Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden is an amazing rain forest preserve filled with native flowers, plants, trees, and waterfalls, ending at the rocky shoreline of Onomea Bay. It is a 40 acre valley where you will feel immersed in the rain forest throughout your visit. It is here that we chose to spend our last day on the island.

The garden is located approximately 8 miles north of Hilo. They are open from 9-5 everyday, excluding some major holidays. The entrance fee is $20/adult, $5 ages 6-16, and under 6 is free. To walk down the valley and to the shoreline is approximately 1/2 mile, so 1 mile round trip. This is a rather steep valley, so although the path is paved, it is all downhill going to the shore and all uphill getting back to the entrance. There are additional paths, which are not always paved, that meander through the various garden areas. Their website (which is excellent) recommends at least an hour and a half for a visit. We stayed much longer. Not only is there so much to see, but the climb back to the entrance is steep and it was in the 90’s when we were there, so the hike back up was slow going.

The visitor center, which is where you pay, and free parking are located directly across the street from the entrance to the park. The visitor center has a lovely gift shop and sells water and sunscreen. I highly recommend bringing more water than you think you will need. Even if it is not hot, the climb back up is strenuous. This was the only place where we did not have enough water. We mistakenly thought since the hike was only a mile we could share two bottles. We were rationing our sips on the way up and immediately went into the gift shop, before we left the park, and bought four more bottles.  

The park has much to offer and contains Palm Vista, Palm Jungle Trail, Onomea Falls, Heliconia Trail, Banyan Canyon, Orchid Garden, Bromeliad Hill, The Founder’s Birdhouse, Anthurium Corner, Lily Lake, Trail to the Ocean, The Oceanfront Trail, Rock Island and Crab Cove, Alakahi Stream Trail, Boulder Creek Trail and Cook Pine Trail.

There were so many varieties of flowers that I have never seen before. We were all very impressed with the garden and loved being immersed in the rain forest.

We had seen Heliconia all over the island, it was nice to finally find out what it was. There is a tremendous variety of them, which you can see on the Heliconia Trail inside the park.

I thought the baby pineapples were adorable. These can be found on Bromeliad Hill.

This picture does not do the Onomea Falls justice. It was here that I learned that I really needed a hood for my lens. The dappled sunlight is stunning in person but it made taking pictures troublesome, as I was too hot and tired to experiment with my settings to account for the intense sunlight contrasting with the shade. Check out this page of the Botanic Garden’s website for a fantastic picture of the falls. If photography is your main reason for visiting the park, I’d head over there first thing in the morning, before the sun is too intense and direct. We were there around noon and the sun was an issue in certain areas of the garden.

This was our first peek of the ocean from the garden, truly a tropical paradise.

This is just one view of Onomea Bay from inside the park. The Oceanfront Trail and the Trail to the Ocean meander fairly close to the shoreline. I thought that the view of Onomea Bay from Donkey Trail was better and it is a free trail. However, if you are not up to hiking down the valley twice, or you simply don’t have time, you do have two choices if your major goal is seeing the bay. We had hiked Donkey Trail at the beginning of our trip. I certainly wouldn’t do both of them on the same day.

Once you reach the ocean, it will all be an uphill climb all the way back to where you started. The scenery was worth the climb, in my opinion, and there are plenty of benches to rest on along the way. The park also offers a ride up for $10/person on a golf cart, if you are unable to make the climb yourself. I believe it is free for anyone who is physically disabled. I have to say we were tempted. I am not sure if it was the heat, the lack of water, or just being worn out from 13 days of exploring the island, but those gold carts sure were enticing.

Instead, we took our time hiking back up, enjoying the scenery (I had no idea there were red Bamboo trees), sharing the remains of our water, and dreaming of the air conditioned gift shop and water that was awaiting us at the end of our climb. The garden is simply beautiful and it was a perfect way to end our vacation. The only thing I would have done differently would be to have brought along more water and arrived earlier in the day so the heat wouldn’t have been as intense. After our visit, we headed over to Pineapples for an early dinner, then back to Richardson Beach Park to watch the sunset before heading to the airport for the long journey home.

I can not recommend the Big Island enough. We easily filled 13 days with such an amazing variety of things to see and do. This was my first trip to any of the islands and we loved every minute of it, even those very hot minutes. I will be going to Maui this year and I am very excited to see the similarities and differences among the islands. (Note: After returning from Maui, this botanical garden is MUCH better than The Garden of Eden Arboretum on Maui.)

As always, wishing you happy travels and fantastic adventures in this thing called life.

(All pictures are available as Fine Art Prints or Digital Downloads for purchase at full resolution through Alamy. If you see something you like, click on the link. If you are unable to find it, use the Contact Me page and I will make sure the image is available.)

More Big Island Adventures

Akaka Falls State Park

Stargazing Above the Clouds at Mauna Kea

Finding the Green Sand Beach

Kohala Zipline

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