Hulihe'e Palace
Under $25A lava rock royal residence on Kailua Bay, built in 1838 and now run as a museum by the Daughters of Hawai'i.

Photo: Travis.Thurston, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.
A coastal state park on the north Kona side of the Big Island with sandy beaches, a historic shoreline trail, and a cinder cone hike.
North Kona, HI
Kekaha Kai, also called Kona Coast State Park, runs along the north Kona shoreline on the island of Hawaii. Its Mahai'ula section has a sandy beach and dunes for swimming and beach activities, plus a picnic area. At the north end, Maniniʻōwali (Kua Bay) offers calm-water swimming, bodysurfing when waves break near shore, and a coastal trail. Hikers can follow the historic Ala Kahakai trail about 4.5 miles north to Kua Bay and climb Pu'u Ku'ili, a cinder cone with broad coastline views. The area is hot and dry with no drinking water, and surf can be dangerous, with no lifeguards on duty.
The closest stops to Kekaha Kai State Park, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.
A lava rock royal residence on Kailua Bay, built in 1838 and now run as a museum by the Daughters of Hawai'i.
11 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing
Swim, bodysurf and picnic on one of the few white-sand beaches along the Big Island's west coast, south of Kawaihae.
Transit: reachable by public transit
19 mi awayMore like this
A national historic site on Hawaii's northwestern coast preserving an ancient stone temple tied to the rise of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
21 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing
A 15-acre biocultural garden in South Kona showing native and Polynesian-introduced plants, plus an ancient Hawaiian agricultural site.
22 mi awayMore like this
A self-guided historic coffee farm on the Big Island that shows how Kona's early 20th-century coffee families worked and lived.
22 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing
Snorkel a protected marine bay and see the white monument marking where Captain Cook was killed in 1779 on the Kona coast.
23 mi awayMore like this