The Hot Pools of the Big Island

We couldn't drive more than a few hundred feet from our house before we had to pull over to enjoy the view.  The Puna Coast is black lava rock amidst verdant jungle brush, making for incredibly picturesque coastal views every where you go.

If you do only one thing on the Big Island, swim in its hot pools.  These geothermal pools are a mixture of fresh water heated by the underground volcanic activity mixed with salt water of the ocean.  The pools are a natural 90+ degrees.  The views, both in the water and out, are amazing.  We literally spent hours at these hot pools.  Two things to keep in mind, however.  Some of them are really a challenge to find.  And once you figure out their location, they are difficult to reach physically.

The scariest thing that happened to us on our vacation happened the first time we set out to find a hidden hot pool.  The first one we heard about could not be found.  So we were determined to locate the second.  We rented SUVs for the entirety of our trip but at no time do you need a 4WD high-clearance SUV more than when you're on the Big Island.  If it weren't for the fact that it required all of my focus to make sure we didn't end up in a collapsed lava tube, plow into a tree, or drive off a cliff, I would have asked C to take a video of the most harrowing drive we've ever taken.  We now look back at it as an adventure but it was pretty scary at the time.  Let's just say that soak in a geothermal pool was well-earned and much needed!  We were there for hours.  There are many pools like this on the Big Island and some of them are a snorkelers paradise.  We visited as many hot pools as we could find during our time on the Puna Coast.

On the way to further adventures, we found a little cafe that we visited gain and again over the next 5 days.  It's full of locals, mostly hippies young and old.  The coffee and pastries were delicious so it didn't matter that we didn't exactly fit in.