Reviewed by: Pat and family
A wonderful way to experience the diversity of the island. There were frequent stops with ample time to enjoy the site and/or walk the trails. Many foods to sample along the way and delicious lunch! Awana was an informed and entertaining guide who was flexible throughout the day to make sure we could get the best experience.
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island + Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden |
Attended as: | Families |
Posted on: | 2018/08/06 |
Activity Date: | 2018/08/03 |
Reviewed by: Deonna C.
We only had one day on the big island and wanted to see as much as possible. This tour takes you all the way around with multiple, although brief stops and several locations. Could omit the coffee tasting and spend more time on the black beach or at the falls.
Our guide, Keith, was full of history, folk lore and traditional information which was a big bonus.
If you want history and a good whirlwind tour of the island, this tour is for you.
Of note, lunch was provided and this service has its own chef who prepares the meals. Very healthy sampling of the typical fare at area restaurants, however, when it’s served in lieu of a cold sandwich and a picturesque park, it suddenly becomes one of the best meals of the vacation.
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Families |
Posted on: | 2018/07/12 |
Activity Date: | 2018/07/09 |
Reviewed by: Deborah
This was perfect to see the whole island. We were very fortunate to see lava. However,
We feel by 8 hrs we were ready to get off the bus and feel that the first hour or so could have been cut out
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2018/05/16 |
Activity Date: | 2018/05/02 |
Reviewed by: Alexis Albert
Our tour was AMAZING!! Our tour driver was Nathan or Nate. He was awsome!!
They pick you up at your hotel, which is super convenient! The tour group can fit up to 12 people. So it is nice and small. Our group was super fun and Nate was very informative and talked to us about everything and anything he could! The van is nice and clean and not to mention Eco friendly! It rained alittle, and they had raincoats for everyone just in case.They provide bento lunch for everyone. We actually had 2 vegans in our group and Nate was very caring and took them to a nearby grocery store, so they could pick up a few things to eat since they could not eat much from the bento. Nate not only took us to the places mentioned, but he also drove by a few other places he thought our group would like! He was AMAZING!! This tour was so much fun, the sights were beautiful and very informative!
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Families |
Posted on: | 2018/02/20 |
Activity Date: | 2018/02/08 |
Reviewed by: Leah
This tour was life changing for me! Such an awesome experience to really see the island and have someone guide you through it so you really understand what you're seeing and the history behind it.
Tour guide was Chris who was excellent. He has a real gift for this, and you can tell he is truly passionate and loves what he does. Makes the tour feel more real and less like show and tell or reading from a script. 10/10 highly recommended tour.
Tour provides you with all the comforts you need for the day so you're never hungry, cold, or unsure of where a clean bathroom is. Even had plugs for you to charge your phone although I had a portable charger with me that day which I recommend for any trip.
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Posted on: | 2017/12/24 |
Activity Date: | 2017/12/21 |
Reviewed by: LJKouri
This tour is very informative. You get to see black sand, volcanoes, waterfalls, and more. Our driver/guide was excellent.
There was more walking than indicated on the website, including climbing lots of stairs. Therefore I was not able to see some of the sites. But if you don't have any mobility issues, I recommend this tour.
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2017/11/15 |
Activity Date: | 2017/11/06 |
Reviewed by: Dona
The trip took too long time for nothing, visiting some stores which mean wasting time & money! also you can't see that much Lava in the morning!!! only the smoke! The guide was too knowledge but talking a lot which cause me headache! Since the tour started till finished he was talking no relaxing! after we finish the park he took us to the mall for 45 min!! It's totally wasting time, I prefer to go by car alone and see a lot of sight rather than this tour!!
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Packages: | Volcano Adventure |
Attended as: | Friends |
Posted on: | 2017/09/25 |
Activity Date: | 2017/08/31 |
Reviewed by: ATSUKO
Tourguide was very kind for me.and interesting guide.
volcano house lunch is awesome located.meal was nice.I had special time .thank you
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Packages: | Gold Package with Lunch |
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Posted on: | 2017/07/30 |
Activity Date: | 2017/07/06 |
Reviewed by: Kenneth Kacenga
Excellent. Chris was exceptional. Had passion for his job and loves Hawaii
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2017/07/28 |
Activity Date: | 2017/07/25 |
Reviewed by: Shari
Had a great time Kevin the tour guild was great ,
We even had great weather
If you only can do one tour this would be the one and must have kevin
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Posted on: | 2017/07/28 |
Activity Date: | 2017/07/25 |
Reviewed by: Linda
Our driver and tour host presented us with a very interesting and colorful history of the Big Island. He had a great sense of humor too! He paced the trip on the attendees, when there was an obvious interest in an area. This tour is a good for those wanting to get a broad acquaintance with the Big Island and it's various areas and interests. It was our springboard for other activities!
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Families |
Posted on: | 2017/07/27 |
Activity Date: | 2017/07/24 |
Reviewed by: Staci S.
