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.
About 126 inches of rain fall at Hilo in an average year, across more than 270 days, among the highest totals of any U.S. city.
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.
