Big Island in a Day: Volcanoes, Waterfalls, Sightseeing, History

We opted to do this tour on our first day in Hawaii, so that we could see the whole island and determine if there were any areas that we wanted to return to on our own! Our guide, Kahikina, was fabulous! He was SOO knowledgeable, funny, easy to listen to and personable.
Our tour lasted 11 hours! Kahikina took us to all the places he could from coffee farm, to water falls, to volcanoes and steam vents, through the forests of eucalyptus, to black sand beaches as well as lunch at a beautiful orchid farm. We were able to see the landscape on all parts of the island! I would highly recommend this tour!

Awana was my tour guide and he is an excitement to be around. The tour covers a large portion of the island with a lot of amazing sceneries that are picture perfect. Many things we saw shows the beauty of this island. The tour covers vast history and is quite educational. I can honestly say I am glad that attend this tour, it is a enriching experience.

We loved loved loved Juliana! She was exceptional!! Very knowledgeable enthusiastic, patient and sweet!
She taught us so much about the history and geography of Hawaii. She made this experience fun and exciting. We loved her stories. The tour and touring with Juliana, we highly recommend. Thank you!!

Top notch! Request Sergio! All over the island adventure is more than expected. Great history. Many stops to break up the trip. Highly recommend.

Charlie exceeded all expectations. This well planned itinerary came to life with Charlie as a guide. He possesses a vast knowledge of Hawaii, Hawaiian history and folklore, Hawaiian geology, biology, botany and factors affecting Hawaii. Wish there was a pdf of all we learned on this tour.

My wife and I went on an all day tour with Wasabi Tours hosted by Mr. K (aka "Bruddah K"). The tour hit the hot spots my wife was hoping for. The lunch prepared by Mr. K and his wife was the kind of homemade bento lunch that my wife would make for us, and was delicious. We highly recommend this tour.

Mr. K was the tour guide on my trip. He was great! Mr. K knows so much about the island. If anyone had a question, he was happy to reply. He tells great stories, shares the culture, and tells funny jokes. One thing I appreciated was being told approximately how long it would be between stops. I ended my day feeling like I had seen the island well. Lunch and snacks were provided. Lunch was delicious. Enjoyed my day very much! Thank you to Viator for helping me connect with this tour!

This tour was very enjoyable and hit all the important spots. Our tour guide kept things light and fun, and seemed well versed in the history of the island.

Amana was an excellent tour guide. We enjoyed everywhere place we visited. Learning the history of the area and the culture of Hawaiians was quite remarkable.

Mr.K was a great tour guide, so Informative, funny, and savvy about the places we visited. I love HI. 😍

Our driver Nathan made this tour a fun experience. Great sites and a surprisingly good lunch. Stopped many times and everything was great. Thanks

Lovely day visiting many areas around the island.plenty of stops along the way and a very friendly informative driver who knew his stuff.

Ryan picked us up at our hotel right as scheduled. We had a full day of driving around the Big Island. Ryan provided great dialogue and insight into the island history, fauna and fun spots. He even stopped at some surprise places, like the donut shop at south end of island. Good stuff!!!
All and all we had a great time and learned a lot along the way. Well worth time and money.

The entire experience met all of expectations for my wife and I. Our tour guide Kela was a wealth of knowledge about all of the sites and the culture and history of Hawaii. The vehicle allowed for comfort of the parties. I would suggest it to any that visits the island.

Long day but well worth it saw so much of island and guide was brilliant with so much knowledge. Stop for lunch included and was lovely. Best having small tour and well worth money.

Dan, our tour guide was very accommodating and knowledgeable about the Big Island. He was also humble enough to ask the group if they know something that they can add to the tidbits he was imparting. We got to see the highlights of each side of the Big Island and it was amazing how the sceneries and climate could change. From the coffee farm to the Black sand beach, the waterfalls, orchid farm, the volcanoes and the valley, it was worth the time and the fee.

Ryan was a great tour guide. He made a 11-12 hour tour fly by while he shared his knowledge, stories, and humor. The beaches, volcanoes, and waterfalls were beautiful. Seeing how coffee beans and macadamia nuts get from the farms to our tables was interesting. We are traveling with our 12 year old grandson and he loved the whole experience. A special thank you to Ryan who, after his even longer day, returnedto our condo to drop off an item we’d left in the van!

Great experience......Ryan was so much fun! Knew so many informative facts of the island. So pleasant to be with. Worth every penny!

This is a great tour to see the major attractions on the Big Island! Our tour director Dan was so knowledgeable and he really made sure everyone had a great time! Lunch in the Orchid Garden was just lovely!! Higly recommend this tour!

