Waipi'o Na'alapa Stables — Attraction in Hawaii

A very earned 5-stars with a fantastic experience—and, no, things did not go perfectly. My family are all beginner riders, and the instructions were perfectly communicated. What earned them this review, was how gracious and professional the guides were to us even after me creating a raucous with what I will call a rookie mistake at riding a 500 pound (or more?) vehicle that has its own brain, as well as them handling my just-turned teenager having a bit of a panic attack while on her own horse. Even with my screw-up (and let me be clear—it was completely my fault), I always felt secure in knowing that our guides knew exactly how to get the situation under control and make sure that we were okay. And, after I corrected my behavior, my horse was wonderful and gentle and knew exactly how to go. As for the trip itself, you start with a really cool trip in a van descending into the valley down the steepest paved road that I have ever been on. Your journey is slow-paced (in a good way) and picturesque. That goes for the van ride and the horse ride. The guides are knowledgeable and you can learn a lot or just soak in the sights. It is a simple single-file ride (and for good reason, because the road/path is full of large rocks and there are wild horses just roaming, so it is nice to just sit back and keep everything chill). It is true that you cannot hear the guide in front if you are too far back, so I just listened to the guide in back (problem solved). It was cool and damp in the valley (mid-June), but I was fine in my pants and a long-sleeve sun shirt. You go back into the valley a little ways, seeing some wildlife, beautiful waterfalls, and how taro is grown, and maybe even find some fruit just growing on the trees. I got to try my first mountain apple. All in all, I highly recommend this trip, and I highly recommend this company. I will absolutely do this again if I return to Big Island—maybe going even farther back into the valley (is that an option?). Mahalo for a...

I've had some time to think about it and here's my review.

First, some good things. Jamie was an amazing tour guide. He was really informative and more than happy to answer any questions you might have. Didn't feel unsafe when driving with him. Perfect guide! The scenery on the ride was beautiful, really peaceful. Mostly, it was quite a lovely ride.

Now, the bad. Do not put inexperienced/lazy riders on tempermental mares, especially if there's a language barrier. The other family in our group just did not even slightly attempt to follow the basic rules of: keep ahold of the reigns and stay single file. This led to Strawberry biting my horse when it rode up alongside me unexpectedly, so I'm told. My horse took off & bucked me onto rocks and honestly, I feel so lucky to be alive and only have deep bruising. I narrowly missed a metal pole and barb wire fence, not to mention a potential trampling. Not a great first experience with horse riding. Especially when it was likely able to be prevented. I finished the rest of the ride but the person riding Pua continued to be a hassle and almost had my horse spooked again.

Plus, those children were way too young and it's a miracle their stupid parents didn't cause anything bad to happen to them with their laziness.

Kira, as manager and the second tour guide on this ride, take all this on board. Exercise some...

The valley is pretty, and the guides are very nice, but it wasn't what I was expecting. This takes you mainly on walking trails in the valley and you walk single file the entire time, so there's not much you do with the horses (other than preventing them from eating along the way). While this is great if you're a beginner and that's what you're expecting, I began to find it tedious. For me, this was in large part because I assumed we'd be able to have a bit more control over the horses, rather than walking single file the whole time, and I ended up in the middle of the line (out of 10 riders) with a non-English speaking group, and I couldn't hear either guide. The guide in front gave the tour in English even though I was the only one who could understand but couldn't hear anything. Since we weren't able to get out of the line, I basically sat on the horse for an hour and a half pretty disengaged until near the end. In the last 10 minutes, we broke the line so I was able to ask questions and engage, which was nice, but overall it wasn't what I was expecting. It's a fine tour if you're a beginner rider and want to go on walking trails via horseback, but make sure to be close enough to...