WELCOME TO RIVER DAVES PLACE

On Vaycay - Kona Hawaii!

RiverDave

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Just got to the hotel!

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Ziggy

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Aloha!
Enjoy!
Hope you can get in the restaurants, the new regs are overkill.
 

jadenchick

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Is that reg all of Hawaii or just certain islands? We are going to Kauai in Jan and I didn’t see anything about it for that area. Just Oahu.

Have fun on your travels! Was the COVID process easy? I’m curious to hear first hand from you if you don’t mind.
 

Ziggy

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Is that reg all of Hawaii or just certain islands? We are going to Kauai in Jan and I didn’t see anything about it for that area. Just Oahu.

Have fun on your travels! Was the COVID process easy? I’m curious to hear first hand from you if you don’t mind.
Don't honestly know for certain.
What say yee @HNL2LHC?
.
We did the cv test prior to departure, all went easy.
That was in May before they allowed vaxxed w/o test.
 

RiverDave

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Well being from
Havasu it was a bit much.. lol.

But overall it wasn’t that bad. Neg covid test. Stacy filled out the paperwork. They say you need some wristband thing, but they Jist gave us a piece of paper someone scribbled on and that was it.

I will say the rooms you walk through look like shit out of a movie lol
 

HNL2LHC

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Don't honestly know for certain.
What say yee @HNL2LHC?
.
We did the cv test prior to departure, all went easy.
That was in May before they allowed vaxxed w/o test.

You know Zig I am not too sure about the outer islands and resturants. I thought that it was the whole state. I did all my inter island travel and left 2 days after the whole thing started. If needed I can reach out to unvaxed family to see how it is being handled.
 

C-Ya

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Hey Dave…… if you want to go boating, send me a text and I will set it up. I have multiple relatives living in Kona and the Big Island in general.

I could probably set up a wild boar hunt on Mauna Loa too. (might be hard on the leg though, it’s hiking the volcano)

At the very least……. I can get you passes to the Hilton Waikoloa Village stuff. My relative is the general manager. Wanna play golf?

Text me

(I don’t see you snow skiing Mauna Kea? Lol) (there is a nudist beach 69 telephone poles north of town. They are numbered. It’s a real fun dirt road to the beach)
 

RiverDave

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Hey Dave…… if you want to go boating, send me a text and I will set it up. I have multiple relatives living in Kona and the Big Island in general.

I could probably set up a wild boar hunt on Mauna Loa too. (might be hard on the leg though, it’s hiking the volcano)

At the very least……. I can get you passes to the Hilton Waikoloa Village stuff. My relative is the general manager. Wanna play golf?

Text me

(I don’t see you snow skiing Mauna Kea? Lol) (there is a nudist beach 69 telephone poles north of town. They are numbered. It’s a real fun dirt road to the beach)

Well I think boating is in order for sure.. lol. I was thinking the guys were gonna go fishing to get out on a boat. 🤪
 

RiverDave

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So we got to the hotel, rooms weren’t ready. Went and had a awesome lunch across the street (very impressed).

This was the room my wife and I got and the honeymooners wasn’t any better. 😳

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RiverDave

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Had exactly one beer before I said “I will go fix this”

Talked to the manager a little and explained that at a minimum the honeymooners aren’t doing this and I’d rather not either.

The bay is called “eye of the turtle” not to be confused with eye of the tiger.

Fixed. 😍

Girls are happy now.
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Bowtiepower00

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Love the big island. How is the air quality? Last time I was there was during the eruption, and it was foggy everywhere.
 

RCDave

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Kona is aweaome!I learned to scuba dive in that bay
 
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is that the King Kamehamaha ? watch out for the timeshare/tour hawkers, they try to trick with free stuff, but this was 15 + years ago. green sand beach near south point is interesting. have Fun.

..

 

HNL2LHC

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Bowtiepower00

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Cloudy and the occasional rain drop.. but quality seems fine?
Last time I was there it was so “voggy” the visibility was next to nothing in Kona- couldn’t see up the hill. And when down in town we couldn’t see up the hill. Was fun to see the volcano- tho we couldn’t get very close. I remember being there in 2000 and the views were incredible.
 

just_floatin

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Walk down and hitch a ride on the six man outrigger canoes right outside your room. No better way to experience the ocean while riding the downwind bumps (waves). They will sit the rookies in seat 4 and 5. The brown Bradley outrigger canoe looks sweet.
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jadenchick

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Well being from
Havasu it was a bit much.. lol.

