to spend most of the afternoon on this, almost, one of a kind, beach.

We had been advised to hire a driver instead of walking the exposed four-miles-long road, so we did just that and paid $20 per person for a  round trip ride to the volcanic crater. 

*Though we later learned this isn't completely legal. We did not see any signs or warnings against commercial vehicles.*

​This spot was one of the most unique of our trip! The sand is green from erosion of the volcanic crater created by an eruption at Mauna Kea thousands of years ago. 

Looking down onto Papakolea.

Check out more from Papakōlea’s Green Sand Beach inmy blog post here!

Punalu’u Bakery and Black Sand Beach -

The southern most bakery in the United States!

When we were done at Papakōlea, we rode back out and drove ourselves towards a different colored beach!​ ​First though, we made a quick stop at Punalu’u Bakery. This is the southernmost bakery in the U.S. and their malasada came highly recommended!

​We purchased a box of different flavored malasads and tried one right away. They were sweet sugar covered doughnuts that just melted in our mouths, and they were delicious! 

Malasads from Punalu'u Bakery.

​With the rest of the malasadas in hand, ​we drove a quick ride over to  to Punalu’u Black Sand Beach and right away we saw sea turtles resting on the shore!

It was unbelievable! We kept our distance but took lots, and lots of pictures of the endangered animals. We didn’t stay long and were back in the car to head to our last stop of the day.

Turtles at Punalu'u!

Sea turtles resting on the black sand beach.

Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park -

​We arrived at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park​ and sadly realized we did not plan things correctly. We arrived just before sunset, and it was already starting to get dark. Plus, it was so foggy that we couldn’t see a darn thing.

The entrance to the park!

We wanted to drive down the Rim of Craters Road and explore more so badly, but we only got a few stops in before it was pitch black and pointless to continue.

​We headed back to Kona in the dark disappointed by our visit to the park but little did we know, our disappointment would be blasted away in just under 48 hours. (Keep reading to see what I mean!)

Standing at the Kilauea crater inside the national park.

Day four, Sunday: Back to Kua Bay with a Luau at Night

Sunday was a recovery day. We woke up and enjoyed a delicious brunch from Island Lava Java and then we went back to our favorite Kua Bay for another afternoon in the sun.

We hung out there all day until just about sunset before we went back to our Airbnb to get ready for the night.

​We had booked a luau at the famous Umeke’s Restaurant. We got dolled up and ready to go have a fun, traditional Hawaiian night!

​The luau told many stories about the surrounding mountains and where the people and the land of Hawai’i came from. It was very interesting, and the food was great!

See more about all of the amazing restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and other establishments we check out across the island in my "Where We Found The Best Food On The Big Island" post, here!

Day Five, Monday: Snorkeling at Two Step in Captain Cook

The view from The Coffee Shack - WOW!

We woke up early to get a good start on our snorkeling at Two Step in Captain Cook. On our way down, we first grabbed some coffee from The Coffee Shack. 

​We perked up from the coffee and the UNREAL views from their windows!

Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau Park - 

​
​After we took it all in, we eventually moseyed down toward the beach and got ready to walk around Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park to learn all about Two Step before snorkeling in it. ​

The entrance into the park.

The area used to be considered a place of refuge in ancient Hawaiian law. Meaning that if you made it there, you could not be hurt or penalized for any crimes. It was a safe haven.

It was beautiful and so interesting to learn about!

When we finished the short trail, we finally walked over to the actual Two Step to snorkel!

​It is called “two step”, because the volcanic shelf literally makes two steps into the ocean! It makes it a perfect place to snorkel especially for beginners - and it was by far the best place we snorkeled on the island! 
 
Check out my YouTube video below to see just how incredible the entire area truly is and read my article "The Best Snorkeling Spots on The Big Island", here!

Day Six, Tuesday: Chasing Waterfalls in Hilo & Back to Volcanoes!

We had an extremely eventful day planned, so we hit the road to Hilo early. ​You can read more from our day road tripping around to look at all the waterfalls, here, in my separate Hilo Day blog post!

Waipi'o Valley -

Our first stop was the Waipi’o Lookout. Sadly, we didn’t have time to hike into the valley, but I will definitely make time on my next visit, because from the overlook, the beach looks unlike anywhere I have ever been. We marveled at it for just a few minutes before we continued our road trip south to our next stop.

The view of Waipi'o Valley from the lookout.

Akaka Falls State Park -

We spent a decent amount of time walking around the hiking path to Akaka Falls, because it was absolutely stunning. We felt like we were walking through a jungle considering all of the tall, vine-covered trees overhead and bright colorful flowers all around. 

The view of Akaka Falls.

You can see more from this stunning hike in my YouTube video below!

Hilo -

After Akaka Falls, we headed down into Hilo to get some lunch. We chose the adorable Pineapples Restaurant mainly based on the cute pineapple drinks we could see through the window. Turns out, the food was really great too! We all had fresh seafood and salads and of course, a fancy pineapple cocktail!

Pineapple cocktails at Pineapples Restaurant.

I ordered the mussels at Pineapples.

After our food and drinks were gone, we continued our road trip to our next two points: Rainbow Falls and The Boiling Pots. These sites along The Wailuku River were gorgeous! They are also riddled with history and myth which we all found extremely interesting.

Rainbow Falls.

Our family at The Boiling Pots.

The Boiling Pots.

You can read more about the myths of the God Maui and the giant lizard Kuna in a more detailed “Places to See In Hilo” post here.

Kaumana Caves -

Me with my headlamp and GoPro ready to go!

​After the waterfalls, we went underground at our next stop, Kaumana Caves! We could have spent hours exploring these volcanic tunnels, but we didn’t have time.

​There are two lava tunnels, and one is 25 miles long! We only checked out a little bit with our headlamps, but it was extremely cool to go inside and look around.

When we left the caves, we hopped back in the car for one final stop for the day.

The entrance to the tunnel we explored.

Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, again -

Remember how I said when we went to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on Saturday that our disappointment would be blasted away? That’s because on December 20, 2020, Sunday evening, the Kīlauea volcano started erupting again - and now we were going to see it!

Standing on the "Steam Vents" trail.

​We got to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park just before sunset, and it was perfect timing.  As the sun set, the glow from the lava started to show, and it was the most incredible thing I had seen.

​Even though we weren’t close and couldn’t actually see any lava, it was one of the unique sights I may ever see.

Looking down onto the Kilauea eruption.

The view near the Jaggar Museum.

You can see more from this once in a lifetime opportunity in a more detailed “Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park” post, here! 

Day Seven, Wednesday: Kua Bay, again, before Heading Home

This was our last day on the island, and we felt that there was no better place to go than back to our favorite Kua Bay!

We spent our final day in our own little paradise swimming, snorkeling, and soaking in the sunshine. Eventually, we had to make our way to the airport to catch our overnight flight home.

Standing in our spot at Kua Bay!

Soaking it all in!

None of us wanted to end our trip, but we were so thankful for all we had done.

We sat on the plane rehashing all we had done over the course of the week, and we just couldn’t believe how incredible the entire vacation had been.

​We decided that we might consider having a Mele Kalikimaka in Hawaii every year! 

Read these other related Hawai'i blog posts:

Where We Ate Across The Big Island
Where We Stayed In Kona, Hawai'i
Snorkeling Spots On The Big Island