Have only 1 day in Kona....

[G&L in WPG]

We have only 1 brief day in Kona, and would like to make the most of it. We really want to do some (or a) coffee tour(s) (because I LOVE coffee), and would also like to do some snorkeling, as I hear Kona is THE spot for snorkeling. So some questions arise:

 

What time can we feasably expect to get off the Carnival Spirit after tendering to shore?

 

What car rental company would you recommend? Dollar rent a car is close to the pier, but twice the price. Is anyone else close to the pier or with free shuttles from the airport? Alamo and Thrifty are both much cheaper, but I have no idea where the airport is. Do I need to rent a car, or can I do all of this with cabs?

 

What is your favorite Coffee Tour? What is your favorite place to buy coffee? Is there a place that does it's own roasting, has fabulous coffee and is cheap (yeah, yeah, I know I'm asking for a lot!)?

 

On to the snorkeling. The following has been recommended on this board:

Waikola Beach next to Marriot Hotel

Kahalu'u Beach next to Kaehou Beach Hotel

Hapuna Beach

Mauna Kea

Which location would you favour?

 

Of these, which have equipment rentals, showers, bathrooms, and how would you rate them? How are the currents/tides? How far away are they from the pier?

 

I do not want to do a snorkeling tour where I have to Kayak or Zodiac to the snorkeling spot (bad zodiac experience early in life!)

 

This board has been a world of information! Thanks for all the help!

 

Greg & Lisa from Winnipeg

[beachchick]

Aloha! No need to take a zodiac or raft for great snorkeling out of Kona. Look up "Fair Wind," which is a catamaran (sp?) that goes to Kealakekua Bay. People RAVE about it, and it's on our "must do next time in Kona" list.

 

We like Honaunau and Kahalu'u for snorkeling. I'm sorry, but I don't remember what facilities are at either. I don't remember rentals at Honaunau (Place of Refuge), but I think (not sure) that there are rentals at Kahalu'u. Haven't done the others. If you're going to do Kona coffee tasting and then drive to snorkel sites (or vice versa), I suggest sticking with the southern locations. (I'd recommend snorkeling first as the waters are almost always better earlier in the day before the trades kick up.)

 

IMO, cabs are going to get pricy. I'd rent a car for flexibility and to save money. One of the car companies has a location at the King Kamehameha Hotel (literally across the street from where you get off the tenders). A quick search here should get you one of the threads that mention which company it is.

 

As for Kona coffee, the truth is you're not asking for "a lot"; you're asking for an impossibility. "Cheap Kona coffee" is an oxymoron. If it's cheap, it's going to be lower quality or not 100% Kona. It's as simple as that. There's just no getting around the cost--but it is so worth it! Practically all the coffee farms do their own roasting and sell on site. Most of them have tasting too. I don't have a favorite, but there are so many that it will be best to just choose a few and go from there. This site http://www.konacoffeefest.com/drivingtour/map.html has an excellent map which should give you some ideas.

 

Have a great time.

 

beachchick

[spleen93]

IMO, cabs are going to get pricy. I'd rent a car for flexibility and to save money. One of the car companies has a location at the King Kamehameha Hotel (literally across the street from where you get off the tenders). A quick search here should get you one of the threads that mention which company it is.

 

That would be the Dollar franchise in the King Kam hotel.

 

Spleen

[Bucky3]

We were on Carnival Spirit last September.We rented from Dollar in the King Kamehameha Hotel. It was great especially when it was time to turn the car in - there we were right at the dock - no worry about shuttle from the airport back and worrying about timing. Just plan on some time to walk around Kona town after turning in the car. Traffic can be pretty bad late in the afternoon getting back into town. Have a wonderful cruise. We would do that trip again in a heartbeat!!

[sceptic]

Hapuna and Mauna Kea beaches are wonderful - perhaps the finest all-around beaches on any island (well, that's my opinion!) However, they are not considered superb snorkelling beaches even though both do offer some decent snorkeling on the far N and S ends. The downer for these two is that they are far north of Kona, like about 30+ miles. If you're a "I want to lie on a beach all day" kind of person, there's no two finer beaches. But for superb snorkelling AND coffee intake, stay south. Fairwinds to Kealakekua, followed by some coffee in the Captain Cook area. Nice day.

