HILO, Hawaii – “Hilo – it is what it is” probably isn’t a tourism slogan that would get a thumbs-up from the Big Island city’s Chamber of Commerce.
But I don’t mean it as a put-down. It’s just advice from a longtime visitor who loves Hawaii’s “second city.” I also know the worst thing anyone can do for Hilo is to try to oversell it. No one is going to spend a weeklong honeymoon in Hilo or plan a Wall Street corporate retreat or a championship golf tournament there.
That’s over on the other side, the rocky brown Kona Coast, with its 10 inches of rain per year and $400 per night megaresort rooms.
Hilo, on the other hand, is a place often defined by its deficiencies. No famous gourmet restaurants, no luxury hotels, no postcard-worthy beaches. It’s more often wet and gloomy compared with the west side. Rain? Count on it. More than 125 inches a year.
But it has something you won’t find while strolling the T-shirt shops over in Kailua-Kona.
“Hilo is more relaxing and down-to-earth,” said Wilma Kuamoo, a waitress at Ken’s House of Pancakes, a locals hangout. “In other places, I think people have lost the Hawaiian spirit. They don’t have time to stop and talk. They’re too busy. Hilo isn’t that way.”
Hilo is getting a boost, or maybe a test, with Continental’s new nonstop service from Los Angeles. It’s the first West Coast nonstop to Hilo since 1983. Previously, visitors to Hilo had to fly to Honolulu and change planes (and often terminals). The planes pull up to the oversize Hilo International Airport, a remnant of a 1970s attempt to spur tourism to the area.
Tourism archaeologists can visit Banyan Drive, which seems caught sometime before the 1980s. The trees that flank the parkway have plaques to the famous visitors who were honored with a tree planting during their visit. Babe Ruth and Amelia Earhart are on the drive. The most recent famous name is Richard Nixon – when he was running for vice president in 1952.
The names underscore the reality that Hilo has become a tourism backwater in the past half-century, ever since the airport in Kailua-Kona meant that visitors to the big resorts no longer needed to make a stop in Hilo on the way to the Mauna Kea or Kona Village.
But the very things that Hilo isn’t – slick, pricey, touristy – make it a draw for Hawaii vacationers looking for a different experience. Disney recently opened a resort on Oahu, and more than a few commentators have riffed that the resort is unnecessary because tourism, the islands’ No. 1 industry, has already turned them into one big theme park.
Hilo, while it has places for tourists, is a real town maintained for locals. Its green hills and waterfalls are perfectly in tune with the lush Hawaii of most travelers’ imaginations.
Nature has been Hilo’s greatest strength and its weak point. The crescent-shaped bay sits at the foot of two volcanoes, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. They are close enough that in the past century, lava has licked at the edges of town.
But it is the ocean that has twice ravaged Hilo. The recent disasters in Indonesia and Japan have only added to the public interest about the killer waves that have smashed the area at least five times since the early 1800s. Hilo was struck in 1946 and again in 1960, the latter flattening the downtown.
Hilo has turned its sometimes deadly relationship with nature to its advantage. The city is the jumping-off point for tours of Kilauea, the most active of the island’s volcanoes.
The Imiloa Astronomy Center spotlights the work done far upslope at the observatories atop 13,796-foot Mauna Kea. It’s unlike any other planetarium you’re likely to visit because it ties the science of the cosmos to how that science was interpreted in traditional Hawaiian legends and was used by Polynesians on their epic voyages across the Pacific.
All that rain has an upside. Hilo is home to some of the most beautiful gardens and parks in the islands. Plumeria, orchids and anthurium bloom magnificently here, alongside the massive banyan and monkeypod trees.
My favorite stop in Hilo is Liliuokalani Park, out near Banyan Drive. Though it is named after Hawaii’s last queen, it’s actually a Japanese garden with red arch bridges, stone lanterns and bonsai, the neatly miniaturized plants that require meticulous gardening skills.
Garden fans can get more at the larger Nani Mau Gardens, a botanical collection of native plants and imported specimens brought by settlers and traders from around the world.
Downtown has retained an old Hawaii feel that so many island tourist towns have either wiped out or turned into a sickly sweet nostalgia. Here the stuccoed buildings and clapboard-sided stores, some still with corrugated tin roofs, are the real deal.
Hilo was, above all, a port, and it attracted fishermen and workers from around the world. You’ll find the usual Hawaiian mix of Japanese, Chinese and Filipino. But there are also bits of Russia and the Caribbean, Portugal and the Midwest.
The big annual event in Hilo is the Merrie Monarch Festival in April, which celebrates David Kalakaua, the last king of Hawaii, who reigned from 1874 to 1891. Kalakaua tried to roll back many of the restrictions on traditional Hawaiian arts imposed by European missionaries, who arrived on the islands after Captain James Cook’s “discovery” of the islands in 1778. The Merrie Monarch Festival has parades, hula competitions, food fests and arts displays.
Foodies and people who like to eat should try to time a visit to include the twice-weekly farmers market. Farmers truck in local fruits – papayas and mangos are the best – along with macadamia nuts that the region is famous for.
There are two choices for those who want to see what all that rain does besides fall on your head and car roof, and make flowers bloom. Rainbow Falls, on Waianuenue Avenue, is a five-minute drive from downtown.
But if you are up for a short drive and short hike, head to Akaka Falls State Park, a half-hour or less north of town. The falls tumble 420 feet into a narrow gorge. This is that lush Hawaiian fantasyland that people crave – and you won’t find it on the Kona Coast.
IF YOU GO
WHERE TO STAY
Hilo Hawaiian Hotel: The best of a less-than-stellar collection of hotels along Banyan Drive, the onetime tourist heart of Hilo. Comfortable rooms, many with a beautiful view of Hilo Bay. Rooms from $95 per night. 71 Banyan Drive, 808-935-9361 or castleresorts.com.
The Shipman House: The B&B is in a massive Victorian house that’s owned by a descendant of a longtime local family. The do’s-and-don’ts list can put off some visitors. From $219 per night. 131 Kaiulani St.; 808-934-8002, hilo-hawaii.com.
WHERE TO EAT
Seaside Restaurant and Aqua Farm: Fish come from an adjacent aqua farm, along with fresh choices from the sea. 1790 Kalanianaole Ave.; 808-935-8825
Ken’s House of Pancakes: It looks like a coffee shop that could be anywhere – until you try the macadamia nut pancakes. Then you’ll know why the parking lot is packed. 1730 Kamehameha Ave. 808-935-8711
WHERE TO SHOP
SigZane Designs: While Hilo Hattie is the best-known fashion name to come out of the city, this shop is the premier spot for a contemporary take on Hawaiian designs. 122 Kamehameha Ave., 808-935-7077.
Hilo Farmers Market: Mamo Street at Kamehameha Avenue. Market days are Wednesday and Saturday from 6 a.m.-4 p.m., when more than 200 local farmers show their wares. On other days, crafts dealers are on the site. hilofarmersmarket.com
WHAT TO DO
Pacific Tsunami Museum: 130 Kamehameha Ave.; 808-935-0926. The small museum not only tells the story of the tsunamis that smashed Hilo, but keeps exhibits fresh with perspectives on the huge waves that swept the Indian Ocean in 2005 and Japan this year.
Imiloa Astronomy Center: 600 Imiloa Place; 808-969-9700. Astronomy and Hawaiian astrology are combined in one spot.
Information: gohawaii.com/big-island
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