Hawaii Forest & Trail — Local services in Hawaii

just now Overall- Phenomenal customer service, knowledgable and funny guides, and a really great experience. I had originally called Hawaii Forest and trail called to inquire if there were at least 2 space left on the waterfall tour the following day, and was informed that there was no tour scheduled, and at least 4 people were needed to run a tour. I needed to speak with the rest of my traveling party (who were out at the pool) and see if they were interested before I could make a reservation, so the manager said she would call me back in an hour. After my party returned and let us know that they didn't want to go, I called the office back to let them know we wouldn't be going ahead with the tour, but the representative who I spoke to told us that some people had booked on the tour for the next day and that we could join as well. My girlfriend and I were very excited and went ahead to complete or reservation. Not more than 10 minutes later, we got a call back from the sam representative, who was extremely apologetic in informing us that he mistakenly booked us for a tour the following Friday, and there was actually no tour tomorrow. He then proceeded to apologize profusely yet again, and he offered to either get a full refund OR to book us on any other tour that the company was offering that day at half price if any of them worked with our schedule. How awesome is that? They double checked their information, acknowledged the mistake, and compensated for it. They could completely just said “well, that sucks, sorry,” but they didn't. The rep gave us some time to look at the other options and then call back, we decided on the Hidden Craters hike and called back to schedule. A different person answered the phone, but she was aware our situation, was able to process our return, transfer our lunch order, and complete the booking with no problem. And to top it off, the manager who I had spoke with earlier and who had promised to call us back, called soon after I hung up with the final representative just to make sure we had gotten something figured out. Phenomenal customer service from everyone involved. Probably one of the best customer experiences that I have had in working with tour agencies. The actual tour itself was amazing. The off-rode bit when we arrived at the land of Kamehameha schools was so much fun. Our guide, Taj, was very knowledgable and personal. He did an excellent job guiding us on the trail and pointing out all of the plants, birds, and geographical features. I feel that I learned many new things that I didn't just forget as soon as the tour ended, which is usually the case. The hike was great and just the perfect length. The brewery tour at the end was interesting as well, though both my partner and I were not old enough to drink. It was still nice though and we did sample a very good non-alcoholic ice tea that we loved. Unfortunately the tea doesn't ship to where we live on oahu though. Maybe in the future a coffee farm tour could be offered as an option for those who...

My husband and I took two tours through Hawaii Forest and Trail, the Mauna Kea Summit and Star Gazing Tour and the Twilight Volcano Tour.

Brent was our guide on the Mauna Kea Summit Tour, and we found him to be personable and knowledgeable, both about the island geography and culture as well as the star gazing instruction. The tour began as soon as we were picked up, with descriptions of the geology and ecology of the West side of the island as we made our way to Mauna Kea. The stop for dinner at the sheep station was a great opportunity to see a side of the island we don't usually see on postcards. The food was a little bland, but not bad. As we started to ascend, I can panic a little when driving at heights, but felt very safe. The view from the top... just go. Take the tour and see it for yourself. There were some clouds that limited our stargazing but Brent made the best of it and we got to see both Saturn's rings and Jupiter's Galilean moons.

Our Guide for the Twilight Volcano tour was Taj, and he did an AMAZING job of tying in stories of Hawaiian culture and history with the geological features we came to see. He would often refer back to things we'd seen earlier in the day to things we we're currently viewing. Great "whole" island tour, getting to see a little bit of everything. Beautiful photo ops, but even more knowledge about the volcanoes, plants and animals we were seeing. Kilauea was beautiful, spatter was visible in the day light over the rim and I could have sat and watched it for hours after dark.

This would be a five star review except for one thing. On the Mauna Kea Summit Tour we were the last couple to board the van and sat in the very back row with another couple on the bench seat. The first several rows have 2 seats together and a third by itself, with a path between, while the back seat is a four person bench. The bench seat is NOT capable of holding four adults with any hope of comfort. The two outside seats are over the wheel well restricting leg room , and the interior two seats are basically on top of each other. In the interior seat I was basically riding up to the summit in a strange man's armpit, while in the outside seat my husband was in a fetal position over the wheel well. I know the other couple was similarly discomforted. The van seats 14, so 4/14, roughly a third of us rode up on that back bench. Bring some aspirin in case you you get the back seat, and hope your...

TL; DR: Peter is an amazing guide on a fantastic journey to the waterfalls at Kohala. We had high expectations going into this and they were exceeded. I highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting the big island and if you get Peter as your guide, you'll enjoy it even more. The hike is easy and the swim in the waterfalls is absolutely wonderful. All the supplies you'll need are provided like bug spray (we didn't need it), towels, snacks and food.

So the details:

Our pickup was at the Fairmont Orchid and it was on time, even arriving a few minutes earlier. We had a wonderful group as well with everyone being friendly and interactive along with Peter who made sure we were all talking and learning during our trip. We arrived in the town of Hawi in Kohala where we moved from a van to an open air former military transport from 1974! That was our off-road transport to the trail head.

The hike itself is pretty straightforward. I was a bit worried going into it since I had recently torn my ACL and MCL but I could manage it without any difficulty. The gradient isn't steep and the trail is well marked. There are plenty of stops on the way and Peter made sure to point out the different plants we saw and the stories behind some of them. He spent time also explaining the legends behind the island and how some of the trees were named. The water itself was absolutely amazing. It's pretty chilly but you get to swim under the waterfall and that experience was incredible. Peter made sure to point us to the places to enter the water and took pictures for all of us!

The hike is a loop about 1.5 miles in total so once you're done at the waterfall it's a very short walk back to the transport. Just when we thought the fun was over, there was lunch. We were given a nice turkey sandwich and some cold drinks/soda but what blew us away was where we ate. The picture with Peter is at the place next to our table. It was absolutely breathtaking. We spent a lot of time there eating and socializing with the other people on our tour.

This was a truly wonderful day and I would recommend this strongly to anyone visiting the big island and I would recommend doing it with Hawaii Forest and Trail, with Peter...