Kona Farmers Market — Attraction in Hawaii

Very small Farmer's Market but had excellent selection of local produce.

The honey mangos are to die for, super delicious (but from Mexico so I've been told by one of the vendor ladies)! Absolutely get the huge King Mango grown on the islands, they are incredibly sweet and tasty but about $5-6/lb,around $14-$16 each. Variety of papayas were excellent, rambutan and longans were so sweet, passionfruit (Liliko'i in Hawaiian) varieties were so tasty and fun to explore. Apple-Bananas tasted like regular bananas but had a different more fragrant scent. I'd pass on those.

AVOID: soursop fruit=super sour, not very sweet, exorbitantly expensive, price=per lb but I think we paid $16 for the soursop which we threw out. Also avoid mangosteens as you only eat the white inner flesh and waste everything else while paying $$$ per lb for it. Also Costco on the island has mangosteen for a much cheaper price.

The lady at the far right upon entering has the best produce. Her Japanese Fushimi Sweet peppers, Shishito peppers, & Japanese cucumbers are SO good, as well as all of her fruit. Ripe papayas 4/$5, moderately ripe papayas 3/$5. Lychee, Longan, large Rambutan, Avia (delicious), Starfruit (you eat the whole thing) are all SO good, AND she remembers...

It's a really good 'local' farmers market, with produce, some prepared items (you must try the Chinese pretzels), and some great local craft goods! A good place to find gifts that aren't as predictable as most stores carry. It is on the small side, 15-18 vendors when I visited, I don't know if that is always the case or not. At home, in SoCal, they are usually twice the size or more. Of course this is Hawaii, not the mainland, so my expectations were out of line I'm sure. We didn't leave feeling like there should have been more to choose from. The prices for produce were unbelievable, even lower than in the stores (and in the stores they were pretty low). They had 3 to 4 papaya for $5-$7 (depending on the size). These are, of course, the smaller (compared to Mexican papaya) strawberry papaya. Here in SoCal a single strawberry papaya goes for $3 on the very low end, to $5 when they're scarce. And that's per papaya!! Some we're not very meaty, but they were all excellent tasting, and for about $0.75 a piece, it's just stupid good deal! The Chinese pretzels were $10 for a large freezer bag full. Don't hesitate to get them, they go a long way and are a delicious, crispy-crunchy, snack. Not too sweet and very satisfying to...

A good mix of local farmers and tourist souvenirs. At one stand you can pick a coconut, they will cut it open and give you a straw for fresh coconut juice for $5. At most stands they will cut any fruit you purchase upon request. Some stands have pre cut fruit ready to grab and go. Great prices, friendly sellers who don’t push anything on you.

A few hand made art, jewelry and wood stands. Worth at least one walk through. Don’t park in the paid parking lots though, save money, there are multiple free parking lots in the area behind the buildings on the strip.

Be sure to walk down all the side isles, some shops have great local products and are hard to see. I think one of the best parts is that most of the market is covered.

We’ve gone twice now for fresh fruit and a few souvenirs. We paid $5 for fresh cut mango, dragon fruit and papaya. At home those fruits are typically $5 each and we got all 3 for $5 total here. The prices at the market seem to be cheaper for souvenirs than the big chain stores on the street. I recommend coming here and supporting the small businesses instead.

The only thing I wish they had was more food options. They really only have fresh fruit/veggies for food. No vendors making fried food...