Kala was a very knowledgeable and informative guide. Not only did we get to see most of the highlights of the big island in one day, but we learned more about Hawaiian history and traditional culture during this tour than we did during the rest of our trip to Hawaii. Kala had cold water and granola bars for snacks throughout the day for whenever we wanted them, and for lunch we had a heated teriyaki chicken, fish, sweet potato, and rice bento with pineapple and cookies for dessert. It was so much better than the cold sandwiches and chips I was expecting. The weather was beautiful and sunny, and the waterfalls were gorgeous! We also got to see several sea turtles at the black sand beach and watch the sunset over Kona coffee farm. The only part that was slightly disappointing was the lava tube, which was quite small and not as exciting as I had anticipated. Also we were not able to see active lava, which I was really excited to see, but Kala explained why this was not always (or often) possible, especially after the large amount of volcanic activity this past year. Overall, I was very happy with choosing this tour and learned a lot of information. If you only have one day on the big island like we did and want to get a great overview, I would highly recommend this tour.

We really enjoyed our tour with Ryan. It was a long day but Ryan kept us engaged. I wish we could have spent more time on Big Island but our plans didn't allow for it.

The words and gentle laugh of Awana our guide are still with me now months after our tour. He introduced our group to the most beautiful areas of the Big Island as well as to the rich culture of which I knew not much. It has allowed me to continue to learn about the culture of Hawaii from his guidance and our visit is still so strong in my Heart.

Very enjoyable and educational trip. Nate was a great guide, sharing island history, keeping us on schedule, and answering all our questions. We traveled through several ecosystems and got a good overview of the island. Highly recommended.

it was a wonderful way to see a lot of the island in 1 day and not renting your own car. the guide was great. highly recommend

The tour was awesome. Even though we weren't able to visit the volcanoes, and all of us wanted to, they modified the tour and were still able to show us some beautiful sights. Our guide was Nate, and he was wonderful. He really knew about the areas he took us to, and had a great sense of humor. He even did a good job taking our jokes about wanting to see the lava multiple times. He kept us all safe and made sure we were comfortable all throughout the day. This is a great way to see some very beautiful sights and see the entire island in one day! We would recommend this tour to anyone visiting the Big Island, as it was probably our favorite day of our trip.

Ryan was very informative and told of all we were seeing with genuine excitement in his voice. Thoroughly enjoyed this tour.

Today we did a circle island tour of Hawaii. Our driver, Ryan, was very knowledgeable and you can tell he is passionate about his job and proud of where he lives. We were a couple, and were in a tour with 2 families. So, our van was quite packed. There are a lot of tight turns and uneven roads, so if you get motion sick, it is best to take some Dramamine before you go. I did. This tour is jam packed with lots of things to see and many stops to make...so plan on being gone for 12 hours. We did this tour early in our trip, just in case we wanted to go back and revisit some of the stops. Which we did. We went back to the coffee shop, the bakery, and the volcano. Made for a nice finish to our vacation before flying home that night.

If there is one thing you can do on the island, I would say reserve a day to do this tour since you many of what the beautiful Big Island has to offer from waterfalls, to the volcano, to lava tubes, to awesome beaches! Kai was our guide and I am SO thankful for him. He gave us the BEST tour because he gave us such an amazing history and perspective on the Hawaiian culture. Kai's energy set the tone for the unforgettable day we had. When we come back to this island we will definitely take this tour again and put in a special request for Kai.

I think the thing that made this trip so memorable was actually our guide, Ryan. He was so knowledgeable about pretty much everything. There was nothing he couldn't answer. He risked getting a ticket to park the van and get out and explain how a lava tube is formed at the Thurston Lava Tube. He got absolutely soaking wet helping each member of our 13-person group get back to the van during an insane rain storm at the Jaggar Museum. He taught us all about Hawaii's history and flora and fauna and language throughout the day. He even stopped at extra places along the way to show us his favourite look out spots! There is so much more to making a tour good than just pointing things out and Ryan is a true asset to your company! I work for a tour operator as well, and I want to steal him!

This is a perfect tour for seeing almost the entire island in one day. Picked up in Kona with quick stops at the Royal Kona Coffee Company free samples and the countries southern-most bakery. Also saw brief glimpses of the Captain Cook monument and the U.S.'s southern-most point. First major stop was at a black sand beach with about 8 large green turtles lounging on the sand. Then a very good lunch chicken, fish, rice, pineapple, cookies at a nice spot near Volcanoes National Park. Then onto the Park for amazing views of the volcano craters no lava unfortunately, a walk through a lava tube, and we beat the torrential downpour by about 10 minutes!!! Then onto Hilo rainy side of island to see Rainbow Falls and another much higher waterfall. Final stop was Waipio Valley overlook for photos and then a bright orange sunset as we crossed back over to the dry side of the island. Ryan was great, got everyone involved, kept the tour moving and provided lots of information on the history, plants, animals and character of the island. Ryan was very easy to listen to and you could tell he was interested in making the tour enjoyable for everyone and adding his own experiences on moving to/living on the Big Island. It is a long day, so be prepared, but is definitely worth it!