HB 042: Aloha Adventure Farms – Finding Culture and Adventure on the Big Island of Hawaii

Aloha Adventure Farms 0:00

People see ATVs and they automatically think they know what the tour is the only way I could describe it as if you took all of the crowds out of the Polynesian Cultural Center on a wahoo and you let the guests ride around on an ATV and stop and have fun and participate so no lines, no crowds, intimate personal so that the ATV just adds a little bit of adventure and excitement.

Hawaii's Best 0:27

Welcome to Hawaii's Best travel podcast where we help you prepare for your next trip to Hawaii. Discover the experiences businesses and stories that make Hawaii the Aloha state. And now your host Brian Murphy

Bryan Murphy 0:43

Aloha and welcome to Episode 42 of Hawaii's Best where he helped prepare you for your next trip to Hawaii. I'm your host Brian Murphy, the owner of Hawaii's Best and on our blog or podcast we offer travel guides, tips, cultural insights to get the most out of your stay on the islands. We give you a behind the scenes exclusive look with Hawaii's Best experiences, businesses and influencers and I can't wait for you to hear more about aloha adventure foreigners on the Big Island of Hawaii with owners Leah and Adam. But first traveling back to Hawaii has started to open up as I'm sure that you know the past month or so however getting there. There are a few details that you just need to be aware of. And again, I am continually pushing you towards this resource because it is the most up to date and official resource of getting to the islands and that's going to Hawaii COVID-19 dot com that's Hawaii COVID one nine.com for the up to date info on traveling to Hawaii during the coronavirus pandemic. And there you'll find all of the up to date info and stuff that you just need to know if you're planning on booking a trip to Hawaii anytime soon or if you're planning on especially if you're planning on traveling to Hawaii in the remainder of 2020 Today's episode is brought to you by Shaka guide and Shaka guide is a tour guide right on your smartphone. Check it out uses GPS to guide you to interesting places along the way. Automatic audio tours with turn by turn directions means all you need to do is turn on the tour and Dr. Shaka guys self guided tours give you the freedom to explore the beautiful Hawaiian islands and know where to stop and what to do. And especially in this new normal of social distancing and not knowing when the traditional tour guides will open up again. This is a great alternative and not only an alternative, this is personally what we use when we are traveling to different islands and want to explore the islands we use shocky guy because I'm a little bit more wired as an introvert and I just love to be able to explore on my own with my family and not have to deal with like 50 people on a tour bus stop where they want to stop I want to stop where I want to stop and Shaka guide really does a great job of guiding you through the islands for example, like Rhoda Hannah, there's some hidden gems on road the heimat that Shaka guide highlights that you're just not going to get on your typical tour bus. So all you got to do is go to Hawaii's Best travel.com slash Shaka and you'll be able to download the guide right there. What's cool is if you're going to Oahu they have an O Ahu app and different guys that go along with a lot of the same thing with Maui, Hawaii, and the big islands to go to Hawaii's Best travel.com slash Shaka and go ahead and download that today. Today's interview is with the owners of aloha venture farms on the Big Island of Hawaii, Leah and Adam and I want to read you their vision statement before we jump into today's conversation. On their website. They say that we believe in the spirit of aloha the breath of life, a word that exudes hope. Love unity, ohana, courage, a way of living and treating each other with love and respect. Inspired by the wisdom of the spirit of Aloha, our ohana. Here on aloha adventure farms invite you to come learn and leave loving the people of Polynesia and their traditions of many centuries. Learn what makes one of the world's finest coffees from the tree to the cup. In addition to roasting their own estate coffee. This striving mill and roasting operation handles coffee for more than 200 nearby Kona farms. To find out all about a lot of venture farms and about their tours and their property go to aloha adventure farms.com

