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Hilo Town
Big Island Hawaii
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Hilo Town is on the wet tropical coast of the Big Island. The town doesn't have any sweeping golden sand beaches, but there are several nice small beaches where you can spend the day and have a swim. Hilo Bay front Park, in the heart of downtown, has black sand and whilst attractive, the sea is murky, possibly polluted, and is known to have sharks. North of Town are several small cove beaches you can walk down to - Onomea Bay has good body surfing but currents make swimming dangerous. The best of Hilo's beaches is Onekahakaha Beach Park which has good swimming, life guards and camping. Extending east is Richardsons Beach, a nice residential area with intermittent black sand cove beaches and seawalls / rocky outcrops where swimming and snorkelling is good.
The tropical rainforest surrounding Hilo on the east coast of the Big Island is one of the wettest regions in Hawaii with an average of 130 inches of rain each year. Backed by steep tropical mountains, numerous waterfalls cascade over gulches fed by a series of streams that feed off Mauna Kea. Several of these waterfalls are truly spectacular and offer easy public access.
Rainbow Falls, a few miles inland from downtown Hilo can be viewed from the parking lot, and is the most visited of the waterfalls. Upstream from Rainbow Falls is the compelling and infrequently visited Boiling Pots, a series of falls that spill violently into churning pools. A few miles north of Hilo along the coast is the Pepe'ekeo Scenic Drive. Within the valley is the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, a serene tropical garden with colourful flowers and orchids, flanked by valleys and ocean to either side.
About 10 miles north of Hilo is the impressive Akaka Falls which can be viewed along an easy 10-minute stroll along a paved trail through tropical flora. Akaka Falls plummets 442 feet into a pool below and is quite a spectacle. A few miles further north is Umauma Waterfalls and Gardens, a commercial botanical garden with arboretum and garden walks leading to an impressive 300-foot triple waterfall.
The Puna Coast, to the south of Hilo, is a raised rocky coastline with plenty of secluded beaches popular with locals and nudists. The sand here is a mix of white and black, depending on location and currents, and most places have good swimming and snorkelling as well as camping grounds. Few beaches are sign-posted - finding them requires looking for worn paths off the road or other parked cars. Most of the beaches are assessable via rough tracks from the roadside. East of Puna, the coastline has been covered in lava flow from the activity of nearby Kilauea Volcano.
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continue to ... Volcano & the South Coast Big Island
Readers may also be interested in the following destinations:
Cook Islands Travel Guide
Fiji Travel Guide
Samoa Travel Guide
Tonga Travel Guide
Tahiti Travel Guide
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