Hilo And Hana: What Even Longtime Hawaii Visitors Miss

Hilo still feels stuck in time and in a good way. On our recent visit, we enjoyed the waterfront and parks, browsed stores, ate out, and simply hung out and drove around town. We’ve been traveling throughout Hawaii for decades, and there’s still something about Hilo that makes us happy just to be there, without needing an itinerary full of attractions.

Then, our recent two-night stay in Hana on Maui left us with a similar feeling, although the experiences were very different. We’ve both known and visited these places repeatedly over the years, yet they still surprise and delight us. They’re also places that many travelers know by name without necessarily experiencing much of what makes them special.

With Hawaii vacations costing so much, it’s understandable that visitors want to make the most of every day. That can mean planning activities, booking excursions, and fitting in as many famous stops as possible. But our recent visits reminded us how much we enjoy a different approach to Hawaii, especially in two places where the usual Hawaii vacation routine doesn’t always serve visitors well.

When a famous Hawaii destination becomes something to check off.

Hana has one of Hawaii’s best-known roads, and that has become both its attraction and its predicament. Visitors spend hours driving there, stopping for waterfalls, photographs, and scenic viewpoints before eventually reaching the town. By then, many are thinking about the long drive back, with limited time to appreciate or enjoy Hana itself. We understand that routine perfectly because we did it for decades, too.

When we finally spent two nights in Hana this fall, some of our favorite moments happened outside the hours when most day-trippers were even around. We had Hamoa Beach entirely to ourselves early in the morning, found the roads remarkably quiet later in the day, and thoroughly enjoyed the late-afternoon farmers market, walking around town at a leisurely pace. We weren’t trying to squeeze everything into the hours between arriving and leaving, which, when driving the Road to Hana, are typically few.

Our earlier Hana article covered the accommodations, food, and practical considerations of staying overnight, so we won’t repeat all that here. What has stayed with us is realizing we had been visiting one of our favorite parts of Maui for years while largely missing its best times. The same highway that makes Hana famous can dominate the experience so completely that visitors barely get to know the place at the end of the road.

Hana also has a strange contradiction in how it is often experienced. It can be incredibly busy during the middle of the day, with rental cars converging on a small community, yet feel remarkably different only a few hours earlier or later. That doesn’t make the traffic and its impact on residents disappear, but it certainly changes what a visitor encounters and feels.

Hilo doesn’t need any sightseeing checklist.

Hilo gets overlooked for almost the opposite reason. It doesn’t have a world-famous drive ending in town, and it isn’t surrounded by the kind of large beach resorts that dominate the visitor experience around Kona and the Kohala Coast. Many Big Island travelers spend their time on the western side, generally avoiding or just passing through Hilo on the way to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, or stopping briefly before heading elsewhere.

We’ve liked Hilo for decades, but our latest visit was a particularly enjoyable reminder of why. We loved the older commercial streets, the waterfront, and the mix of stores, restaurants, and parks that make it such an interesting Hawaii town to explore. Driving around was part of the pleasure, and we were happy spending time there without needing to reach some important attraction before moving on.

Hilo’s downtown feels different from the carefully curated shopping and dining areas found near many Hawaii resorts. Some buildings and businesses have been there for years, while others have come and gone. It isn’t uniformly polished or fashionable by any measure, and we wouldn’t want it to become that way. When we say Hilo feels stuck in time in a good way, we’re talking about the character we enjoy, while not suggesting that residents should have to put up with outdated facilities or inadequate services.

One highlight of our latest visit was a restaurant that turned out to be a real gem.

We were driving from Volcanoes National Park to Hilo and, before reaching downtown, pulled over at Sweet Cane Cafe. That location worked well because it put us closer to Rainbow Falls, our next stop after lunch. Sweet Cane offers a vegetarian menu and was packed at lunch, but still very welcoming. The menu goes well beyond typical health food, with taro and ulu burgers, cassava-crust pizza, creative salads, homemade breads, and smoothies made with fresh sugarcane juice. We loved dining there and highly recommend going.

