Hamakua Guesthouse

Though we only stayed one night, it was a pleasant, easy night in a beautiful location. We discovered we had a lot in common with the staff there, found a nice walk to take and really enjoyed rural Hawaii.

Other people might not give it a full ten since it is a bit off the beaten path, has a shared bathroom, a shared kitchen that is closed at night, lots of chirping frogs. Also people with CPAP should let the staff know since it's off the power grid and they need to run the generator. Somehow all those things, for us, just gave it a sense of community and being close to nature.

The care taker Lisa was wonderful she was so kind and gave us a wonderful breakdown of the property and any helpful info - she was great and a highlight of the property for me - my daughters enjoyed chatting with her too and the beautiful gems she shared with them. It felt special, just like the rest of the property.

We enjoyed ourselves and appreciated our stay. There wasnt anything we would like to change.

Wow! We were surprised by this beautiful and respectful space. It was designed to engage travellers. We met with others in the kitchen to talk about our trips. There was snorkeling gear in a box in the kitchen, easy to borrow for free and return it after rinsing and drying. Our daughter loved the cats and her elevated bed. We really enjoyed our stay although it was raining like crazy. Would totally come back!

Nothing. It was perfect for us.

This is a darling little house north of Hilo. It's close to Akaka falls and the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens! You can meet some amazing, friendly people in the shared spaces, which is everything short of your room. It's cozy, if you love being around a lot of people this is the place for you! Beautiful view from the patio over the property. Outdoor shower and indoor shower, good toilets!

There were some things I didn't realize- you share a bathroom with a *lot* more people than I realized, for one, so there was more than once that I had to wait and wait for some much needed time in there. I thought it was shared between two rooms, but it's shared between 4 rooms, and sometimes people from the other floor or the cabanas outside if they were desperate. Some people would spend a lot of time in there, so it was unavailable often. We were in a loft bed at the very top of the house, which had looked fine online but was in fact super cramped with a sloped ceiling that we hit our heads on. One night the fire alarms were low on battery and beeped for hours before we took them down. The walls are very thin, so we heard loud music one night all night from Room #1 and the next two nights we could hear some guest who hadn't silenced his notifications over and over and over all night long. Then his alarm was going off and he just...didn't turn it off for an hour. I wonder if he was deaf? I met another guest wandering the corridor with me, trying to figure out who it was. Sleep was sometimes difficult for all these reasons. If we were all family and had each other's numbers this would be fine- but I wasn't willing to confront a stranger. The window in the upstairs loft had no curtain, so the light came in first thing and woke us up in the morning, but the kitchen is closed down hard core until 8am. You can't even open the fridge. There is no microwave, which I also didn't expect, and no toaster. You have to use the stove for everything. You have a shared space for your food, which is a rather small bin and shelf for us 4 adults from room 2 to be sharing. The main problem was this: It only takes one guest to wake up early and talk loudly, slam doors at 6am, break the rules, over-use the bathroom, leave their phone on all night etc to make it hard for everyone in this space.