The Big Island's attractions are spread across 4,028 square miles and several regions that look nothing alike, so the honest answer to what to do here is to pick two regions and do them properly. This is a region-by-region list of what earns the drive, what it costs, and where the ocean risk sits. A fair amount of it is free.
Kahaluʻu Beach Park south of Kailua-Kona is a shallow, reef-protected cove with a county lifeguard, and one of the few places on this coast where you can walk in and see reef straight away. Easy entry is not the same as safe water, so ask the lifeguard about conditions before you get in. Hōnaunau Bay, known as Two Step, has a lava-ledge entry with no sand and no lifeguard, and is described by the island's visitors bureau as a fragile bay for experienced swimmers and snorkelers.
Next door, Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park is $20 per private vehicle, covering the driver and up to eight passengers, with gates open daily 8:15 a.m. until sunset. Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park is free and open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., but all vessels, including kayaks, boats, canoes, stand-up paddleboards and inflatables, need a State Parks permit to transit the bay, launching from Nāpōʻopoʻo wharf is prohibited, and permitted vessels are prohibited from landing at Kaʻawaloa flat below the Captain Cook Monument. Two companies hold permits for guided commercial kayak tours to the monument.
Inland, the coffee belt through Holualoa and Captain Cook runs farm tours and tastings. Night snorkel trips to see manta rays operate off the Kona coast and are the signature paid activity here.
This is where the white sand is. Hāpuna is the largest white sand beach on the island, has lifeguard services, runs 7:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. with gates closing at 8:00 p.m., and charges non-residents $5 per person plus $10 per vehicle. Spencer Beach Park is reef-protected with a county lifeguard. Kaunaʻoa is a crescent of sand leading to calm water, and Waialea has sand and reef. Neither has a lifeguard.
Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site sits next to Spencer: the lava-rock temple built by Kamehameha I, on an easy paved trail. At the far north, Hāwī and Kapaʻau are walkable former plantation towns with galleries, and the road ends at the Pololū Valley lookout. The view from the top costs nothing; the trail down is steep and the beach at the bottom is not a swimming beach.
Waimea is upcountry ranch country, cooler and greener than the coast, with a Saturday farmers market. It is also the junction where you decide between Saddle Road and the Hāmākua route.
ʻAkaka Falls State Park is the reliable stop on the coast: a 0.4-mile paved loop footpath with multiple steps, not wheelchair accessible, past ʻAkaka Falls, which plunges 442 feet into a stream-eroded gorge, with a vista over Kahuna Falls as well. It is open daily 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., $5 per person plus $10 per vehicle for non-residents, credit card only. The Waipiʻo Valley lookout is open to everyone; road access to the valley floor is currently limited to island residents, county-permitted tour operators, and people practising Native Hawaiian traditional or customary rights.
Hilo is a working town and the place to be when it rains. Liliʻuokalani Gardens is a Japanese garden on the bay. The Pacific Tsunami Museum covers the waves that reshaped the town. The ʻImiloa Astronomy Center connects the Maunakea telescopes to Polynesian navigation. Rainbow Falls is a paved roadside lookout with no hiking involved. The Hilo Farmers Market runs daily, with Wednesday and Saturday the big days.
The Hilo beaches are a different animal from Kona's: reef ponds rather than open sand, and five of the island's ten lifeguarded beaches are here. Richardson fronts the most popular snorkeling site on the east side of the island, and Onekahakaha is a shallow pool with tide pools and inlets. Out in Puna, Lava Tree State Monument is a short shaded loop past lava moulds of trees engulfed by an old flow, and Pohoiki shows what the 2018 Kīlauea eruption did to the coast.
Punaluʻu Black Sand Beach is the island's famous black sand beach and a place where honu, Hawaiian green sea turtles, bask on the shore. It is on the state's lifeguarded list. NOAA Fisheries asks you to stay at least 10 feet from turtles on land and in the water.
Papakōlea Green Sand Beach sits in a bay half circled by Puʻu Mahana, a tuff ring, and its green color comes from olivine crystals. It is about three miles east of Ka Lae, surrounded by pastureland, and legally accessible only on foot; the paths are rugged from erosion and illegal vehicle traffic, and there is no shade, no drinking water and no facilities. Ka Lae, South Point, is the southernmost point of the United States: wind, cliffs, and no rescue if you go in. Naʻalehu is the practical stop for fuel and food along this stretch.
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is $30 per private vehicle for seven days, card only, and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Kīlauea has been erupting episodically from Halemaʻumaʻu since December 23, 2024, but the eruption area is closed and activity comes in episodes that can be as short as a few hours, separated by pauses of several days or weeks. Plan for the park, not for lava, and expect closures and delays from a two-year construction project at the summit. Parking lots frequently fill by 10 a.m. Kīlauea Iki is the signature hike, down through rainforest onto a solidified lava-lake floor. Devastation Trail is short and paved. Puʻu Loa is a boardwalk over a petroglyph field off Chain of Craters Road, which leads down to the coast and dead-ends there.
Mauna Kea's Visitor Information Station at 9,200 feet is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The summit at 13,803 feet is open from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset and requires four-wheel drive in low range on unpaved road, plus half a tank of fuel and a vehicle free of mud and invasive species. If you do not have the right vehicle or the right health profile, the station itself is worth the drive.
Free: every beach on the island except the state parks that charge, the Pololū and Waipiʻo lookouts, the Hilo bayfront and Liliʻuokalani Gardens, Rainbow Falls, the Kailua-Kona farmers market, and the Kohala shoreline trail. Sunset from the Kona side costs nothing.
Rainy: the east side gets most of the rain, so a wet Hilo morning is often a dry Kohala afternoon a couple of hours away. When it is wet everywhere, the museums and gardens in Hilo, the galleries in Hāwī and Holualoa, and a coffee farm tour will fill a day. After heavy rain, stay out of the ocean near stream mouths and harbours, and off wet lava, which is slick.