Captain Cook

"The pictures of this place do not do it justice. When you drive down the long, very steep and windy road to get here you wonder what you are getting yourself into and then you open the door to this beautifully decorated house (reminded me of what I would imagine an expat house in India looks like) with views of the ocean from the dining room, kitchen, and one of the bedrooms, lanais everywhere, a hot tub, a hammock...it is amazing. We were a family of 8 - 2 little kids (5,9), 3 grandparents, and 3 adults. The house easily accommodated us sleeping wise and never felt crowded. It was clean and well stocked. My kids loved being a hop away from the pebble beach and played in the waves almost every day. We walked to the black sand beach once but my kids liked the pebble beach the best. The crater rim hike leaving from the pebble beach is nice (fyi, 7:45 is too late to start - hot and no shade!). The house is nicely situated for sightseeing in S. Kona - we went to the kula kai caverns, volcano national park, and the place of refuge. If you aren't a vegetarian, be sure to get some local grass fed beef and shaved ice from the Kealia ranch store. Check out the smoothies and baked goods (and great guacamole) at the S. Kona fruit stand. The only word of caution/thing I wish we did more of was plan our food a little better. This house is a little off the beaten path - an hour from Costco (and the airport), 30 min in either direction for groceries, and 15-20 min from restaurants. So if you can get most of your groceries for your stay on you way in definitely do that and then supplement here and there (there is a nice farmers market on Sun in Capt. Cook). We planned day by day and that wasn't really ideal for us. You could easily come to this house for a week and never go anywhere else - you have an amazing house, easy access to 2 beaches, hiking - or you can use it as a nice base and travel around the island. We didn't have a chance to meet Deanna in person but she was extremely responsive over email."