Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park via Safari Helicopters

Although we also highly recommend Safari Helicopters tour of the waterfalls of Kauai, Hawaii, they also do a great job touring Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park and the active Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii's "Big Island" of Hawaii out of Hilo Airport. In September 2004 my wife and I thouroughly enjoyed our Safari Helicopter Tour of the active steam vents and lava flows of Kilauea Volcano. Safari Helicopters films your flight for you with 5 cameras mounted on the outside of the very comfortable ASTAR 350 B2-7 helicopter with huge glass windows for viewing. The website now claims they have upgraded from VHS tape to DVD recording of your flight, while most competitors that advertise a "free video" that was made years ago. It is dangerous to hike out onto the active lava flows due to the sulfur gas so viewing by helicopter is much safer and the view is spectacular.

We also recommend the following activities at Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park: Driving the 11-mile circle around the Kilaeua Caldera from 1983, stopping to eat at Volcano House Restaurant (especially at sunset when the sun sets in the steaming caldera, also where the author Mark Twain ate), driving to the end of Chain of Craters Road, and stopping to see Thurston's Lava Tube which is a cave-like old underground lava flow tube covered in green moss and vegetation.