Wasabi Tours Hawaii — Attraction in Hawaii

Wasabi Tours - Big Island. We took the Twilight Volcano Tour on Thursday, Mar 6, 2025. Our tour guide was the Lead Guide for Wasabi, Mr. Dreu Basaldua. Let me talk about the actual tour, first. "Twilight" might be a bit of a misnomer, when you take into consideration that this tour was a full 12 hours. And an amazing 12 hours it was! We were picked up at our hotel at 9:45 AM with one other couple. We then traveled to Kailua-Kona to pick up another couple. The "official" tour started then. We were treated to a stop at a coffee farm, got to sample coffee, got some good insights into coffee growing, along with some of the different crops that were also grown at this farm. We had a stop at the Punalu'u Bake Shop (Malasadas!) for some absolutely excellent bakery goods ( you gotta try the Malasadas). Then to the Punalu'u black-sand beach, then to some lava fields, then to explore the Kilauea volcanic Crater. This volcano has been very active of late. On the day we visited, it wasn't actively erupting lava, but several steam vents in the cauldron were active. Huge crater! Then to see another lava field and explore a lava tube, and visit another (older) volcanic crater. Then, as we're driving back across the "Saddle Highway" from the Hilo area back to the west side of the island, we stopped and had a star-gazing discussion, with our being able to see many stars/planets/constellations, even though the moon was half-full and at zenith. Our guide displayed a superb knowledge of astronomy and took the time to answer questions and point out significant stellar features. It was an amazing tour, and we highly recommend it. Now to the tour guide, Dreu. He has been doing this gig for a number of years, and it shows. He is a virtual wellspring of knowledge. Island history, Hawaiian culture, volcanic history, a smattering of geology and astronomy, and the uncanny ability to point out every single Ace Hardware store we went past (10 in all). Seriously, I don't know if he writes his own material or he has somebody do it for him, but he delivered an almost non-stop narrative/monologue for at least 10 of the 12 hours we were with him. Funny, intelligent, educational, witty, engaging, and tailored to our group. He had "costume changes", if you will, altering his attire to the location we were attending. He took the time to explain almost anything we asked, no matter how tedious it might have been. He is a highly skilled, very talented individual. I can see why he has won numerous awards and accolades over his tenure, as he is quite simply the best I have ever met. We highly recommend you book a tour...ANY tour...with Wasabi, and specifically ask if you can have Dreu as your tour guide. Thank you, Dreu, for the memory of a lifetime! --Larry and Carrie Voorhees -...

We had a party of 6, 4 that booked together and 2 that booked separately. We didn't think to make a note that we were together. There were 2 vans that took the groups around. 4 of us were in one van and 2 in the other. It was fine though, the 2 were newlyweds and it was better that they weren't with the parents!! We crossed paths a couple of times which was nice for photo ops. This gave us an opportunity to rate 2 tour guides, Todd and Aaron. Both had their strengths! First stop was a coffee farm. Informative tour. Had lunch there. It was as advertised and tasty. They showed us the dinner menu and texted our dinner choices to the restaurant from here so the food would be ready. Next was the bakery for dessert. It was ok. The donuts were good, not amazing. A touristy stop. Then off to the black sand beach. Beautiful. Saw a couple of sea turtles. Next stop was the Volcano National Park. Saw the crater, steam vents. We did not cross paths with the other group. Next was the rainforest and lava tube. It was cold and rainy. There were umbrellas and rain jackets to use. I was layered with a t-shirt, sweatshirt and raincoat, but I added the rain jacket provided. We stopped at the lodge and warmed up and had an adult beverage. Then off to the restaurant. That was the black eye on this trip. The mahi mahi was good, the ribs not so much. I regretted my choice and wished I had ordered the burger. The service was horrible. As promised the food was ready, they called out the dish and you claimed it. What was bad was trying to get a refill on a drink or napkins. The service was non-existent. The bathrooms were dirty too. Made me wonder if the bathrooms were like that, what was the kitchen like?! From dinner we drove to Hilo and then across the island, stopping at 6600 feet to star gaze. Aaron was very informative on which stars were which. He had this awesome laser pointer to point out the stars and telescopic binoculars. Todd had a telescope. At 6600 feet it was 40 degrees. They did provide fleece jackets that I added to my layers, but with shorts on it was cold, especially with the wind. I would recommend you bring a backpack with sweatpants. You could easily leave it in the van at the other stops. After stargazing it was back to the hotel. Drop off was 11:30 pm. I would urge Wasabi Tours to consider a different restaurant for dinner. That was definitely a negative. The tour was definitely worth the time and money. I would recommend...

This was our first time on the Big Island and it's always fun to take a guided tour around to get the history and lay of the land. 11-hours start to finish is a LONG TIME to commit to a tour, but our driver/guide JASON did a fantastic job. He picked us up at 8am at a designated pick-up spot that happened to be right next door to our condo. We started with a tour of a working coffee plantation. Jason was always great about working with us on how much time we had at every stop and communicated the schedule clearly. The tour always ran well and on-time, but we never felt rushed and always had plenty of time at every stop. We saw the black sand beach with plenty of turtles and stopped for snacks at a local bakery. We stopped for lunch at a campground in Volcano's National Park and the boxed lunch of seasoned chicken, fried fish with rice and purple yam potatoes was really good and healthy and filling. After lunch we went up and saw the volcano, visited through Hilo and stopped at 2 waterfalls before stopping in Honomo and seeing Mr. Ed's bakery which is a MUST-SEE thing if you can do it! On the way back across to the east side of the island we stopped around sunset at the Waipi'o Valley Lookout. This place is amazing- 'Hawaii's Grand Canyon' and so full of history. If I get back to the Big Island again I would very much like to spend more time here (and with Mr. Ed in Honomu). We were back around home getting dropped off right at 7pm-ish.

Our tour guide Jason was amazing. This dude is smart, like WICKED SMART!!! His background is in agriculture and his working knowledge of Hawaii's trees and farms and economy and how it all relates and intertwined with the Hawaiian history of the places we were passing through and visiting was amazing. I'm serious, it really takes a pro to make 11 hours in a van with strangers 'fun and pleasant' but Jason really did.

I would highly recommend Wasabi Tours and especially Jason in particular. The big Mercedes Sprinter van was brand new and nice and super clean (with charger ports and cell phone/cup holders). They were polite and professional and super knowledgeable. The food was great and they even had plenty of bottled water and snacks. They delivered everything we wanted out of a tour and did it really well. Would...