But overall it wasn’t that bad. Neg covid test. Stacy filled out the paperwork. They say you need some wristband thing, but they Jist gave us a piece of paper someone scribbled on and that was it.

I will say the rooms you walk through look like shit out of a movie lol
Can you please further explain rooms? Rooms at the airport? I just read it’s Oahu and Maui you have to show vax or neg test to enter into restaurants etc.

Kauai is looking into doing it as well; if they do I think we will cancel our Jan trip which sucks.

Thank you for the response btw.
 

kurtis500

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I’m headed there for the first time in December. Give all the pointers you can.
 

BingerFang

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@RiverDave listen to me… You have to go down to the bottom of the island and check out green sand beach. Drive your rental down to the parking lot and pay a local (they will be waiting) to give you a ride in their pickup to the green sand beach. It seems sketchy but it’s not. It’s about a 15 minute bitchin pickup ride to 1 of 4 green sand beaches in the world… truly amazing experience.

Amazing steak house called FORC in Waimea. If you go get the tomahawk, it’s the best I’ve ever had.

Kona is probably my favorite island, have fun!

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HNL2LHC

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Walk down and hitch a ride on the six man outrigger canoes right outside your room. No better way to experience the ocean while riding the downwind bumps (waves). They will sit the rookies in seat 4 and 5. The brown Bradley outrigger canoe looks sweet.
View attachment 1058429

Hut…hut…… hO!!!
 

Hypnautic

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Do the night time manta ray dive. Amazing to see them feed and flip right on top of you.

Do a full day fishing boat charter. Tell Captain you want to fish Aku. Small fish 18-22lbs, that is sashimi grade. I prefer over tuna as is has more flavor. It’s a beautiful fish.

Then fish for Mahi or swordfish. I recommend not going for tuna. Why?? Boat will give guests 10-20% of the fish-right there on the dock. Tuna has to cool before you can open or the meat will spoil. Aku is small and they will typically give it to you. Then you can divide up the Mahi as you should catch multiple. If you land the sea monster you can get a cut of enough steaks to feed your crew.

No bananas on the boat..

Love Kona.. parents have a place up on ‘Io Way in Kailua
 

RiverDave

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Can you please further explain rooms? Rooms at the airport? I just read it’s Oahu and Maui you have to show vax or neg test to enter into restaurants etc.

Kauai is looking into doing it as well; if they do I think we will cancel our Jan trip which sucks.

Thank you for the response btw.

When we landed we had to wait in like and then they went into this room. They asked see our QR code’s from the travel safe thing.

In that room there was like 14 little desks with people and they all had iPads. They were wearing face shields and it just kinda felt more like an information grab than anything to do with the virus. They wanted to know how long we were here for, where we were staying, confirming cell phone numbers..

I’m not sure what any of it had to do with cv19. It Just kinda looked like A processing room out of a movie.
 

RiverDave

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So one of the servers at the hotel is kinda guiding us around late night to bars etc.

He told me Oahu (sp?). You need to present a vax card to go into restaurants etc.. not an option.

He also said they have been trying to being it to this island (not sure what island I am on, pretty new to this Hawaii thing) for the last two months and it’s very controversial. He is worried about it coming here because he doesn’t want and won’t take the vax.. which means he’s screwed on his job if it does come here.

Nice kid.. if he wasn’t drinkin on the job earlier I would probably import him to Havasu and hire him. Lol
 

Sleek-Jet

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When we landed we had to wait in like and then they went into this room. They asked see our QR code’s from the travel safe thing.

In that room there was like 14 little desks with people and they all had iPads. They were wearing face shields and it just kinda felt more like an information grab than anything to do with the virus. They wanted to know how long we were here for, where we were staying, confirming cell phone numbers..

I’m not sure what any of it had to do with cv19. It Just kinda looked like A processing room out of a movie.
Contact tracing Dave. If there is an outbreak they want to be able to track you down.
 

Ace in the Hole

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So one of the servers at the hotel is kinda guiding us around late night to bars etc.

He told me Oahu (sp?). You need to present a vax card to go into restaurants etc.. not an option.