[G&L in WPG]

Aloha Beachchick, Spleen, Bucky, and Sceptic. :D

 

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate the info. I shall do some research on Fair Wind and see if it sounds interesting, although I am not a big fan of catamarans. If not, I'll opt for morning snorkel at Kahalu'u, followed by afternoon Coffee tours. This also has the advantage of being relatively free.

 

The Dollar car rental spot is very convenient, but the base rate is 62.00 compared to 32.00 for Alamo or Thrifty. Does not having to go to the airport justify an extra 30 in the rental price?

 

I was not expecting to find "cheap" Kona coffe, but after looking at the driving tour map and websites listed on the map, there is some variation in the prices. I was actually looking more for a quality recommendation, or places to avoid due to poor quality, bad roasting, or over pricing. Considering that Kona coffee is around $60 Lb and up in Canada (if available), it will all be cheap in Hawaii!

 

Thanks again,

 

Greg & Lisa in Winnipeg, where tonights low is -30C, and tomorrows high with the wind chill is -38C. Hawaii is sounding better and better! :cool:

[spleen93]

The Dollar car rental spot is very convenient, but the base rate is 62.00 compared to 32.00 for Alamo or Thrifty. Does not having to go to the airport justify an extra 30 in the rental price?

 

I really think so. The Kona airport is not an insignificant distance out of town and with the way traffic in Kona is going these days, you may end up killing a lot of time riding a shuttle to the airport and riding a shuttle back from the airport along with sitting in traffic. If you were staying in Kona, I'd say rent from the airport. For a one day visit in Kona, I'd rent from the Dollar in the King Kam. I think it's easily worth the extra $30 for less headaches.

 

Spleen

[beachchick]

Spleen: Mahalo for the info. I just could not come up with the car company name last night. I knew someone would come through with it. I agree--rent at the hotel rather than wasting any of your precious day getting to the airport and then going back later. It's not worth the savings in money to waste so much time, IMO.

 

G&L in WPG: All I can say regarding Kona prices in Canada is "Ouch!" With that in mind, yes you will be able to find some outstanding Kona coffee in the $25 to $35 US per pound range. I believe Spleen's current favorite is called Mountain Thunder, which sounds fantastic, but we've not had it. We consistently enjoy visiting Greenwell Farms and Bay View, but coffee beans are like wine grapes in that each "vintage" is different. We did not like last year's Bay View nearly as much as the 2003. It's all a matter of personal preference I guess. The medium-dark and dark roasts, when roasted properly of course, are just about the smoothest, most delicious coffee anywhere. If you want a "fun" Kona coffee to take home for a gift, go into one of the Bas Ass shops. It's not the absolute best, but it's consistently good, and definitely gets a laugh when given as a gift. Their certified organic, medium-dark roast last year was excellent.

 

beachchick

[SweetEmi]

Regarding the Fair Winds...unless they have changed things in the last couple of months, you don't get in early enough to comfortably go out on their boat that leaves at 9 a.m. with a check in at 8:30 (I believe those are the times). Kona is a tender port and it is a good 15-20 minutes to get to where the Fair Winds is located. Your best bet would be to catch a cab if there is one available because parking is pretty scarse around the Fair Winds also.

 

I didn't read all of the replies above but I would probably do my snorkeling at Kahalu'u because it is very close to the ship and if you definately want to do a coffee plantation it would probably be better to not go driving all the way north to Waikoloa, especially since the coffee is pretty much south of Kona.

 

Hope I didn't confuse you...lol!

 

Oh...wait, now if you do get to go on the Fair Winds, I would definately do it. It was a BLAST! And it is like a boat - not like the dinky catamarans I've been on in Mexico, etc.

 

Emi

[G&L in WPG]

Thanks again for all the replies and advice. Given that we arrive at 8:00 AM, and preference on the tenders is given to Carnival excursions, I think we will skip Fair Winds, and just plan on renting a car at Dollar and going to Kahalu'u to snorkel (although the website videos looked awesome). It is also in the right direction for carrying on to the Coffee plantations! How far of a drive would it be from Kona to Bay View Farms, which appears to be the last place on the driving tour map of plantations? I want to make sure I allow enough time for the return journey, being loaded down with many lbs of coffee. I think coffee is one of the few items the Canadian Government does not have a special tax, duty, surcharge, or registry fee on, so I might as well bring lots back, before they change the rules, and tax the hell out of it.:eek:

[spleen93]

My personal favorite Kona at this time is still Langenstein Farms or the Eddie Sakamoto private reserve espresso roast available at Alan Wong's restaurants. :) I've heard great things about Mountain Thunder but haven't tried it yet - who knows, maybe I'll have a new favorite when I do! I've been too busy playing with Lavazza Italian coffee recently to experiment more with Kona.

