Why Hawaii’s Big Island?

A Most Hawaiian Place

The Hawaiian Islands offer something no other place on the planet can: the Hawaiian people, their culture and history. And Hawaii’s Big Island offers more opportunities to explore this rich culture than any other island in the chain. Hawaii Island offers countless ways to experience native culture, from dramatic ancient stone heiau (temples), including the site of King Kamehameha the Great’s birth, to the world-renowned Merrie Monarch Hula Festival; from the restored historic fishing village at Lapakahi, to the futuristic Imiloa Astronomy Center where exhibits (in English and Hawaiian) explain traditional Hawaiian methods of ocean navigation by the stars.

Some 2,000 years ago, the earliest Polynesian voyagers made their first landfall in Hawaii at Ka Lae on the southern tip of Hawaii Island, where you can still see mooring rings carved into the seaside lava rock by early settlers. Today, all across our island, Hawaiian culture is alive and well.

At resorts and bed & breakfast inns, you can experience traditional lomilomi massage, and learn native arts like lei making, lauhala weaving, poi pounding and hula dancing. In our four national parks, you can visit preserved historic sites and watch living-history demonstrations. At galleries and museums around the island you can find (and buy) beautiful examples of traditional Hawaiian fishhooks, bowls, weapons and other works made from gourds, wood, sharks teeth and bone.

And the food! All the luau delicacies from the from the imu (earth oven) — succulent kalua pig, sweet potatoes, ulu (breadfruit), lomilomi salmon and other fish – Hawaiian culture tastes good!