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TRAVEL

OUR FIRST FAMILY VACATION: Big Island, Hawaii

posted on : February 8, 2019

Over the past year, we have done a lot of traveling–with Gracie in tow–but this was our first ‘official’ family vacation. Both Tim and I took a week off of work so that we could really relax and enjoy our time together. We decided on Hawaii partly because I wanted to add it to my ‘states I’ve been to’ list (Tim has been to Maui before), and partly because we liked that Denver offers direct flights! After a lot of research and Googling, “best Hawaiian Island to visit with a baby,” we chose the Big Island for its diverse climate zones (beach to jungle!) and Volcano National Park. Below is an overview of our itinerary + a ton of photos of Gracie living her best life in as many bathing suits as she is months old.

DAY ONE: TRAVEL

The flight from Denver to Kona went so much better than we thought it would. Well, that is considering she only slept for about 45 minutes, if that. The second photo is halfway through the 7.5 hour flight! I’ll be putting together some of the ‘travel tricks’ we used in another post, so stay tuned if you’re interested.

DAY TWO: WAIKOLOA BEACH

Tim and I ‘vacation’ very differently. He enjoys relaxing on the beach or by a pool at a resort, and I enjoy days packed full of sight seeing and adventures. The Big Island allowed us to do both! The first half of the week we spent at Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort and Spa and It. Was. Amazing. There was a beach with blue, blue water and Plumeria trees with the white and yellow flowers that smell like heaven. We had the most beautiful view from our room, and of course, there were stunning sunsets every night.

Our favorite restaurant on the resort side of the island was called Lava Lava Beach Club. While it’s definitely pretty pricey, the food was great and the whole experience of dining right on the beach was worth it–we were able to walk there, too, which is always an added bonus!

DAY THREE: KONA

After a day of hanging at the beach and by the pool(s), we decided to take a day trip to the town of Kona (about a 25 minute drive from the resort). We had already rented a car at the airport, which I would definitely recommend so that you have the option to explore the island. We started our day at Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation, where we took a self guided tour and tasted some famous Kona Coffee. The views were amazing! We then headed downtown to grab lunch and a beer flight at Kona Brewing Company–we sat outside and the atmosphere was lovely. After lunch, we headed back to the resort for another afternoon by the pool.

DAY FOUR: WAIKOLOA BEACH

More fun at the beach with my Instagram Husband. 🙂 In all honesty, we didn’t actually spend the whole day at the beach…we chased the shade of a palm tree for a bit until Gracie got antsy. We spent the rest of the afternoon at lunch with some pina coladas.

DAY FIVE: HILO & VOLCANO

After another morning at the beach, we packed up and headed to the other side of the island. We decided to check out the town of Hilo for lunch before heading on to visit Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo–the only naturally occurring tropical rainforest zoo in the United States! Gracie loved it, and for being a smaller zoo it was very well maintained AND you could get up close and personal to most of the animals. We ended up taking the white Bengal tiger, Tzatziki, home with us. 🙂

After the zoo we headed to the town of Volcano, where we checked into our rainforest cottage at Volcano Village Lodge. We immediately noticed how DIFFERENT this side of the island was! The temperature had dropped significantly and we were legitimately in the jungle. Our little cottage was so beautiful with wall to wall windows and they stocked our mini fridge with a full pre-made breakfast for the morning!

DAY SIX: HAWAI’I VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK

The next morning we got up early and headed to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. I’ll talk about our experience more below, but I was REALLY excited to visit the park, and was fairly disappointed that a lot of the ‘attractions’ and roads were closed. But it was still awesome to see the steam coming up from natural vents in the ground and the view of the volcano crater was pretty spectacular. We took a quick hike and then headed to the cutest little cafe for lunch called Cafe Ono–s’cute!! After lunch, we stopped by Volcano Winery (see what I mean when I say I like a day full of activities when I’m on vacation?! haha!) and did a wine tasting. We got to try mead for the first time which is wine made from fermented honey! I was not a fan, but I did love their Volcano Red.

DAY SEVEN: BLACK SAND BEACH

Day 7 was probably my favorite day. We took a day trip to check out Punalu’u Black Sand Beach and it was SO cool. Not only was it amazing to see black sand (from the volcanic rock!) but we also got to snorkel with SEA TURTLES. Honestly, it was one of the coolest things I have ever done! There was a little bodega on the beach that sold snorkels, so we decided to buy one and we took turns swimming in this little alcove where the sea turtles were just hanging out in the wild! There were a couple just lounging on the beach too, so even if you didn’t get in the water you could still see them. Before heading back to the lodge, we stopped and had a drink at the ‘most southern bar in the U.S.!’

DAY SEVEN: LU’AU

On our last day in Hawaii we packed as much in as we possibly could–which made for a fun but fairly hectic end to our vacation. We started the day by heading back across the island to Kona where we stopped at Kona Brewing again for more beer. We then checked out a WHITE sand beach called Magic Sands Beach, which was beautiful but very rocky so we didn’t end up going in the water. There was a lot of shade, though, which was great for Gracie! We ended the day at the Island Breeze Lu’au, and although it doesn’t look like it from the photos, Gracie had a great time! 🙂 They served a traditional Hawaiian feast which was the perfect way to end our trip (and made the race to make our flight worth it…kinda).

 

So, to summarize–below is our itinerary, without all the jibber jabber.

OUR BIG ISLAND ITINERARY

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Day 5:

Day 6:

Day 8:

 

  1. Remember how I said we enjoyed stunning sunsets every night while staying at the Waikoloa Beach Resort? Well, picture this. The sun was setting and Tim and I were sitting outside our room enjoying a beer and the view while Gracie played between us. She had a bit of a diaper rash from her bathing suit, so I had decided to let her ‘air dry’ for a little. I got up to take a photo of the sunset and Tim came up behind me and said, “You look so beautiful with the light shining on your face—OH GOD. GRACIE NO!!” I turn around to see Tim running towards Gracie, who was holding a piece of poop in her hand (HER POOP) and it was heading STRAIGHT for her mouth. Thankfully Tim caught her hand in time, but that moment will live with us forever.
  2. I mentioned I had more to say about Volcano National Park. To be honest, I was very underwhelmed. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations, but I was really disappointed when we arrived and most of the sights we had come to see were closed (some temporarily but others permanently!) A lot of it had to do with the fact that one of the volcanos just erupted last year, so the entire park was closed for several months. I definitely could have done more research before we planned to go there, but I was hoping to see more than what we did!
  3. I think we were both pretty nervous about taking Gracie on a flight that long (7.5 hours) and to take a baby on vacation in general, but she was amazing and I’m so glad we did. I know she won’t remember the trip, but I’ll certainly remember how she became the ‘mayor’ of every restaurant we went to (she would make eyes with the waitstaff and wave to all the tables around us), and how she wouldn’t stop kissing her little Hawaiian girl she grabbed from a shelf at a store (which we then purchased because how could you not). She was an absolute joy to travel with and I’m so grateful we were able to take her along! Like I mentioned above, I’m going to write another post on traveling with a baby–coming soon!

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