Cruise Port Guide · 6 cruises visit Kailua-Kona →
The bucket-list things to do — and the private, expert-led way to do each.
Here’s the bucket list for your day ashore: the most extraordinary thing to do at each stop, and the private, small-group, or expert-led way to make it yours — your own pace, real access, none of the crowd.
Glide above giant Pacific manta rays — some with 14-ft wingspans — as they barrel-roll through bioluminescent plankton clouds beneath your mask. This after-dark snorkel off Keauhou Bay is Kona's single most extraordinary marine experience.
Walk the rim of Kīlauea caldera, descend into a lava tube, and stand on cooled lava fields where the island is still being born. A private guide transforms geology into living Hawaiian mythology — unmissable on the Big Island.
Soar over the Kohala Mountains' cathedral valleys, plunging waterfalls, and the smoldering caldera of Kīlauea in a doors-off or doors-on helicopter. The Big Island from the air is simply incomparable — nothing else shows you this much in so little time.
Walk the terraced rows of a working Kona coffee estate on the slopes of Hualālai, meet the farmers, and taste single-origin Kona Extra Fancy — the rarest, most celebrated coffee grown on U.S. soil. An intimate, sensory revelation.
Stand on the royal shores where King Kamehameha the Great once trained for war, then tour the summer palace of Hawaiian royalty filled with original feather capes and koa furnishings — two of the most significant cultural sites in all of Hawaii, both within minutes of the pier.
Sail aboard a premium catamaran to Kealakekua Bay — the Big Island's crown-jewel snorkel site, accessible only by boat or a grueling trail — for two hours above a living coral reef in Hawaii's clearest water. A UNESCO-recognized marine sanctuary of extraordinary biodiversity.
⚓ Your bucket-list concierge
Tell us your sailing and we'll send the bucket list for every port — the most extraordinary thing to do at each, and the private, expert-led way to make it yours.
No spam. The honest plan, even when it says skip the ship’s tour.