Hilo Hawaii — Retro Vintage History

What's with Rainbow Falls? Just above town, the Wailuku River pours over the lip of a lava cave into a wide green pool, and on a clear Hilo morning the mist throws a rainbow across the whole scene. Hawaiians call the place Waiānuenue — "rainbow seen in water" — and in the old stories the cave below was a dwelling place in Hawaiian tradition. Reach it early, before the tour vans, when the sun is low and the spray is bright, and you'll see exactly how the falls earned both their names. It is the easiest wonder to find in Hilo, and one of the loveliest in all Hawaiʻi.

Hilo's story begins on the bay. Native Hawaiians settled this rain-fed eastern coast of Hawaiʻi Island for centuries, farming kalo (taro) in the wet lowlands, fishing the bay and reefs, and reading the rivers that run down from the mountains. In the bay sits Mokuola — Coconut Island — long known as a place of healing and refuge. This was a settled, cultivated landscape, rich in water and tradition, generations before any ship from the outside world dropped anchor in Hilo Bay.

The bay made the town. Through the nineteenth century, traders and missionaries arrived, a harbor grew on the crescent shore, and Hilo became the commercial and shipping center of the island's eastern side. Behind it all rose the great mountains — Mauna Kea, often snow-capped, and Mauna Loa — feeding the rivers and the famous Hilo rain that keeps the whole coast green. Two rivers — the Wailuku and the Wailoa — run down through the town to the bay, and it is, by reputation, one of the rainiest cities in the country, the rainforest that surrounds it being the reason. That abundance of water is the through-line of Hilo's whole story, from the taro fields to the waterfalls to the famous green of the place.

In the later nineteenth century, sugar plantations reshaped the district and drew waves of immigrant labor — Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Portuguese, and others — whose families stayed and built the layered, multicultural Hilo of today. You can read that heritage all over town: in the bayfront Liliʻuokalani Gardens, a formal Japanese garden named for the queen; in the mix of churches and temples; and in the food, the festivals, and the family names. When the plantations faded in the twentieth century, that community remained the heart of the place — and the blended food, Buddhist and Christian holidays, and family traditions that came out of the plantation camps are still, as much as anything, what Hilo tastes and feels like today.

Hilo's resilience was tested hard by the sea. Tsunamis in 1946 and again in 1960 struck Hilo Bay with terrible force and great loss of life, sweeping through the low downtown along the water. The city rebuilt — and rather than rebuild in harm's way, it deliberately turned the most exposed bayfront into the open green parkland and gardens you see today, a quiet buffer between the town and the water. That history is remembered, not hidden, at the Pacific Tsunami Museum downtown, and it helped give rise to the Pacific-wide warning systems that protect coastlines now.

Through all of it, Hilo kept its culture at the center. Every spring the Merrie Monarch Festival fills the town for the world's foremost hula competition, a celebration of Hawaiian language, chant, and dance that makes Hilo, for a week, the cultural capital of the islands. The rest of the year that same spirit runs through the Hilo Farmers Market, the heritage banyans of Banyan Drive, the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center linking Hawaiian sky-knowledge to the observatories on Mauna Kea, and the waterfalls and gardens that ring the bay.

Our Hilo logo carries the same emblem every Merlin Classics Hawaiʻi place wears — the hibiscus, above "Hawaiian Kingdom · Est. 1795," the year of unification under Kamehameha, printed in a worn, hand-pressed black and white. The hibiscus is the islands' mark, the through-line that ties Hilo to every other Hawaiʻi place we make — a nod to the aloha that defines them. What makes this one Hilo is everything around it: the bay, Rainbow Falls on the Wailuku, and the rain-green mountains behind the town.

Today Hilo is the bayfront cultural capital of Hawaiʻi Island — a rain-green town of waterfalls, gardens, and hula, looking out across its crescent bay to Mauna Kea. Its story runs from a Native Hawaiian homeland on the bay through a plantation port and the hard lessons of the sea to the warm, multicultural town it is now. Our Hilo designs gather that identity into wearable form — the hibiscus-and-1795 emblem, the bay, and the falls. Hilo, Hawaiʻi: rain, rainbows, and aloha.

Hilo, Hawaiʻi — Travel Guide

Visiting Hilo Today

Hilo sits on the rainy, green eastern coast of Hawaiʻi Island, wrapped around its crescent bay with Mauna Kea behind. It is a relaxed, walkable town of historic storefronts, gardens, and markets, with waterfalls minutes away and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park a short drive inland — the most authentic base on the island.

Rainbow Falls, the Bay & Hilo's Gardens

For visitors looking for things to do in Hilo, Hawaiʻi:

• See Rainbow Falls (Waiānuenue) on the Wailuku River, best in the bright early morning.
• Stroll Liliʻuokalani Gardens, the bayfront Japanese garden, and walk out to Mokuola (Coconut Island).
• Browse the Hilo Farmers Market for island produce, flowers, and local crafts.
• Drive Banyan Drive beneath its avenue of heritage banyan trees along the bay.
• Visit the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center for Hawaiian sky-knowledge and the Mauna Kea observatories.
• Learn the coast's history at the Pacific Tsunami Museum downtown.

Why People Visit Hilo

Hilo offers the most authentic, culturally rich side of Hawaiʻi Island — waterfalls, gardens, markets, and deep Hawaiian heritage, all in a relaxed bayfront town. Visitors come for the rainforest scenery and the easy access to volcanoes and coast, and stay for the unhurried, welcoming feel of a real town rather than a resort strip. From the morning rainbows at Waiānuenue to the gardens along the bay, it rewards a slow pace. It is green, genuine, and beautiful in every season on the bay.

For deeper reading on the Hilo history described here — the Native Hawaiian settlement of Hilo Bay, the nineteenth-century port and missionary era, the sugar-plantation and multicultural immigration period, the 1946 and 1960 tsunamis and the city's rebuilding, and the Merrie Monarch hula tradition — it may be useful to consult (1) the Lyman Museum and Mission House in Hilo, (2) the Hawaiʻi State Archives and the Hawaiian Historical Society, (3) the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and the Pacific Tsunami Museum, (4) the Bishop Museum for Hawaiian cultural collections, and (5) the County of Hawaiʻi and Hawaiʻi State Historic Preservation Division. For travel and visitor information, it may be useful to contact (1) the Island of Hawaiʻi Visitors Bureau, (2) the County of Hawaiʻi Department of Parks and Recreation, (3) Hawaiʻi State Parks and the National Park Service for Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, (4) the Hilo Downtown Improvement Association, and (5) the National Weather Service for Hawaiʻi coastal and tsunami advisories.