Or look them up on Instagram at aloha adventure farms. Full disclaimer, this interview was recorded back in March of this year 2020. My family and I, we were all ready to head on over to the Big Island. And then obviously COVID and the shutdowns and everything else kind of hit. So obviously, we were pretty bummed not being able to get over to the Big Island. And we haven't been able to get over to there. As of yet, we're hoping to later, maybe early or mid 2021. But we were all gearing up to do this tour and visit their farm and learn all about everything that I've described in their mission statement. I'm just so bummed that we haven't been able to do that. But in reaching out to Leah and Adam, we wanted to bring you this episode, because they have opened up recently. And if you are traveling to the islands, with all the COVID, jumps and loops and all that stuff, if that's your choice to get over to the islands, that's totally cool. Again, go to Hawaii COVID-19 dot com to figure out how to get over to the Big Island, the Big Island, there's an additional test that you just need to be aware of. But if you're planning on hitting on over anytime soon, I would say within the next three to six months, be sure to go to that website. And be sure to look up aloha venture farms calm and everything they have to do and offer on their tours. I want to get right to the interview. And then I'm going to give you some of my key takeaways from this conversation. But I think towards the end of this conversation you build or the here just really the heartbeat behind a lot of venture farms. And it's it's so much more than just an experience. It's really about being a lover of culture, and just a learner when you travel. Without further ado, let's head on over we're going to talk story with Leah and Adam of aloha adventure farms.

Lee and Adam, thank you so much for joining us today and Hawaii's Best how are you guys doing today?

Unknown Speaker 7:09

are doing great.

Unknown Speaker 7:10

Good. Thanks.

Bryan Murphy 7:11

How's life on the Big Island right now?

Unknown Speaker 7:13

Big Island is good. It is a little chilly for my liking and Hawaii, where we are up here in the jungle. It rained a lot last night. But um, yeah, it's it's really lovely when you get down by the water and not too crowded.

Bryan Murphy 7:29

Tell me did you guys reborn on the islands? Or what's kind of the How did you get to the Big Island?

Unknown Speaker 7:35

Well, I'm from Arizona, it was a big adventure for us to come to Hawaii. I'm actually a sixth generation farmer in Arizona. And so this was a big move for us. So it was a lot of things came together to allow us to be here. And so one thing led to another and here we are on the Big Island of Hawaii. My wife might have another another way of explaining.

Unknown Speaker 7:58

I was gonna say I'm from Arizona to we both moved here together.

Bryan Murphy 8:05

Thanks for clarifying.

Unknown Speaker 8:07

We, yeah, so we been married for over 18 years now and moved here. In June of 2019. We brought our four kids over with us. And now we had the opportunity to to leave AZ where it was really dry and not a lot of water and come here and we bought a farm here on the Big Island. That's what I mean big island, if you haven't been here before, it is just that it is huge. It is big. And it's one place where you can actually get some acres in Hawaii. And so that's kind of what landed us here on the Big Island.

Bryan Murphy 8:45

So you moved to the Big Island in June of 2019. Mm hmm. And you bought a farm. And then you decided, hey, let's get ATVs utvs. And let's do this tour thing. So maybe for some of those who aren't familiar with aloha venture, foreigners maybe talk a little bit about first what it is. And then we kind of how did that all start.

Unknown Speaker 9:05

So aloha adventure farms as really like my my husband, he's super creative, and he came up with a lot of the ideas about what we do here. One of the things that we've loved as we've traveled with our family to different countries is when we go places we love to learn about the culture and the people there I mean, a fun trip is when we've met someone who lives there who we get to learn about them and their family and what their life is like in that country. When we came to Big Island we really didn't find that unless we went to a luau. There was remember when we came from vacation before we moved and you know, kind of searching things to do here and we did the water stuff and that was awesome. But the water stuff was also similar to things that we had done on other islands and we kind of just kept searching for what is what is the culture aspect here what is different about Big Island on like a wahoo or Maui And we couldn't find it. When we ended up buying the farm, there's not a lot of acres that are actually dedicated to the Kona coffee farm. There was a lot of jungle that had some pass through it but hadn't been used for anything. And so we started talking and we came up with that. Maybe doing an ATV tour would be a good idea. But we didn't want to be just like the other ATV tours.

