Since I’m spending more time on Hawaii island, I’ve decided to spend a little more time and share some of the beautiful landscape, attractions and towns around the island. There are so many unique communities and towns that have developed from the plantation days, serving their little communities. Nowadays, the towns have preserved most of their individual flavor and characteristic – attracting tourists and locals like to shop and enjoy a variety of services. Following are some of my favorite towns around Hawaii that have maintained their distinctive, unique identities and historical significance on the island.
What to see in Hawaii Island
Honomu and Sarong Heaven
Honomu, Hamakua
The little town of Honomu, better known as the gateway to Akaka Falls is a well-preserved town with colorful buildings evoking an old plantation pastime. Now the old plantation town caters mostly to a tourist crowd stopping by from the falls for refreshments or some souvenir shopping. It’s a fun town to explore the galleries and shops and to find something unique or hand-made from Hawaii, and maybe even try some of the local ice cream flavors made locally.
Pahoa Town
Pahoa, Puna
Pahoa town, on the eastern side of the Puna district, has an old wild west appeal with simple clapboard styled, ageing storefronts with rickety elevated walkways that barely protect you from occasional rains. It’s run down and quaint at the same time with little shops and a variety of surprisingly good food of different cuisines. Stop by on your way touring around Puna or the panoramic loop and coastal areas of the red road.
Hilo town
Hilo town
The largest population on Hawaii Island is centered on old Hilo town, a place that seems to have been lost in a time warp that hasn’t changed dramatically and actually that’s what the locals like, something authentic and real for the locals and not catering to the tourist crowd. Although as a tourist you can visit popular attractions like Kaumana caves, Rainbow falls, Coconut island, Hilo farmers market and Liliuokalani gardens just to name a few must visit spots in town. There’s an actual revival of supporting local businesses, restaurants and shops in town because these are places that have been around for a while. Although we do like to have new and exciting places to also dine and enjoy a nice night out and Hilo does offer all those options even on a smaller scale.
If you’re hungry, check out all the top places to eat in Hilo town here for inspiration and great places to chow down on local food.
Kailua Kona, Hawaii
Kailua, Kona
Over on West Hawaii Kailua Kona a town that caters mostly to a tourist crowd but also locals typically going for shopping and other daily routines. The town has many historic and ancient monuments that keep the history and importance of this town in which Kamehameha 1st (Hawaii’s first king) resided. Today the town is filled with many restaurants, shops, farmers markets and many little coves and beaches like Kahalu’u beach park and Magic Sands that are a draw for snorkeling and a quick dip before heading into town.
If you are looking for delicious food, check out all these popular places to eat in Kona here for inspiration and finding the best spots to eat great food.
Holualoa
Holualoa, Kona
Above Kona in the hills of Holualoa is the town of Holualoa, a small art community with many little art galleries and shops ,along with a variety of coffee farms and tasting rooms along the main corridor. The area up in the cloud forest all the way down to south Kona is where most of the coffee plantations are located and you can visit many of the farms and coffee tasting shops throughout the area. It’s a perfect place to visit some unique local artists and try some of the well-known Kona coffee that is a popular souvenir to take back home.
Kainaliu theater
Kainaliu, South Kona
In the southern part of the island is the town of Kainaliu which has so many coffee plantation farms and tasting rooms along the route on highway 11, its hard to choose just one spot to try some coffees. The town itself is a long strip of shops, galleries, cafes and coffee tasting rooms. The Kealakekua bay and the Captain Cook monuments are the most popular tourist destination points to visit with beautiful snorkeling and other water related activities.
Other cool topics on the Big Island
Conclusion to scenic towns of the Big Island
Thanks so much for coming to visit Travel Photo Mondays and touring some of the distinctive towns of Hawaii Island. Come and enjoy some of these other bloggers from around that world showing you some beautiful imagery.
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Love your photography, Noel. Whats your gear?
I use a variety of Cannon DSLRs but changing it out to mirrorless cameras recently
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ever run into any web browser compatibility problems?
