My husband and I spent two weeks here for our 30th anniversary. I do not live in a noisy neighborhood, but something about the environment was peaceful, which we both needed. My husband spent a significant amount of time reading. He sat outside, on the chair by the TV, or laying on the sofa. He got some much needed down time
I enjoyed the hot tub. I was in pain when we arrived and after a couple evenings out there, with no one else around, and using the jets on various muscles I was basically pain free.
We slept in the bedroom with the patio door, so to get the breeze and it is a darker room. I figured I was in trouble because the mattress was much softer than ours. I was pleasantly surprised by its comfort.
We purchased all we needed at the grocery store across the street. This was the first time in all ours travels that we stayed somewhere with an actual kitchen. I loved having control over what I cooked and ate. Although we did eat in a few wonderful restaurants in Waimea and Hilo plus the Italian one in the shopping center, all of which had island grown vegetables, fresh fish and homemade bread. We also ate at Los Tres Mex in the shopping square, and Doug had pancakes and coffee with the rooster who was a regular at Lava Java. Oh yes, one evening we ate at the golf course restaurant on the patio, which was beautiful, and attended the luau at Mauna Kea on our anniversary.
I took my water tester, and the TDS from the tap was not far from bottled water TDS. So I used the large bottle water container, which we purchased before testing, to freeze and put in a cooler for our day outings, and as a way to drink cold tap water.
At first the drive to the village seemed long, but after a couple times the drive went quickly. Besides that the scenery is not typical, so looking at the hills, grass, lava, and keeping an eye out for the tiny goats made the drive go quickly. Actually, the village is central for traveling to the northern part of the island, east to Hilo, and is close to the two larger volcanoes. The back road that comes out a bit south of Kona was scenic and sometimes a faster route to the south-western part of the island.
Returning to the condo after our outings felt more like returning home and more pleasant than even high end hotels - no one disturbing us from housecleaning. Additionally, the washer and dryer were handy. Although, watch out for the washer during the spin cycle - it is noisy and somewhat amusing.
