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. About 126 inches of rain fall here in an average year, spread across more than 270 days of it, which makes Hilo one of the rainiest cities in the country and the reason for the rainforest at its back. 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.
Through all of it, Hilo kept its culture at the center. Every spring the Merrie Monarch Festival fills the town for a week of Hawaiian language, chant, and dance that makes Hilo, for those days, 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 — many of them planted by visiting figures of the 1930s, Babe Ruth and Amelia Earhart and Louis Armstrong among them — the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center linking Hawaiian sky-knowledge to the summit observatories, and the waterfalls and gardens that ring the bay.
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.
