Big Island, Hawaii

Kona International Airport receives direct flights from the US mainland. The Kohala Coast — the dry, sunny leeward coast north of Kona — is where the Big Island's world-class resorts are located. Check into your Kohala Coast resort and spend the afternoon at the beach: the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel's Kauna'oa Beach is consistently rated Hawaii's finest beach —kat a perfect crescent of white sand with the typically calm leeward Pacific. The Four Seasons at Hualalai sits on a more dramatic lava rock coastline with tide pools and snorkeling directly from the beach. Kailua-Kona town has the Hulihee Palace (a 19th-century royal vacation retreat, now a museum), the Mokuaikaua Church (Hawaii's oldest Christian church, 1820), and the waterfront Alii Drive lined with restaurants, surf shops, and outrigger canoe clubs.

Drive 95 miles south to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park — one of the most extraordinary national parks on earth and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Kilauea Caldera at the park's center is an enormous volcanic crater that last erupted dramatically in 2018 (creating a new summit collapse) and has since had continued activity in the summit lava lake. The Kilauea Overlook and the Jaggar Museum site (under renovation) provide the best caldera views. The Thurston Lava Tube — a 500-year-old lava tube walkthrough — takes you inside a cooling lava flow. The Chain of Craters Road descends 3,700 feet from the summit to the coast, passing hardened lava flows from the 2018 eruption and earlier flows that covered entire neighborhoods. The Halema'uma'u Crater with its active lava lake (when erupting) is the most extraordinary sight in the islands. Return via the Punalu'u Black Sand Beach for swimming among endangered Hawaiian green sea turtles.

The night manta ray snorkeling at Garden Eel Cove off Kona Airport is consistently rated one of the greatest wildlife encounters in any ocean. The dive operators set up underwater lights on the sandy bottom (8-10 meters) that attract the plankton that the mantas feed on; the mantas — with wingspans of up to 14 feet — perform slow-motion barrel rolls directly over the lights, feeding in an otherworldly underwater ballet. Snorkelers float above on the surface watching the enormous rays pass within touching distance (touching is strictly prohibited). The water is warm and clear; the experience of a 14-foot manta ray passing 2 feet beneath you in the darkness is genuinely one of the most extraordinary things available to do in the natural world. The daytime preceding the night dive is for the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park and the fish ponds of the ancient Hawaiian culture.

Drive north along the Kohala Coast and then inland to the Hamakua Coast and Waipio Valley Lookout —kat a viewpoint above one of the most dramatic landscapes in Hawaii. Waipio Valley (Valley of Kings) is a narrow, steep-walled glacially cut valley that descends 2,000 feet from the mountains to a black sand beach at the Pacific, with Hi'ilawe Falls (1,200 feet, Hawaii's tallest) visible at the back wall. The valley floor is only accessible by 4x4 (the road has a 25% grade) or by guided tour; the valley floor has taro paddies, wild horses, and a black sand beach. A hiking alternative is the Z-ridge trail down into the valley. The Hamakua Coast drive from Waipio back south passes the most dramatic sea cliff scenery in Hawaii —kat green pastures dropping directly to the Pacific in a series of gulches that carry waterfall-fed streams to the sea.

Mauna Kea (13,796 feet) is the highest peak in the Pacific and, measured from the ocean floor, the world's tallest mountain. The summit is one of the world's premier astronomical observatories — 13 countries have telescopes here and the atmosphere at 14,000 feet is extraordinarily clear. The Onizuka Visitor Center at 9,200 feet (open afternoon and evening) is the acclimatization point; the summit road requires a 4x4 or a tour vehicle. The drive from sea level to the summit passes through every climate zone on earth within 90 minutes —kat from tropical beach to alpine tundra. Watching the sunset from Mauna Kea as the clouds far below turn pink and gold, then stargazing from 14,000 feet with no light pollution and the entire southern sky visible, is one of the most extraordinary experiences available in Hawaii.

Drive across the island to Hilo —kat the rainy, verdant windward capital that is entirely different from the dry Kona coast. Hilo receives 130 inches of rain annually and the result is extraordinary: Rainbow Falls (the Wailuku River drops 80 feet over a natural lava arch), Akaka Falls (442 feet, accessible via a beautiful 0.4-mile rainforest loop trail), and the Japanese-influenced botanical gardens (Liliuokalani Park, the largest bonsai collection outside Japan). Hilo Bay has a beautiful crescent of black sand beach. The Hilo Farmers' Market (Wednesday and Saturday) is the finest in Hawaii: tropical flowers, unusual fruits (like the Rollinia, a custard-apple native to South America grown in the Big Island's volcanic soil), Macadamia nuts, and local coffee. Return to the Kohala Coast for a final night.

Kona International Airport has direct flights to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. A final morning at your Kohala Coast beach before heading to the airport. The Captain Cook Monument at Kealakekua Bay — where Captain James Cook was killed in 1779 in a conflict with Hawaiian warriors — is the most dramatic snorkeling spot on the island (accessible by kayak or boat tour) with extraordinary clarity and 100-foot visibility. Take home Kona coffee (the only coffee grown in the US mainland and territories; Kona's volcanic slope produces some of the world's finest), Big Island honey (macadamia blossom honey is extraordinary), and a Aloha shirt from Hilo Hatties. The Big Island is the most geologically alive place on earth and the specific memory of Kilauea's glow at night is genuinely otherworldly.