Rainbow Falls was about a 10-minute drive after lunch. It recently received global recognition as the world’s easiest waterfall to visit. The trail to the falls is about 700 feet. Rainbow was chosen from 129 waterfalls studied globally. Legends say the cave beneath the 80-foot waterfall is home to Hina, the Hawaiian goddess of the moon. We were there in late December just before entry fees became mandated. It now costs $10 to park and $5 per person to enter.

We’ve already shared our enthusiasm for Liliuokalani Gardens, where we were impressed by the beauty of the grounds and that such an exceptional public place remains free and accessible, without crowding or elaborate arrangements. Our experience at Hilo Airport was another pleasant surprise, with comfortable surroundings and a more relaxed atmosphere than we’re accustomed to at Hawaii’s busier airports.

Those visits had already made us appreciate some of Hilo’s less celebrated qualities. But enjoying its downtown, restaurants, and waterfront gave us something different: the pleasure of spending time in a community that functions primarily as a place to live, not as a tourist destination. Hilo has plenty of attractions worth visiting, but they aren’t the only reason we like going there.

The numbers behind two very different places.

Hana and Hilo differ substantially in tourism, and the state’s latest visitor accommodation numbers help explain what they share. According to Hawaii’s 2025 Visitor Plant Inventory, the Hana area had just 107 reported visitor accommodation units, compared with 11,837 across popular Lahaina, Kaanapali, Napili, and Kapalua.

On the Big Island, the broader Hilo/Honokaa area had 1,116 reported units, while Kona and the Kohala/Waimea/Kawaihae region together accounted for 10,434. Those are huge differences, even if the areas aren’t necessarily comparable in geographic size and the inventory doesn’t include every bookable rental.

Hana’s isolation and small scale have limited large resort development. Hilo’s history is surprisingly different. It was once one of Hawaii’s major tourism gateways, with direct mainland jet service beginning in 1967 and approximately 2,000 hotel rooms in the 1970s. Hilo was a substantial visitor destination in its own right before much of the Big Island’s resort development and tourism shifted toward the sunnier Kona and Kohala coasts. Today, neither Hana nor Hilo is built around large-scale resort vacations, but they got there in very different ways.

What visitors may be missing in plain sight.

For travelers returning to Hawaii, especially those who have already visited the major attractions, Hana and Hilo offer an opportunity to approach a familiar destination differently. That doesn’t require abandoning favorite resorts or giving up activities you’ve been looking forward to. It might simply mean changing what gets the time and attention during a visit.

In Hana, the practical consideration is allowing enough time to experience the destination rather than having the entire day revolve around the highway. Our overnight stay made that possible in ways we’d never fully appreciated on previous drives. For people who have already driven the Road to Hana, there may be more to gain from spending time in the community and surrounding area than from repeating a packed schedule of roadside stops.

Hilo offers much more flexibility. You don’t have to stay overnight or make elaborate arrangements to enjoy downtown, the waterfront, local restaurants, and stores. But if you’re crossing the Big Island to visit Volcanoes National Park, it’s worth considering whether Hilo deserves more than a quick stop. We found plenty to keep us interested without planning every hour.

After our earlier article about Liliuokalani Gardens, one reader who spends more than 90% of their Hawaii time in Hilo asked us to stop writing about the town. We understood the sentiment, especially given how much some Hawaii destinations have changed over the years. We’re not going to stop writing about Hilo, though, and our latest visit gave us even more reasons to return.

We’ve also reported extensively on the park’s continuing Coconut Island bridge closure, which frustrates residents and visitors alike. We won’t romanticize difficulties like that.

If you know Hana or Hilo well, we’d love to hear what keeps you coming back. Are there particular experiences, businesses, or places that you enjoy there that other visitors might easily miss?

Photo Credit: © Beat of Hawaii.

By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.

Some of Hawaii’s most meaningful parts are the ones visitors walk right past without knowing they are there. We’ve spent nearly 20 years finding them firsthand for BOH as full-time Hawaii residents reporting on travel, culture, and island life, and telling you what they mean for your trip. Join us →