Volcano Tours From Hilo

[frisbeewife]

Me (66F) and my husband (74M) will be on the NCL cruise in January for our first and only trip to Hawaii.  One thing on the must-see list is at least 1 volcano.  We'll be in Hilo from 8:00 to 6:00 and in Kailua-kona from 7:00 to 5:30.  Would Hilo be the best option for visiting Volcano National Park?  And would it be better to just do the ship's excursion or are there plenty of private tours that might give us a better experience?  The advantage of the ship's excursion, of course, is the ship won't leave without us.  I'm not familiar enough with the traffic, road conditions, distances, etc. to judge whether that's really a potential issue so advice would be great.

 

Here's the description of the ship's excursion:

 

Volcanoes National Park

Details

• 4 1/2
  hrs Estimate Duration

 

Spectacular volcanoes, craters and steam vents are waiting to be explored at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park that has recently reopened after a period of tumultuous volcanic activity. The landscape of Volcanoes Park has dramatically changed as the floor of the Kilauea crater sunk over 1,500 feet and the overall caldera quadrupled in size and widened by over a square mile.

 

Today, the explosive eruptions, earthquakes and ash clouds have been replaced by remarkable changes in the summit area.

 

The highlights of this exciting tour include approximately half hour visits at each of the following destinations in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park while riding to each stop in comfort on a deluxe motor coach. Walk through the Kilauea Visitors Center to receive information on the Park’s current conditions, view educational exhibits and interact with park rangers. Then you’ll be engulfed in rising steam as ground water seeps down to the hot volcanic rocks at the Steam Vents. The area between the edge of Kilauea’s caldera and the outer cliffs are treeless because the extreme heat destroys their roots; only shallow-rooted grasses and other hearty plants survive here. Unforgettable views for miles are offered from the Jagger Museum Overlook. Kilauea’s massive size and scale is realized from this vantage point and Halemau’uma’u Crater and Mauna Loa are seen in the distance. On your return to the pier, stop and experience Hawaii's Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Visitor Center. Award winning Mauna Loa has over 30 year history of perfecting one of the most delicious Macadamia Nut in the world. The Volcanoes National Park Tour is not to be missed and includes round-trip transportation from the pier by deluxe motorcoach.

[CruiserBruce]

A quick look at a map shows Hilo to be MUCH closer than Kona to the park, although the scenery is a bit better coming from Kona.

 

I would always encourage you to take a private tour that will probably take you to a couple better locations than the ship's tour will, probably in addition to the standard stops. In this case, going deeper into the park will be very informative and fun. The absolute last thing I would do is worry about the private tour not getting you back to the ship on time. The cruise lines love to tell you missing the ship is a real possibility, where in fact its so extremely rare, most of the long time posters here can't remember anyone ever reporting it happened. Causing you to miss your ship would crush the business of a private tour vendor.

 

The ship's excursion is a standard basic excursion. It will probably meet your needs.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

Yes, Hilo is the best port for Volcano National Park and I think the private tours are pretty used to get their customers back on time.