Kohala Coast

The drive north from Kona along the Kohala Coast crosses miles of black lava field so barren it looks lunar — and then, without warning, a resort appears, green and irrigated and glittering, like someone air-dropped a golf course onto the moon. I found the contrast almost funny the first time. By the third resort I understood it was the whole point: this coast has always been about finding the improbable oasis in the middle of hardened lava, going back centuries before anyone built a swimming pool.

Anaeho’omalu Bay

This was the beach that made me reconsider what I thought I knew about Hawaiian beaches. A’A Bay, or “Anaeho’omalu,” backs onto ancient royal fishponds still stocked with mullet, the water in front calm enough that Lia swam laps rather than just floating. Coconut groves line the sand, planted deliberately by ali’i centuries ago as a sign of the area’s importance. I rented a paddleboard from a shack at the north end and spent an hour gliding over a reef shallow enough to see every fish beneath me — parrotfish mostly, and a green sea turtle that surfaced twice near the shoreline while a resort wedding photographer, oblivious, posed a couple thirty meters away.

Puako’s Petroglyphs

A short detour off the highway near Puako leads to one of the largest concentrations of petroglyphs in Hawai’i — thousands of images pecked into pahoehoe lava by Native Hawaiians over hundreds of years. Walking the marked trail at dusk, when the low sun rakes across the rock and every carving throws a shadow, felt closer to a pilgrimage than a sightseeing stop. Human figures, canoes, dots that may represent births in a family line. Nobody fully agrees on what all of it means, and I liked that the guide at the visitor center admitted as much rather than inventing certainty.

Where the Money Went

The Kohala resorts built in the 1980s — Mauna Kea, Mauna Lani, the Hilton Waikoloa with its own tram and dolphin lagoon — are a study in how much infrastructure it takes to make lava habitable. I am generally allergic to resort culture, but even I had to admit that the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel’s stretch of sand, ranked among the best in the country for decades, earns its reputation. You do not need to be a guest to walk the public beach access; you do need to get there early, because parking is limited and strictly enforced.

When to go: Year-round sun and low rainfall define this coast, which is exactly why the resorts are here. December through March brings the best whale watching from shore. Water is calmest in summer.