Hilo is a great town to experience on your Hawaii vacation

If you are considering a stay in Hilo, you should be forewarned of the weather. Hilo (pronounced hee-low) is probably the only town in the United States that gets concerned for a drought, if they get less than 70 inches of rain! For those who are from much more arid climates, this may come as a little bit of a shock and it is meant to!

Now don't let the weather scare you, because Hilo is a must see on your family vacation getaway. It is a quaint little town that has some interesting history. The town was initially founded around the 1100's and slowly developed over the centuries. In this town, the great King Kamehameha grew up. In fact, it was the center of political activity, because it represented a prime place to launch his little navy upon the other Hawaiian islands. Over the years, Hilo continued to grow and thrive, especially with the sugar industry being as successful as it was. All of this came to a rather abrupt halt when destructive tsunamis swept across the town in 1946 and 1960, the town has never really recovered and with the end of the sugar industry, the town depends on tourism and commerce to stay alive.

Enough history, you came to vacation then move on. You should know a little about the people first. Remember that everyone who has lived in Hilo for a number of years, probably had family that they lost in the tsunamis. Now, most people after losing everything twice, would up and move. Well most people of Hilo stayed. This should tell you that they are a proud and stubborn (not in a bad way) people. That being said, Hilo has developed a reputation as being somewhat unfriendly towards visitors. I found this to be untrue when I visited, however, I have heard of others who were treated in a downright rude manner and never once experienced bad treatment anywhere else in Hawaii!

When you visit, you will want to take the time to walk downtown on Kamehameha Ave. and see some of the historic section of town. Along this avenue, you will come across the Pacific Tsunami Museum. It is worth the $7 to visit this museum and learn a little more about the history of the town and what causes tsunamis and their destructive nature. In fact, if you watch the video about tsunamis, you will get to watch it in an old bank vault, for the museum is in an old bank. Just don't try to do anything on Sunday, in fact the whole town of Hilo basically shuts down on Sunday. You will also find that this avenue has a lot of quaint little shops on it that sell some pretty cool antiques, artwork and "stuff" that make good vacation mementos.

A very common tourist attraction in Hilo, is to make the pilgrimage to Rainbow Falls, Pe'epe'e Falls (no, it is not pee pee! it is pronounced peh-eh peh-eh), and the Boiling pots. After you finish exploring the historic part of town, head west on Kamehameha avenue until you come to Waianuenue Ave. Turn left on this road and follow it for about a mile and a half. The sign for Rainbow falls is small so watch carefully for it, it'll be on your right hand side. When visiting these spots, be extra carefull to lock your vehicle and make sure that you don't leave any valuables out in the open. These spots have been notorious for thieves to break in and make off with your belongings while you are innocently walking around. By the way, if you go down to the pool at the bottom of Pe'epe'e Falls, put on some mosquito repellant. The mosquitoes are terrible here and will gladly suck you dry if you don't have any kind of protection.

When you head back into Hilo, you should take the time to travel down Banyon drive and look at the stately Banyon trees. Each of these trees was planted by some famous person like King George V, Babe Ruth, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

There are a few other interesting places in Hilo, like Nani Mau Gardens (a common place to have a Hawaiian wedding), and Big Island Candies which makes some outstanding chocolate. After that you should continue on to the rest of the big island and see what else it has to offer.

For the most part, people vacationing in Hilo, use it as a staging point to visit places. In this case you will need to rent a car and we suggest you Get 10% off car rental with Budget! There are a lot of cool places to visit around Hilo, like Puna and the surrounding area, so be sure to check it out.

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