Do not miss Kilauea Volcano

Now that the New Year has begun and winter has descended in the Northern Hemisphere, many people are planning a trip to Hawaiʻi. Although many people would argue with me, as far as I am concerned if you want to visit the real Hawaiʻi, you need to come to the Big Island – the Island of Hawaiʻi. It has the requisite hotels and also the areas that are untouched by those who would exploit the tourist industry. It is as busy or relaxing as you want it to be.

When you come to the island you definitely should go to Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park to see Kilauea Volcano. It is billed as the most active volcano on Earth, having been in continuous eruption since 1983. However, don’t be confused by the eruption, as Kilauea is not undergoing a violent eruption, in fact the only active lava flow is virtually inaccessible except to view on a helicopter flight. Kilauea has often been called a drive-in volcano, since when lava is in an accessible area you can usually drive to a convenient location and take a short walk to see an active lava flow.

Even though you can’t see active lava, there is a location in the Park where you can see the smoke emanating from an active lava lake and at night witness the glow from that lava lake. It is a sight you do not want to miss. If you want to see the lava you can visit the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website and see real-time pictures of the lava lake and of the eruption that is going on at the inaccessible location. You can access those pictures at: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cams/ as well as get other information regarding the volcano.

Beside the ongoing eruption, there are many other things to see in the Park. One could spend days visiting areas in the Park and hiking on the many trails. Of course, to utilize your time most efficiently you really should have a personal guide with you to establish your itinerary and explain exactly what you are looking at. That is exactly the service we used to provide when we operated our tour company. It can be expensive and we no longer do that. However, you can have us with you to plan and explain the stops you should make. We have a guide book for the Big Island which gives detailed information about all five volcanoes that exist on the island. It is called “BIG ISLAND, HAWAIʻI GUIDE” and is available as a Kindle Book on Amazon.com. Just go to Kindle Books and search for Lee Meyerson. Even easier, it is available for readers to purchase here. The book is loaded with pictures, which makes it extremely expensive to issue in a print edition. It has been estimated to cost 5 times the $9.99 price charged on Amazon. Plus, being in Kindle format you don’t have to carry a book with you. It can be on your smart phone or tablet. As a friend of ours said, he has lived on the island for over 13 years, his wife is from here and they found things in the book about the island that they did not know.

We hope that you have a great time on the island and enjoy seeing all that is available whether you have us with you or not.