Big Island Circle Island Tour with Pickup from Mauna Kea Beach Hotel
Pickup 7:00–7:15 am | about 10 hours door to door | $245 per person | Max 14 guests
The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel has been the grande dame of the Kohala Coast since 1965, when Laurance Rockefeller decided Kaunaʻoa Bay deserved a hotel worthy of it. Guests here tend to be returners — people who know the property's art collection by heart and have a standing order at the beachfront bar. If that's you, the Circle Island Tour is the day that refreshes the whole island, not just your favorite corner of it.
We collect you under the hotel's iconic open-air lobby between 7:00 and 7:15 am. As the northernmost stop on our Kohala corridor, the Mauna Kea is typically the first pickup of the morning — which means the best choice of seats in the van. Your guide phones the night before with your exact time.
First aboard, farthest traveled
Being the corridor's north end cuts both ways: you board first, and you're the farthest of any of our pickup hotels from Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The tour absorbs that distance gracefully — the run south past Hapuna, the Mauna Lani lava fields, and the Kona coffee belt is touring, not transit, with stops and stories along the way. Roughly two and a half to three hours of that brings you to Punaluʻu black sand beach, and the volcano follows.
The loop home is the greener half: Hilo, the Hamakua Coast, and Akaka Falls — 442 feet of white water in a rainforest gulch — before the evening crossing back to the dry side. Ten hours door to door, and you'll have seen more of the island in a day than many repeat visitors manage in a decade of beach weeks.
The essentials
$245 per person. About 10 hours door to door from the Mauna Kea. Maximum 14 guests, luxury Mercedes Sprinter van, lunch stop plus bottled water and snacks included, free pickup and drop-off, and free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead. Dress in layers: Kaunaʻoa mornings are balmy, the crater rim at 4,000 feet is not.
What's included
- Free hotel pickup and drop-off
- Lunch stop, bottled water, and snacks
- Volcanoes National Park, Akaka Falls, black sand beaches, and more
- Owner-led guiding in a luxury Mercedes Sprinter van (max 14 guests)
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours
Your guide phones the night before to confirm your exact pickup time. Staying outside our pickup corridors? Meet us at Queens' Marketplace on Waikoloa Beach Drive.
$245 per person — Book Now
Questions from guests at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel
We've stayed at the Mauna Kea for years — is this tour worth it for repeat visitors?
Our favorite guests to host. Repeat Kohala Coast visitors often know their beach intimately and the rest of the island barely at all — the Circle Island Tour fills in the volcano, Hilo, and the Hamakua Coast in one owner-guided day.
How long is the drive from the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel to the volcano?
Direct, it would be around two and a half hours — but we don't do it direct. The morning is a touring leg down the coast with pickups and scenic stops, reaching Punaluʻu black sand beach first and the national park after.
Where do we meet the van?
Under the main lobby porte cochère between 7:00 and 7:15 am. As the first pickup of the run, your time will be right at the start of the window — confirmed by your guide's call the night before.
Does the tour go up Mauna Kea itself?
No — despite the hotel's name and view, the Circle Island Tour circles the island at sea level to 4,000 feet: Punaluʻu, Volcanoes National Park, Hilo, and Akaka Falls. Summit access involves altitude and vehicle restrictions beyond a one-day circle tour.