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.
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.
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.
