Kona
Kona offers an incredible variety of activities. Diving is always my first choice, so exploring that was my primary objective. Both shore diving with easily obtained tanks in town and boat diving with operators in the harbor are available. I did both. The shore dives were sometime difficult to get to with gear, but consistently nice once in the water. Others were very easy entries right into reef areas or very cool lava tubes such as at Mile4. By boat, we were able to see some of the deeper reef areas and even find an isolated squat lobster. The reefs were mostly monochromatic with light colored hard coral or black lava rocks, not much in the way of anything else. In some areas the fish were plentiful and others sparse. I cannot recommend it as colorful exciting diving. I had hoped to do the popular manta night dive, but the operators were not going out as they said it was a lull in the timing for them and only 1-2 mantas had been showing up. I wish I had been able to anticipate that, but it is nature. Topside, the drive to the volcano was great, but you do need a full day and need to be aware of elevation with diving so early in the trip is best. Kayaking, beachcombing, coffe and nut tasting, and vivid sunsets even in the rain all combined to make this a fun vacation which anyone including families would enjoy. Going to Kona just for diving, probably not