 

Spleen

[beachchick]

Oops. My error, Spleen. It must have been someone else raving about Mountain Thunder. I can't recall if we've had Langenstein, but I think so because it sounds so familiar. Who knows, we might have even stopped there, but last time we did about 8 places in one day. I was pretty well over-coffeed by the end of the tastings.

 

beachchick

[beachin']

The Dollar car rental spot is very convenient, but the base rate is 62.00 compared to 32.00 for Alamo or Thrifty. Does not having to go to the airport justify an extra 30 in the rental price?

Have you looked into Enterprise? They pick you up at the King Kam and take you over to their Luhia St. office, a short distance away.

[RvrCrzr]

I just returned from Kona. I had a reservation at the KK Hotel (Dollar), but didn't pick up the car. The hotel literally sits at the end of the tender pier parking lot. There was a Chinese New Year celebration going on, and all the streets near the pier were shut down. They set up booths everywhere, traffic and parking were a nightmare...so I didn't take the car.

 

My findings:

The problem with renting cars in the islands is...

#1. If you have limited time in the port because you are from a ship, and/or are tendering....TIME is your enemy. You will waste time waiting for shuttles, waste time waiting in line to pickup/dropoff the car.

 

#2. Factor in time to get back to the drop point...or getting lost. I got confused driving back to the airports twice...and I had GPS! Some of the drop off points are tricky to find if you are not familiar with the area.

 

#3. Don't, I repeat DON'T mess up the paperwork when you do a walkaround the vehicle to mark damage!

 

#4. Don't forget anything in the car when you leave! :)

 

Renting cars is a good way to see things on your own...Just don't cram too much in each port....and give yourself a 'time cushion' to get back on time.

 

PS...after waiting an hour for the Enterprise shuttle in Maui, and no one answering the phone after the first call...we just walked around Lahaina.

[G&L in WPG]

Thanks you very much ndjollymon, I will certainly take all of that advice to heart when making rental car decisions. It's tough when you have a limited amount of time, tons to see, and a very tight deadline to get back to the ship....

[Middleager]

We were in Kona in early Sept./05. There were 6 of us and we rented a van to do scuba diving/dolphin-watching/snorkeling, and then coffee farm tour. Worked out great.

 

We rented from Enterprise. They pick up quickly from the King Kam hotel, and it was only a few blocks away to get the van. They also drop off.

 

Because there were 6 of us, we chartered a boat ($450), for 4.5 hr of scuba diving (me, two times), dolphin watching in-between (saw pods of spinner dolphins jumping/spinning/dancing for us), and my friends did snorkeling. They really enjoyed it. Lunch was included.

 

At around 2pm, we drove to the Holualoa coffee farm. I had inquired local tour companies/taxies and it'd cost $20-25/ea. So it's much cheaper for us to rent ourselves. The coffee farm tour was free and ended with coffee tasting.

 

If we had fewer people, I would have drove the the Kahalui beach to snorkel there. If you like to snorkel, should consider buying some gear and bring. If not, can rent from Snorkel Bob for a week or two, they have shops on all the islands, and you can returne at all of them.

 

If I had more time, I would go to to the Kaleakekua Bay/Capt. Cook which apparently has the best snorkeling around.

 

 

I also searched a lot of Kona coffee farms. After contacting a few of them about tours and prices, I ended arranging with

www.smithfarms.com

to buy about 13 lbs of coffee from them. They met me at the pier at 4pm. Our last tender is at 4:30pm so the timing worked out quite well. They roasted and packed the coffee that day. We then got the freshest possible coffee that afternoon. If you are buying large quantify, you can try arranging with them. They're a very nice older couple, and they do go to Kona town once awhile.

 

Enjoy Kona (and the rest of Hawaii), we certainly did.