This tour is a must do. We took the volcano/Hilo tour and just had the best time. Jill and Josh are so friendly and informative. What I liked most about the tour is that it was geared toward our group and we decided what we wanted to see and focus on. Mauka Makai Adventures is so accommodating to get the most out of the tour for each individual group. A real family feeling as soon as we got in the van. We hope to be able to do another tour in the future. Thanks Jill and Josh Grotkin!
My wife and I did the Volcanoes Adventure and the Kona Historical tours. Thank you Josh and Jill ,you made our trip to be perfect. We loved spending time with you both. Quite different approaches ,but always excellent. The volcano tour was one of the best tours I have ever done. It seems with events yesterday we got in just in time! Hope you are both safe and your home. We will always remember You both and can happily recommend Maura Makai Adventures to anyone touring the Big Island.
My family and I are staying on Oahu. We took a day trip over to the Big Island wanting to explore that island. We have used Tours by Locals in the past and have been very satisfied. Therefore we booked our Big Island trip with Josh who is a Tours by Locals affiliate. We couldn't have more pleased. Josh was born and raised on Hawaii. He and his family live near Hilo. We couldn't have had a tour guide with more experience in the history and culture of Hawaii than Josh. His pride in his homeland is evident in his excitement while describing the areas we went to see. From the 400 foot waterfalls to the sea turtles to the active volcano Josh told the story of history and legend. He is very much a "people" person. His quirky sense of humor had us laughing throughout the day.. We arrived at the Hilo Airport at 6:30 in the morning. Josh had us back to the airport at 6:30 that night for the return to Oahu. In the middle we spent a wonderful day sightseeing, hiking trails, shopping and enjoying good food. We particularly like Tours by Locals because it is catered to small groups. Our group consisted of 5 family members and no others. We customized our tour using a combination of Josh's suggestions and our own research. We traveled in a small vehicle and were able to go to areas that the large coaches could not get to. The highlight of our day was watching the eruption of the Kilauea volcano. The day after our visit there has been increased volcanic activity and neighborhoods have been evacuated. I highly recommend Tours by Locals for small intimate groups. The personalized experience makes the entire time more enjoyable. While the Big Island has several TbL affiliates, we were lucky to get Joshua Grotkin and cannot recommend Josh highly enough.
We were on the Pride of America cruise and this was our Hilo excursion. Jill was our guide, she was great, loved the stories she told. We got to see a little bit of everything and got a good taste of Hilo. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was amazing - we stopped at the Jaggar Museum and walked the lava tube. I felt a little rushed there at the museum and would have enjoyed going to the visitor's center. The big bus loads of people made it difficult to see anything at the museum. Our family has visited many national parks and the entrance sign is always a great photo op, I asked if we could stop there and she obliged long enough for me to run out and snap a quick photo. It's not a regular stop.
Lunch was great and the orchid farm was so pretty. We stopped at the black sand beach, which was nice b/c I don't think the other tours did that. We saw sea turtles basking in the sun there. Rainbow Falls was pretty even though we didn't see a rainbow. I felt just a little rushed trying purchase souvenirs at certain stops since there were crowds of people. All in all it was a great tour and loved the personal touches. I would highly recommend this on your visit to Hilo.
We were on a cruise ship and the cruise tours were sold out so last minute scramble to find one and luckily we found Josh! Josh picked us up in a Mercedes sprinter van that was very spacious and he told us lots about the island. We had many stops and Josh was an excellent guide. For lunch we had these amazing homemade sandwiches at an orchid farm. We were gone about 7 hours and it was a great tour!