This was a great tour for our first full day on the island. Kala , our guide, was a world of information about all things Hawaiian! He was so excited to show us turtles on the black sand beach, lava at the volcano,and beautiful Waipio Valley. He gave us great ideas on where the best burgers and the most delicious malasadas on the island where...and yes we went back to try them ! It was a long day, but as others had commented before me, it flew by!
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2017/06/27 |
Activity Date: | 2017/06/13 |
Reviewed by: Barbara Helms
Tour Guide was great!!!!!! Great Value!
Would suggest that you have passengers switch seats during the tour. Unfortunately we get the back seats and the viewing is not as good as the seats further towards the front. Also it was harder to talk to the guide from back there. Might be nice if halfway thru the tour everyone switch seats.
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2017/06/06 |
Activity Date: | 2017/05/29 |
Reviewed by: St. Louis family
We had a wonderful time. Our driver, Hugh, was great. He was very nice, friendly, informative and patient. We saw a lot of beautiful things and he watched the time for us. We were with a good group, too. He allowed the proper amount of time at each stop. Tha lunch that was included with our package was great. The view from our table was fantastic and so was the service. Hugh waited patiently with us for one of our passengers to find and retrieve her phone. It was a wonderful day and it exceeded our expectations. We were very happy we chose this tour and would highly recommend it.
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Packages: | Gold Package with Lunch |
Attended as: | Families |
Posted on: | 2017/06/04 |
Activity Date: | 2017/05/30 |
Reviewed by: Maryann
We did the Circle Island Tour, small group tour which was fantastic. I cannot say enough about this tour. It was approx. 11.5 hours but the day flew by. Our driver Kevin was amazing and informed us about everything. It was a maximum 12 people which made it very enjoyable. Our lunch break we stopped at an Orchid shop and our driver had picked us up Bento Boxes, it was delicious. We saw everything from waterfalls, rain forest, black sand beach, lava tubes, lava fields, and volcanoes and so much more. I would highly recommend this trip to anyone. Well worth the money.
Thank you for the great tour.
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2017/01/11 |
Activity Date: | 2016/12/30 |
Reviewed by: Jeanne
Guide was very informative. He talked about everything we were seeing and was easy to listen to. The only concern I had was that the tour company needs to adjust expected arrival times to account for other pick ups and traffic.
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Posted on: | 2016/08/29 |
Activity Date: | 2016/08/23 |
Reviewed by: Cindy m
Relaxing, simple but enough to know about the island and the driver was very courteous, informative.
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Packages: | Gold Package with Lunch |
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Posted on: | 2016/08/08 |
Activity Date: | 2016/07/11 |
Reviewed by: vcb
Amazing tour and very informative. A great way to see the whole island.
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2015/08/25 |
Activity Date: | 2015/08/22 |
Reviewed by: MaryKL
What a great day on the Big Island. If you travel to Kona make sure to put this tour on your itinerary.
Our guide was Nickels and he was the most knowledgeable young man and very patient and pleasant too. He took us to all of the places you should see on the island and even managed an unscheduled stop to the southern most bakery in the US. Even our teenagers we're attentive and even asked questions. It's a long day(@ 12hours)but I didn't want it to end. We truly enjoyed this tour.
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Families |
Posted on: | 2015/07/20 |
Activity Date: | 2015/06/24 |
Reviewed by: Chun-chieh Wang
I enjoy the tour very much. In addition to National Volcano Park, we also visit other interesting places, such as Black Sand Beach and Rainbow Falls. Our tour guide, Walter, helps us a lot and shares much information and living experience and makes this tour so knowledgeable. But there is one thing to remind. If you don't want to have lunch at Volcano House, you should buy your lunch earlier.
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Packages: | Standard Package |
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Posted on: | 2015/07/06 |
Activity Date: | 2015/06/30 |
Reviewed by: Justine Z
It was my first vacation to the Big Island of Hawaii and I booked a full day circle tour with Wasabi Tours with my boyfriend, in order to get acquainted with the island's landscape and popular destinations. Our tour guide, Kala, was absolutely phenomenal! Not only did he show us all of the beautiful sights and landscapes that the island has to offer but he was also an encyclopedia of information! You could ask Kala almost anything about the island and he would almost certainly have the answer. Kala was a historian, a geographer, a geologist, a horticulturalist and even a sociologist all in one! He was a great story teller! Kala was also extremely hospitable, professional, warm, and inviting--right from the start to the end of the tour!Somehow he managed to keep enthusiastic for the 10+ hour long day. Kala mentioned he used to work in the high end resorts in the North Shore and you can really tell that he did, as he provides extremely professional service. He really went out of his way to make sure the guests were all getting the most out of the experience. When we learned the lava was really high in the Volcanoes National Park, Kala made a few separate attempts to return to the site, as the grounds were extremely steamy that particular day. He REALLY wanted us to see the lava, but it is so sad to say the weather did not cooperate that particular day despite Kala's greatest efforts. Despite this bad luck, we were fortunate enough to see all the other beautiful sites that Wasabi tours promises to take you! Finally, to top the day off, Kala knew how much I wanted to see some of the Hawaiian Honu (sea turtles), and he found me some of those as well! Overall, Wasabi Tours does a really great job preparing a fun and informative day for guests. Ultimately, a big thank you to Kala for keeping us entertained and showing us around the tropical paradise of Hawaii!