A small number of my blog audience have complained about
my website not operating correctly in Explorer but looks great in Safari.
Do you have any suggestions to help fix this problem?
It’s good to see photos of the smaller towns of Hawaii that are often overlooked. They all look cute and different to each other. It must be fun visiting them all whilst you escape the cold of the mainland.
Beautiful! I’d love to see Kailua Kona. It looks peaceful and serene.
Ok. I’m ready to head down there! Looks fun. Next week I’ll link. I promise!
I love interesting little towns! I really want to visit Hawaii, but I don’t want to end up stuck in at the tourist beaches – no matter how beautiful, I need a little variety.
There’s a lot of cool beaches here, I’ll be posting one soon of a rare green sand beach I hiked to
>The Kealakekua bay and the Captain Cook monuments are the most popular tourist destination points to visit with beautiful snorkeling.
I snorkelled in that bay! You’re quite right, it’s beautiful. This is a great selection of photos of places that tourists don’t often see.
Great shots – somehow going to Hawaii never really crossed my mind but maybe I should look into it again…
I can see the appeal of these towns and I especially like the look of Pahoa town. Looks like it might be giving Asia a run for it’s money when it comes to electricity cables crossing the street. 🙂
I really enjoyed your photo of of the Big Island. It brings back so many happy memories. I enjoyed Hilo and how un-touristy it felt.
Love the diversity of ethnicities I see in these pics! Also, the colors of the buildings are beautiful!
I liek the theatre building. 🙂 And I´m so amaized by all those powerlined. It´s a wonder they actually works. 🙂
yes, unfortunately power lines here so old school, can’t afford to dig them into the ground for these old communities
Love the colours of the buildings, they look so cute and lovely!
You’ve so wonderfully captured all that I love about Hawaii. This is a beautiful post. I am hoping to capture some of the same character and history with my camera while we are here this month.
I can’t wait to make it to Hawaii. Great photos! Thanks for linking up to the #SundayTraveler!
Noel it’s great that you are spending winter on the island so we can all get a glimpse of the island through your beautiful photos :-). What kind of the weather there is in Hilo, since people on the photo are very differently dressed?!
These photos were taken at different times but the standard year round is shorts, tshirts or aloha shirts if there’s a fun event or party going on…weather is perfect year round!
Beutiful, vibrant and colorful photos!
Very beautiful city…
Pretty! I spent a lot of time in Kona this summer! I loved the Big Island!!
Love the vibrant colors and all that pink … and the cloudy sky. Thanks!
I can’t wait to explore more of Hawaii. I’ve only been to Honolulu since I have relatives there and the other islands look amazing. I have a friend who studies at Hilo so perhaps it is time to reunite with him heheh. Gorgeous photos as always!
One of my favorite things to do while traveling is to explore some of the smaller towns. I think they have so much character and tell you more about a place than the big cities or tourist attractions. These look like they’d be fun to get lost in!
We will be in Kailua Kona next month. Can’t wait, as it will be my first trip to the Big Island. Thx for the terrific post. I will tweet it!
These charming, historic towns are such a joy to visit. I’ve only walked through Kailua Kona but probably driven through the others. Now, I really need to stop and walk around next time. Beautiful pictures, as always.
You capture the essence of the island.
I like these colorful town. They certainly have a very island vibes. It’s great that despite being popular tourist places these towns have manage to preserve their unique characteristics and still cater to the locals rather than the whim of tourism. Your lovely photos virtually brought warmth and sunshine in my cold NY day.
I have never been to Hawaii and this sure does make me realize how there is a lot of character to the towns across the islands. Great photos!
Oh wow – look at those colours! I love it! Aside from the wooden frontings, the colours remind me of being in a Mediterranean island – the Greek or Spanish islands.
Thanks for sharing this and brightening up a winter’s day.
Hi Bex,
Yes it is very colorful living here…interesting you think it has like a mediterranean type of appeal…probably more so on the very dry west side of the island.