Seems I made a mistake of booking all 3 nights on the BI at the Fairmont, but what's done is done. If I will make one loooong day trip to volcano national park and it's surroundings, what should my day look like? Interested in seeing black/green sand beaches. Keep in mind safety concerns (are there any?) with inexperienced drivers driving back at night to the other side. Considering a day tour but not sure we want to be on anyone else's schedule.
3 days is not close to enough time to do eve the main attractions on TBI no matter where you stay, so focus on what you want to see and plan for just that.
I stayed at the Fairmont for a week and it was amazing, mind you I got upgraded to an ocean suit and there were tons of whales/turtles every morning but that's no here or there
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If you drive to green sand beach you need to be experienced and have a 4 wheal drive car. I think you can go to volcano park and do snorkeling or manatee on the way down or back, and stop at a colored sand beach, probably best to choose one.
As I said though you will not get done the main attractions, so choose what you want to see most and map your route accordingly, you will drive past the same attractions there and the way back so if seeing a volcano glow is the most important go there first and on the way back try and do green/black sand beaches, southern most point, snorkeling/manatee stuff by captain cook.
And then the next day try for Mana Kai, and the final day try Waipio, and waterfalls near Hilo.
Just some thoughts. But in short in 3 days I would say
1 day Volcano (Personally I skipped the park and did other activities I cared about more.) and everyhting in the way down to it, like a stop in Kona, colored sand beaches, southern most point, captain cook water activity, etc.
Day 2 Mana Kai (was closed when I was there)
Day 3 Waipio Valley and waterfalls on the way to Hilo.
The hotel charges to store kosher food FYI and were very not nice about it. We ended up storing our food in our cooler and refilling it from the ice machine.