Kailua-Kona: black lava and coffee beans

The Hulihee Palace, a former summer residence of the Hawaiian royal family, overlooks Kailua Bay directly with original nineteenth-century furnishings.

Just minutes inland, the Kona coffee plantations, grown on volcanic slopes between one thousand and seven hundred meters in elevation, produce one of the most sought-after coffees in the world.

In the afternoon it is advisable to reach the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau Historic Park, an ancient Hawaiian place of refuge where those who violated sacred laws could obtain pardon.

Toward evening, the beaches of black sand formed by cooled volcanic lava offer a sunset unlike any other coast in Hawaii.

Kona coffee grows only on a narrow strip of volcanic soil on the Big Island, where regular afternoon rains and porous soil create unique conditions in the world for its cultivation.

The Pu'uhonua o Honaunau functioned according to ancient Hawaiian law as a sacred place of asylum: anyone who reached it in time, even fleeing a death sentence, automatically obtained pardon.