Frommer’s EasyGuide to the Big Island of Hawaii. Jeanne Cooper

GARDEN In 1972 Makato Nitahara turned a 20-acre papaya patch just outside Hilo into a tropical garden. Today Nani Mau (“forever beautiful”) holds more than 2,000 varieties of plants, from fragile hibiscus, whose blooms last only a day, to durable red anthuriums imported from South America. It also has rare palms, a fruit orchard, Japanese gardens (with a bell tower built without nails), an orchid walkway, and a ginger garden. A garden restaurant that’s popular with tour companies offers a popular buffet lunch. Served daily from 10:30am to 2pm, it’s $18 and includes garden admission.

      421 Makalika St. www.nanimaugardens.com. 808/959-3500. $10 adults, $5 seniors and children 4–10; with lunch, $18 adults, $15 seniors and children 4–10. Daily 10am–3pm. From Hilo Airport, take Hwy. 11 south 2 miles to second left turn at Makalika St., and continue ¾ mile.

      Pacific Tsunami Museum MUSEUM Poignant exhibits on Japan’s 2011 tsunami (which caused significant property damage on the Big Island) and the 2004 Indian Ocean tragedy have broadened the international perspective in this compact museum, where displays explain the science of the deadly phenomenon. Stories and artifacts related to Hilo’s two most recent catastrophic tsunamis are impressive, including a parking meter nearly bent in two by the force of the 1960 killer waves, and accounts from survivors of the 1946 tsunami that washed away the school at Laupahoehoe. Many of the volunteers have hair-raising stories of their own to share—but you’ll feel better after reading about the warning systems now in place.

      130 Kamehameha Ave. (at the corner of Kalakaua Ave.). www.tsunami.org. 808/935-0926. $8 adults, $7 seniors, $4 children 6–17, free for children 5 and under. Tues–Sat 10am–4pm.

      Helicopter tour of Kilauea volcano lava flow

      Panaewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens ZOO/GARDEN This 12-acre zoo, in the heart of the Panaewa Forest Reserve south of Hilo, is the only outdoor rainforest zoo in the U.S. Some 80 species of animals from rainforests around the globe call Panaewa home, including tigers Tzatziki and Sriracha, as do a couple of “Kona nightingales”—donkeys that escaped decades ago from coffee farms. (Though highway signs still warn of them, virtually all were relocated to California in 2011 during a prolonged drought.) The Panaewa residents enjoy fairly natural, sometimes overgrown settings. Look for cute pygmy goats, capuchin monkeys, and giant anteaters, among other critters. This free attraction includes a covered playground popular with local families.

      800 Stainback Hwy., Keaau (off Hwy. 11, 5 miles south of its intersection with Hwy. 19 in downtown Hilo). www.hilozoo.org. 808/959-7224. Free. Daily 9am–4pm. Petting zoo Sat 1:30–2:30pm. Alligator feeding daily 1:30pm.

      Wailuku River State Park WATERFALLS Go in the morning, around 9 or 10am, just as the sun comes over the mango trees, to see Rainbow Falls , or Waianuenue, at its best. Part of the 16-acre Wailuku River State Park, the 80-foot falls (which can be slender in times of drought) spill into a big round natural pool surrounded by wild ginger. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch a rainbow created in the falls’ mist. According to legend, Hina, the mother of demigod Maui, once lived in the cave behind the falls. Swimming in the pool is not allowed, but you can follow a trail left through the trees to the top of the falls (watch your step). Swimming in Boiling Pots (Pe’epe’e in Hawaiian), a series of cascading pools 1½ miles west, is extremely risky due to flash floods, but the view from an overlook near the parking lot is impressive.

      Rainbow Falls area: Rainbow Dr., just past the intersection of Waianuenue Ave. (Hwy. 200) and Puuhina St. Boiling Pots area: end of Pe’epe’e Falls Dr., off Waianuenue Ave. dlnr.hawaii.gov/dsp/parks/hawaii. Free. Daily during daylight hours.

      Puna

      Most visitors understandably want to head straight to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (p. 205) when exploring this region, where Pele may consume the land, while creating even more. But the celebrated national park is far from the only place where you can experience Puna’s geothermal wonders, or see the destruction the volcano has wrought—provided it’s safe and legal to do so.

      Start in Pahoa with a 5-minute detour from the plantation town’s center to its transfer station (i.e., landfill and recycling center) on Cemetery Road. There you’ll see the ominous edge of the thick but slow-moving lava flow in 2014–2015 that halted only after many in its predicted path had relocated. In 2018, residents of isolated Pahoa suburbs Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens were not so lucky; many lost their homes and farms to rivers of lava that spewed from fissures in the Lower East Rift Zone—a known hazard at the time the county approved those subdivisions.

      Many in the area still have memories of the 1990 eruption that covered the town of Kalapana, 9 miles from Pahoa along Highway 130. Steam came out of cracks in the road during the 2018 eruption, prompting the county to put steel plates over them, but luckily the highway survived.

      Just before it meets Highway 137 in Kalapana, you’ll see Star of the Sea Painted Church on your left. Built in 1930, the quaint, pale-green wooden church features an elaborately painted interior similar to St. Benedict’s in Captain Cook (p. 186). It was moved here from Kalapana in advance of the 1990 lava flow.

      If lava is pouring into the sea west of Kalapana, the county will open a lava viewing area (www.hawaiicounty.gov/lava-viewing) where Highway 130 meets the emergency gravel road heading into the national park. Vendors then set up bike rental stands to make it easier to get closer to the ocean entry; typically, if there’s no lava, there are no bikes.

      The 1990 lava flow also entombed the town of Kaimu and its beautiful beach under acres of rock, while leaving behind a new black-sand beach. Called both Kaimu and Kalapana Beach, it’s reached by walking along a short red-cinder trail from the parking area in Kalapana past fascinating fissures and dramatically craggy rocks, where ohia lehua and coconut palms are growing rapidly. Such trees are used to rugged conditions, as are the people of Puna, who gather in great numbers at the open-air Uncle Robert’s Awa Club for its two weekly evening events: the vibrant Wednesday-night food and crafts market and Hawaiian music on Fridays. The rest of the week, the club sells snacks and drinks during the day “by donation” for permit purposes (be aware the staff will let you know exactly how much to donate).

      Adventurers (or exhibitionists) may want to make the tricky hike down to unmarked Kehena Black Sand Beach , off Highway 137 about 3½ miles east of Kalapana. Here the law against public nudity is widely ignored, although the view of the ocean is usually more entrancing. (Clothed or not, avoid going