Mahalo!
Justine & Sam.
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2015/05/03 |
Activity Date: | 2015/04/26 |
Reviewed by: James
We were out in Honolulu on our first trip to Hawaii. My girlfriend and I purchased the Small Group Circle Island, Waipio Valley & Volcanoes National Park out of quite a few similar guided tours around the Big island. It was a fun experience that helped us learn quite a lot about the Big Island, geographic facts, ancient legends, etc. This drive is about 10 hours or so and is on and off the beaten path. Different from Honolulu and Oahu, this mostly rural island has its own culture, farmers’ markets, tropical rain forests, and black, green, and white sand beaches. Our tour guide was awesome (and I totally forgot his name) and a great story teller. He was punctual in picking us up from the Kona airport. Although the weather didn't really cooperate that particular day, it was rain and cold, our tour guide made it fun with providing us all kinds of great information as well as a really smooth ride. It was obvious he loves what he does and where he lives. The sights and landscapes were incredible - black, green and white sand beaches, lava fields, waterfalls, etc. Our approximately 250 miles tour (long but fascinating) touched at first the Parker Ranch in Waimea the bay-side town of Hilo and an orchid nursery. We stopped at the Waipio Valley Lookout, a must see location. The lookout offers sweeping views of the valley, which is breathtakingly beautiful even though the weather was very cloudy and it probably took away from the experience. We stopped at the Mauna Loa a macadamia farm and packaging place for lunch and snacks. We stopped at the Rainbow Falls very close to Hilo. It is a shorter visit with great photo ops. An absolutely fabulous view and yes, we did see a rainbow. At the Volcano National Park we saw smoke but no lava flows from the viewing area but walked through a lava tube. The black sand beach is one that is different to anything else we saw so far. We counted 12 turtles resting on the beach. My girlfriend and I highly recommend this guided tour.
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Packages: | 2-for-1 Review Rebate Special |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2014/11/26 |
Activity Date: | 2014/11/19 |
Reviewed by: Vicki2West
Our tour guide Denis, (spelling?) was fabulous - I wanted to take him home with us. He is very knowledgeable and entertaining. This tour was more than we expected and would do it over and over again! Especially because of our guide! He is so patient and kind....the BEST!
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Packages: | Standard Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2014/10/23 |
Activity Date: | 2014/10/20 |
Reviewed by: Yim
I had Paul as my tour guide and had an amazing experience. Got to see a lot of cool places and Paul was very knowledgeable and very friendly. Will definitely book another tour when I come back to visit the big Island.
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Packages: | Grand Circle Island & Volcanoes National Park |
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Posted on: | 2014/10/22 |
Activity Date: | 2014/10/21 |
Reviewed by: Sindhu
The tour is very informative and enjoyable. The guide is very patient and expalined in detail.
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Packages: | Standard Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2014/06/03 |
Activity Date: | 2014/05/26 |
Reviewed by: Gene From Texas
The tour was OK. There was a lot of bus riding just picking folks up and dropping them off. I think were the only folks staying in Hilo. There were a couple of stops at commercial sites that could be left off the tour. The guide was good and knew a lot about the area. This tour could be streamlined and only take half a day.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Mary Liz
I flew from Honolulu to Hilo early for trip which was scheduled for 8:30 AM. We were delayed starting by about one hour for other guests who took a later flight. My main reason for this tour was to see the volcano. Because of air quality, the observation area was closed. Because of cloud cover, we could not see the top of the volcano. We were able to visit the National Park Visitors Center which was worthwhile.
The tour guide was just fair. We visited several commercial sites.
He tried to make up for the closing of the observation area by stopping at other volcanoes in the park & a lava tube.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Friends |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Mr. Anonymous
Overall the tour was enjoyable, but it could have been better. The driver forgot to pick me up at my hotel and I had to call to remind them. The driver/guide gave a great deal of information about everthing, so much so that the constant talk became a blur after a while. The sights we saw were great for a first timer to the island, but if I were to come back, I would stay on the west coast and drive over to see the volcano.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Friends |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Beverly Quek
Our tour guide Sharon was wonderful!! She was very informative and knew the history and tour sites very well. She was also funny and entertaining even though our group was not very responsive at first. She made us laugh in the end.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Mr. Anonymous
Great way to see the highlights of Hilo and the volcano. Good price for it too.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
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