He also said they have been trying to being it to this island (not sure what island I am on, pretty new to this Hawaii thing) for the last two months and it’s very controversial. He is worried about it coming here because he doesn’t want and won’t take the vax.. which means he’s screwed on his job if it does come here.

Nice kid.. if he wasn’t drinkin on the job earlier I would probably import him to Havasu and hire him. Lol
You are on the island of Hawai'i Aka the big island..

Surprised he was drinking on the job..thats a big no no there...was a great way to get fired when I was a bartender in Waikiki back in the day. Then again big island is a much different place lol
 

Tank

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The King Kam is one of the original hotels in Kona. As kids we'd swim at the pool while the parents drank at the bar there. We'd run over to the pier and jump off into the water and use the Marlin crane to swing out like a rope swing. Restaurant you ate at across the street was an insane steak house from the 60's through the late 80's If you're craving mexican food Pancho and Lefty's down Ali'i Drive is pretty good! Also, grab the ahi sandwich at the Kona Inn which is also a few blocks south of you on Ali'i. If you want to go sit and enjoy a bagel and coffee and look out over the bay, hit lava java, again a few blocks south of you on Ali'i.

Interesting tidbit of trivia - The King Kam is directly next door to Paul Allen's estate (or his family estate now). His hug ass mega yacht(s) would anchor off the coast there all the time. if you google map where you're at, that little private marina main house, guest house and tennis courts is all his (or his estates now) property.

You 100% have to go to the Kona Brewing Co. (as in the beers, it started right there and it's around the corner behind your hotel). The pizza is off the hook!
People like Huggos on the rocks and you can see the mantarays at night from their deck while drinking which is cool, but it's kind'a spendy and I don't find the food very good.

If you're looking for some pretty good sushi hit Kenichi Pacific in the Keauhou shopping center next to the KTA grocery store (about 8 miles south on Ali'i Drive from you.

I always recommend these two things to anyone that's never been to Kona.
1) book the fairwinds snorkel cruise out of Keauhou. It runs down the coast to a private anchor off of the Capt. Cook monument where you snorkel, drink and eat lunch. I'd also recommend doing the Snuba dive. Bad ass. We've done this tour countless times and it's always fun and we keep going back.
2) take a whole day and do the island drive. Head south on Ali'i and just follow it all the way around the island basically. Lots of scenery and little stuff to check out. But you'll want to stop at the volcano national park, then keep trucking around the south end of the island and go through the giant fern forrest, to akaka falls and into Hilo (super rainy). Then keep trucking north up the west side of the island along that coast and cut in towards Waimea wich is high lands and ranches, very green and wet and cold actually. then when you swing back down to the east side of the island, go north again and head through Hawi (some old school big island hawaii stuff) and head to Pololu Valley lookout or as we call it the cliffs of insanity. You come around the corner and the road just fucking stops and you're way up on top of this crazy valley. But the drive up that way, like I said is super old school hawaii. Windy roads, water falls, heavy forrest, little towns with wood plank sidewalks, etc. It's also where Flumin' da ditch and the quad and jeep and horse tours are. All fun.

Depending on how much you want to spend, you can do the Blue Hawaiian Helicopter tour. I'd recommend the valley tour over the volcano tour. Just more to see and you go over these thousand foot valleys, it's pretty bad ass.

Oh! and do a Luau. The one at the King Kam is pretty freakin' good. Bit touristy but pretty fun, good show and good food.

anyway, man, have fun. Kona is our second home.
 
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HubbaHubbaLife

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Hey Dave…… if you want to go boating, send me a text and I will set it up. I have multiple relatives living in Kona and the Big Island in general.

I could probably set up a wild boar hunt on Mauna Loa too. (might be hard on the leg though, it’s hiking the volcano)

At the very least……. I can get you passes to the Hilton Waikoloa Village stuff. My relative is the general manager. Wanna play golf?

Text me

(I don’t see you snow skiing Mauna Kea? Lol) (there is a nudist beach 69 telephone poles north of town. They are numbered. It’s a real fun dirt road to the beach)
Keep a lookout for my last ride; 29' Magic Wizard/ purple colors ... new owner tells me its rare having a go fast on Kona.
 

