For our one year wedding anniversary, we decided to go on a big trip, one that we will remember forever. For our honeymoon we went to St. Lucia and stayed at a Sandals Resort, which we loveeeed so much! St. Lucia reminded us so much of Hawaii (beautiful beaches, the water, tropical flowers/plants) that we decided for our one year wedding anniversary we would go to Hawaii! The Big Island to be exact! We rented an Airbnb for 8 days, in the town on Kailua, our place was about 10 minutes from the local town and a few minutes away from a nice beach area.
Dayne and I went to Oahu about 7 years ago, so it was nice to be able to still go to Hawaii and choose a different island. Oahu is more city like and I would say there is more to do, while The Big Island is more country like with small towns/villages. We loved both places so much because they were different from each other!
WHERE WE STAYED: We enjoyed our stay at this cute boho style beach studio! Right across the street was the ocean, grills, picnic tables, and an area to sit watch watch the waves, which we had full access to! We went out there almost every night and we ended up seeing a few sea turtles!
LOCAL RESTAURANTS WE LOVED: Island Java | Big Island Grill | Foster’s Kitchen | Papa Kona (my fav + its right on the ocean!) | Fish Hopper (Dayne’s fav! + beautiful view of the ocean!) | We also heard Huggo’s was really good but due to COVID it was shut down | Island Ono Loa Grill |Mahina Pizza |
BEST BEACHES: Kekaha Kai State Park (fun surfing waves!) | Kua Bay (very popular beach) | Wawaloli Beach | Magic Sands Beach | Punalu’u Black Sand Beach
WHAT TO DO: Waipio Valley (long hike down a steep hill and back to the black sand beach, ocean and valley water connect– this was truly amazing to experience! It’s a must!) | Akaka Falls (we loved this one!) | Rainbow Falls Lookout | The Volcano & Steam Vents (Probably our fav thing we see!) | ATV Riding | Hot Springs | Cliff Diving
We also stopped and got hawaiian shaved ice at an award winning shop, called Scandinavian Shave Ice! It was about a 3 minute walk from The Fish Hopper restaurant. A cute shop with a ton of flavors, toppings and ice cream to even put inside your shaved ice! Dayne took a couple bites before I got a chance to take photo… what I can say, it was delicious!
CHECK OUT OUR HAWAII VLOG!
Thanks for checking out of Hawaii vlog! If you’re looking to head to The Big Island for a vacation, I hope this helped you! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
Thanks guys! I hope you have a great rest of your week and happy holidays! If you’re looking for a gift guide to shop for loved ones, check out my gift guide blog post!
Much love, xoxo liv
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