Hilo offers a range of options to help you plan your trip: waterscapes, gardens, museums, historic buildings and a market selling food and crafts. Each place has its own focus. You can tailor your choices to whether you’d like to focus more on nature, history or the local market offerings, without turning them into a fixed sightseeing itinerary.
Waterscapes and tropical plants
Wailuku River State Park features two distinct water landscapes. The 80-foot-high Rainbow Falls are known for the rainbows that form in their mist on many mornings. Boiling Pots, by contrast, consists of a series of large pools. Underground currents or cascades connect them; the water rolls and bubbles in them as if boiling. The comparison shows how differently waterfalls and interconnected pools can be described within the same park setting.
Panaʻewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens also brings together nature and plant life, but with a different focus: it is the only zoo in the United States located in a tropical rainforest. Plants are the focus of the Native Garden at the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center. This living exhibit includes endemic and indigenous plants, as well as plants introduced by Polynesians. If you’re interested in plant life, you can choose between a zoo in the rainforest and a garden featuring several categories of plants.
History, culture and gardens
The Pacific Tsunami Museum’s permanent exhibits cover different aspects of the subject: tsunami phenomena, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, the history of tsunamis in the Pacific region, and public safety measures during tsunami disasters. The museum also offers a self-guided walking and driving tour of historic tsunami sites. If you’d like to use this guide in your planning, check its availability before your trip.
Wailoa Center, within the Wailoa River State Recreation Area, has two galleries. They host art and cultural exhibitions that run for one month at a time. This offers a different way to explore culture than the historical topics at the Pacific Tsunami Museum: here, the focus is on rotating gallery exhibitions.
Liliʻuokalani Gardens brings together landscape and history. The Japanese garden covers a little more than 20 acres within a 24.67-acre park complex in Hilo. The land in Makaoku was designated a public park on April 3, 1917, by Act 53 of the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaiʻi and dedicated to the memory of Queen Liliʻuokalani. The acreage helps put the garden’s size in context within the overall park complex; the historic dedication adds the story behind its name to this spatial perspective.
Two more places offer insight into architectural and museum history. The Lyman Mission House in historic Downtown Hilo was built in 1839 and is the oldest wood-frame building on the island of Hawaiʻi. The Lyman Museum houses exhibits on the natural and cultural history of Hawaiʻi. The centuries-old wooden façades of shops in Downtown Hilo also form part of the historic streetscape; many are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house, museum and commercial buildings thus offer different ways to explore history: through a single building, exhibits and the façades of the city center.
Market and travel planning
Hilo Farmers Market is an open-air market in the city center. It offers locally grown food, tropical flowers, handmade jewelry and crafts. Other offerings include locally grown and roasted coffee, exotic tropical fruits and sweets such as butter mochi. Alongside nature and cultural attractions, products and crafts offer another focus to consider when planning your trip.
Hilo is home to Hilo International Airport. You can check specific flight schedules separately as part of your travel planning. Whether you choose Hilo mainly for its waterscapes, museums and historic sites, or its market offerings, the different themes can help you decide what you’d like to focus on during your stay.
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