In Kona with the Kids!

There is an app you can get on your smartphone called The Big Island Revealed, it’s got a blue icon and is about $8. It’s a very cool app as it will locate you and then map anything from breakfast to the volcano from where you are. Also lots of explanations and suggestions.

The best place to take them, in my opinion is definitely Kukio. This is the one where you need to be there by 9:30 in the morning or they will run out of passes.

It has real bathrooms, shade, grass and snorkeling where you can walk right in. Also it’s usually not real crowded. Make sure you take a walk around the water, many times there are turtles sunning themselves on the sand. My top choice.

A day trip – or half day trip is to South Point and green sand beach. It’s a little drive from The Kona Reef but the scenery is out of this world.

Once you get to “South Point” you can explain to the kiddos that this is the southernmost tip of the US. It’s gorgeous there. You can witness people doing some crazy things like jumping into a cave and being washed out into the open sea, then they have to climb the ladder to get back on land. Then a short drive, following the signs to green sand beach.

If you’ve rented a 4 x 4, you can drive all the way to the beach. If not, pay the local guy $10 per person to drive you there. It’s a 45 minute hike or a 10 minute bumping, crazy ride. Then you walk down the rock steps to a beach with emerald green sand! You can boogie board there, swim, build a green sand castle, have a picnic lunch. It’s unique and fun!

• Manini’owali Beach (called Kua bay by the locals), just north of The Kona Reef. Lots of soft sand and east access to the water. Porta potties, close parking. You can snorkel here also, you just have to swim for it. Out a little and off to the left.
• Honokohua Harbor is also a very family friendly beach. Used to be a nude beach but not anymore. Should be lots of turtles here, it’s small and protected.