HubbaHubbaLife

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The King Kam is one of the original hotels in Kona. As kids we'd swim at the pool while the parents drank at the bar there. We'd run over to the pier and jump off into the water and use the Marlin crane to swing out like a rope swing. Restaurant you ate at across the street was an insane steak house from the 60's through the late 80's If you're craving mexican food Pancho and Lefty's down Ali'i Drive is pretty good! Also, grab the ahi sandwich at the Kona Inn which is also a few blocks south of you on Ali'i. If you want to go sit and enjoy a bagel and coffee and look out over the bay, hit lava java, again a few blocks south of you on Ali'i.

Interesting tidbit of trivia - The King Kam is directly next door to Paul Allen's estate (or his family estate now). His hug ass mega yacht(s) would anchor off the coast there all the time. if you google map where you're at, that little private marina main house, guest house and tennis courts is all his (or his estates now) property.

You 100% have to go to the Kona Brewing Co. (as in the beers, it started right there and it's around the corner behind your hotel). The pizza is off the hook!
People like Huggos on the rocks and you can see the mantarays at night from their deck while drinking which is cool, but it's kind'a spendy and I don't find the food very good.

If you're looking for some pretty good sushi hit Kenichi Pacific in the Keauhou shopping center next to the KTA grocery store (about 8 miles south on Ali'i Drive from you.

I always recommend these two things to anyone that's never been to Kona.
1) book the fairwinds snorkel cruise out of Keauhou. It runs down the coast to a private anchor off of the Capt. Cook monument where you snorkel, drink and eat lunch. I'd also recommend doing the Snuba dive. Bad ass. We've done this tour countless times and it's always fun and we keep going back.
2) take a whole day and do the island drive. Head south on Ali'i and just follow it all the way around the island basically. Lots of scenery and little stuff to check out. But you'll want to stop at the volcano national park, then keep trucking around the south end of the island and go through the giant fern forrest, to akaka falls and into Hilo (super rainy). Then keep trucking north up the west side of the island along that coast and cut in towards Waimea wich is high lands and ranches, very green and wet and cold actually. then when you swing back down to the east side of the island, go north again and head through Hawi (some old school big island hawaii stuff) and head to Pololu Valley lookout or as we call it the cliffs of insanity. You come around the corner and the road just fucking stops and you're way up on top of this crazy valley. But the drive up that way, like I said is super old school hawaii. Windy roads, water falls, heavy forrest, little towns with wood plank sidewalks, etc. It's also where Flumin' da ditch and the quad and jeep and horse tours are. All fun.

Depending on how much you want to spend, you can do the Blue Hawaiian Helicopter tour. I'd recommend the valley tour over the volcano tour. Just more to see and you go over these thousand foot valleys, it's pretty bad ass.

Oh! and do a Luau. The one at the King Kam is pretty freakin' good. Bit touristy but pretty fun, good show and good food.

anyway, man, have fun. Kona is our second home.
Man Tankster.... doesn't surprise me that you basically grew up on Kona. Island Vibe kinda dude!
 
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HubbaHubbaLife

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Dave.... keep in mind when it comes to all the Hawaiin islands they have to be super vigilent on the covid stuff. I was out at friends place in Maui a great deal during early covid months.... that island has appx 180K residents and only 300 hospital beds so it got real in a hurry. They prided themselves on losing very few to covid.
 

was thatguy

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Kona is aweaome!I learned to scuba dive in that bay
I did the Jacks Dive Locker “dive animal” package there years ago.
Culminated with the night time manta Ray dive.
One of the highlights of my life.
It was like a 5 day package with 2 dives per day.
Bunch of dead heads. It was awesome!
The boat we went on would go out every morning and stop at the spot where they scattered Jerry Garcia’s ashes and we’d have to have a minute of silence. Then we’d go on with our dives. The entire shop was plastered with Grateful dead pictures and pics of Garcia.
Apparently he was like family there.
 

RCDave

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I did the Jacks Dive Locker “dive animal” package there years ago.
Culminated with the night time manta Ray dive.
One of the highlights of my life.
It was like a 5 day package with 2 dives per day.
Bunch of dead heads. It was awesome!
The boat we went on would go out every morning and stop at the spot where they scattered Jerry Garcia’s ashes and we’d have to have a minute of silence. Then we’d go on with our dives. The entire shop was plastered with Grateful dead pictures and pics of Garcia.
Apparently he was like family there.
Lol. I did that trip with my to be wife 28 years ago. The night dive is a religious experience
 

Outdrive1

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Looks great like a great time!!
 
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