6 Amazing Things to do on Hawaiʻi with Kids

As Canadians, we love visiting tropical destinations in winter – in fact we have been to many of the best family-friendly beach destinations in the world. So, it may surprise you that we didn’t decide to come to Hawaiʻi for its beaches… We love spending time being active in nature, so we decided to have a family vacation on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi because of all the amazing things there are to do in nature.

Of course, we did enjoy many of the best family-friendly beaches on the Big Island, but we also had some incredible adventures around the island. From night snorkeling with giant manta rays, to watching a volcano erupt, we enjoyed some truly incredible activities with our kids.

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6 Amazing Adventures for Families on the Big Island

Based on our real-life adventures from our 2 week family vacation, here are 6 amazing things to do with kids on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi:

1. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park – Eruption and Hiking

To be honest, the main reason we chose a family holiday on the Big Island was to go hiking in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We were researching tropical destinations with good hiking, and we kept seeing the Big Island come up again and again.

Kīlauea Eruption

Although we planned our Hawaiʻi vacation for the hiking, we were incredibly excited when Kīlauea started erupting in the days leading up to our visit. It was actively erupting the night before our first day in the park but, as unpredictable as nature is, it stopped erupting right before we arrived in the national park.

We spent 3 nights and 2 full days in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Kīlauea remained silent. She was spewing large amounts of steam into the air, which was still pretty cool, but we were gutted that we missed out on seeing the eruption.

Sadly we left the park without seeing Kīlauea erupt. But, 4-5 days later while we were in Waimea, she started erupting again. Despite being a 100 minute drive away, we woke the kids at 2:45 AM to drive back to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to watch Kīlauea erupt – and it was totally worth it!

We chose to wake so early so we could see the volcano erupt in the dark. As we approached Kīlauea, the night sky was glowing red. A scary, yet truly thrilling sight!

We had staked out a viewing spot in the Steam Vents area during our previous visit to the park, and it was an incredible place to watch Kīlauea erupt! It was the closest you can get to the eruption while still seeing the full fountain of lava explode into the air. And, you could see the full glowing lake of red lava in the crater beneath the fountain – truly incredible.

Seeing Kīlauea erupt is one of the most incredible things we have seen on our family travels. No matter what part of the Big Island you find yourself on, if you have a chance to see it erupt, you must drop everything and go – you won’t regret it. It’s truly the best thing to do on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi with kids!

Our hiking adventures in Volcano National Park took us along the rim of the Halema’uma’u crater, down onto floor of multiple craters, ancient forests, sea arches, petroglyphs and more!

2. Night Snorkeling with Manta Rays

As nature lovers, we especially enjoy responsible animal encounters, and the Big Island of Hawaiʻi is home to one of the most exciting animal encounters in the world… night snorkeling with giant manta rays!

We were only in the water a few minutes when the first massive manta ray swam beneath us. I don’t have the words to describe how incredibly exciting our first manta ray sighting was!!

It all happened so fast, but it seemed like we were visited by one manta ray, then another, and another. Some of them were so close you could touch them. It’s really bad for the rays to touch them, so please resist the urge and don’t touch them.

About halfway through our manta ray snorkeling tour, the manta rays started to barrel roll! This famous maneuver is when they swim to the surface and are upside-down by the time they are at the top of their roll, before they start descending back down again. At one point, we had three majestic manta rays doing barrel rolls at the same time!

Hike to Captain Cook Memorial

If you follow us at all, you’ll know that we always opt for adventure over convenience, so we opted to access the Captain Cook snorkeling area via the hiking trail. We really enjoyed the 2 mile / 3 km downhill walk to the snorkeling area.

We passed through many wooded areas and ancient lava fields, seeing lots of feral goats along the way. All along the walk down, we enjoyed sweeping ocean views as far as the eye could see.

After gearing up, we all eagerly jumped into the water. The snorkeling through the crystal-clear water was instantly amazing. There were big schools of colorful, tropical fish just off the dock and large coral formations below. Amazing!

We saw many varieties of tropical fish while snorkeling near the Captain Cook including parrotfish, angel fish and even an eel! We also saw plenty of yellow tang, Moorish Idol fish, butterflyfish and many more that I don’t know the names of!

Note, the Captain Cook snorkeling area was so popular, this area is under a lot of stress. Please make sure you wear reef safe sunscreen (widely available across the island) and do not touch the coral, as you will kill it. For added incentive, there are lots of large sea urchins on the sea floor here, so you don’t want to touch the ground anyways.

4. Mahana Beach (Papakōlea Beach)

Mahana Beach is one of the only green sand beaches in the world. To get there, you either need to hire a local to drive you in a 4×4, or you can enjoy an incredibly scenic 3 mile oceanfront walk – guess which one we chose??

After our amazing, scenic hike, we arrived at Mahana Beach and were instantly struck with its beautiful setting. It’s in a deep cove, with tall rocky cliffs on the left and smaller, black volcanic boulders on the right. The deep cove protects Mahana Beach from the full rage of the Pacific Ocean waves, making it a great spot for kids to play in the surf.

Most colored sand claims around the world are exaggerated – “black sand” beaches are more of a dark grey, etc. So, we were really impressed by how green the sand at Manaha Beach actually is.

5. Puna Hiking Trail

Our favorite hiking trail on the Big Island of Hawai’i was the Puna hiking trail, which is about 30 minutes away from Hilo in Hawai’ian Paradise Park.

Despite being close to the ocean, the Puna trail is mostly inland, through a truly beautiful tropical forest. The trail follows the path of an old horse and buggy road, so we hiked past the remains of many old settlements and abandoned cars. It so cool to see how the forest is now growing over these artifacts and will soon swallow them.

As magical as the forest was, the real highlight of the Puna hiking trail comes when you reach Ha’ena Beach at the end. Surrounded by palm trees, Ha’ena Beach is an idyllic tropical beach located in a small cove. The shallow turquoise water was quite calm due to the lava rocks blocking the waves just offshore.

Ha’ena Beach is one of the best places on the Big Island to see sea turtles. We saw roughly 30 of them during our visit, along with many tropical fish and hermit crabs.

6. Hāpuna Beach

No list of amazing thigs to do on the Big Island would be complete without a family-friendly white sand beach! We circumnavigated the entire island and can tell you that Hāpuna Beach is the best family-friendly beach on the island.

Hāpuna Beach features a long, soft white sand beach lined with palm trees for a relaxing, natural setting. It’s a great beach for playing in the sand, for a swim and is especially good for boogie boarding.