My wife and I recently stayed at the Hilo Bay B&B during our honeymoon. This was our first time staying at a bed and breakfast and were coming from the Kona side of Big Island where we had spent 2 nights at a 4-star resort.

We chose the Hilo Bay B&B because of the glowing reviews, and after having stayed there, the other reviews are pretty spot on with their assessment. My wife and I stayed in the Lava Room, which is on the lower level. It was very spacious and clean. The bed was very soft and the chirping of frogs outside at night made for a very restless sleep. The shower in the bathroom was fantastic as I thoroughly enjoyed the large rain shower-head. However, the counter space in the bathroom is pretty non-existent and the sliding door leaves you very little privacy.

Also to note, as others have mentioned, the driveway can only fit 2 cars so we had to park our car along the street, which was a bit inconvenient but fairly safe.

The best part of our stay at the B&B were the breakfasts and conversing with Joe (inn keeper) and Matthew (owner) who are very knowledgeable about the area. The eggs and bacon, fresh fruit, coffee and juice were all delicious and a great way to start each day. One morning, Joe was nice enough to accomodate our early day (as we planned on heading the road to sight see) by starting breakfast earlier. He even let us borrow one of the Lonely Planet travel books to help guide us for the day.

Although the Hilo Bay B&B does not have the amenities a 4-star resort would have, overall, our stay was enjoyable.

On our honeymoon, this was the best B&B experience: lovely decorated, super-clean room (James Michener), delicious breakfast and especially helpful hosts.

We felt like home away from home and really enjoyed soaking up advice from Matthew who knows the island so well. After a few days stay on Kauai in a resort, we decided to make a road trip on the Big Island and this was our first stay. Hilo Bay Hale has a very good location in Hilo (walkable distance to historic "downtown" and the farmer´s market). We really appreciated the breakfast with Matthews stunning papaya-fruit salad (home-grown!). "Freshly-prepared" breakfast in the 5*-resort on Kauai wasn´t as fresh as at the Hilo Bay B&B.

Highly recommended!

Just completed our second stay, and it was again a highlight. Hilo Bay Hale just has a great vibe---so welcoming and comfortable. We love everything here: super clean room, warm hardwoods, eating our lunch on the comfy lanai while tossing food to the koi, the kitschy Hawaiiana touches in the decor, artful attention to detail in things like the painted sink bowl and free-standing tub, the rainfall shower head, listening to the soft rain while falling asleep--it's all good. We've been coming to the Big Island for almost 15 years, and spend the balance of our time at the Four Seasons on the Kona side, and as nuts as this sounds, I really believe Hilo Bay Hale achieves a comparable level of warmth and comfort. I'm not talking about king beds and huge suites or trying to compare a B&B to a resort--I mean that at some level the finest properties in the world are eventually trying to create a feeling that this place captures perfectly.

I added a few pics--most of what I have is well-represented by other reviewers. A few other details worth mentioning: tasty serve-youself breakfast buffet with fresh papaya from Matt and Danny's farm! A quick walk down the hill to downtown Hilo. Helpful pre-visit info. A very reasonable price. And finally, it doesn't hurt that Matt is a fellow Kansas Jayhawk--Rock Chalk Aloha!

We stayed a few nights in the Lava Room. It is a very nice private room on the bottom floor with the washer/dryer and hosts quarters. Upstairs there were two other rooms and the kitchen. We always get up early so though the kitchen is above this room, the activity didn't start until around 7 am which wasn't an issue for us. The Lava Room has an outdoor private patio that is a great place to unwind at the end of the day. At one point a large party of adults and children checked in and though there were almost a dozen guests in the house we still felt we had our privacy. The breakfasts are good and the hosts are very gracious, helpful and accomodating. They literally let you use anything you need and they are really laid back so you don't feel like an interloper. My only nitpick with the room would be the bathroom. It has a great shower but the cabinet space is really lacking rendering the room difficult to use for two. Also the way the shower is set-up requires a gap in the door at the bottom of about one foot so you essentially have a public bathroom experience. I wouldn't want to share this with anyone but my husband and even we would have prefered a real full door. Some areas of life should still remain private. But we definitely would stay again. Great place, really beautifully restored.