Unknown Speaker 10:28

Right? So yeah, your your initial question I I just love. I mean, if I'm a visitor coming to Hawaii, I love the culture. And that's one thing that we missed her and we really want to embed it into the farm. So as she said, we've tried to do that. And we've we've set up different villages in our jungle that you can go up to in an ATV, UTV. One thing that we're learning is that people want the culture ATVs are everywhere. I mean, you can ride an ATV anywhere, and you get the people here who are like, Oh, that's going to ATV tour. But one thing we learned is when they come down from the jungle, we love it. We love to watch the faces of these people when they come down. Because we know what we like about our tours is that it's unexpected. Even though we try to market it a little bit as a cultural experience. They come down and they are just there. They're yelling, screaming their smiles, and they love it. And one thing they tell us is that they didn't expect that it wasn't just a TV, a TV, right? So one thing we're trying to do is market more of the cultural experience that they're having.

Unknown Speaker 11:31

I think one of my favorites was we had a gentleman and his wife who were in their 60s. And they had brought a lot of their children and spouses and cousins who were in their 20s. I think the dad was just kind of paying for everyone's experience and just kind of doing what everyone else wanted. And he wasn't super enthused when he first got here. And when he came down, he came up to me and he goes, I gotta be honest, I wasn't expecting much. But that was phenomenal. That was the coolest thing I have seen since I've been here. When we finally closed on the farm, Adam, he went up into the jungle and he built these holidays at each spot. So in the in the jungle, there's four figurative islands that they visit, they get to go to Hawaii, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa. And he built holidays, each of those spots, he came up with the activities and the ideas of what guests do at each spot. And it it doesn't sound like much when we say oh, you get to ride the ATV to Hawaii and you're gonna do some activities with a guide. And then you go to to Fiji and Tonga and Samoa. But we have the best guides you could ever have. They are locals, they are so much fun. And activities that we've come up with here. It just makes the whole cumulative experience just really amazing and interactive. I mean, there are it's not like you're cold in the jungle, but there's a lot of shade, which is refreshing. When you're a tourist in Hawaii, you spend a lot of time in the sun, and it's very personable. You've got a group of maybe 10 people to guys, there's no waiting in lines. It's just a lot of fun.

Bryan Murphy 13:09

So kind of going back a little bit on the culture side. In your guys's opinion, you mentioned you know, yeah, you can find culture in Oahu, Maui pretty easily. But why in your guys's opinion? Do you feel like maybe that was a little bit harder to find on the Big Island.

Unknown Speaker 13:27

You always hear that the island is is a couple years behind.

Unknown Speaker 13:33

or may not this is true.

Unknown Speaker 13:36

I think I think it was time I really think it Yeah, I'm I mean, you can go to a loo out here. I think you can do that anywhere. But But you don't even experience this on a wahoo we've made this personable where you can actually go with someone you see that at a luau. And at the end, one of our guides does the fire knife dance. And he's one of the best fire knife dancers in the world. He's He's won all the companies. The number one we'll just say he won the competition for the for the best in the world. No matter how we market this. You just have to come to experience we learned we cannot market what you experience. And we've we've had a hard time doing that. But why is not on the Big Island? I don't know. I think it's just time for it.

Unknown Speaker 14:16

I think the closest you get to it on the Big Island would be if you go to a luau, and maybe not one of the huge ones. And maybe if you went to a smaller, more intimate, higher price tag, Lou, I mean, we don't have the big dinner, but the show and the learning and the entertainment is all there.

Bryan Murphy 14:36

out of you. Mitch mentioned something just briefly, why do you feel like the marketing side has been a little it's been it's been hard.

Unknown Speaker 14:42

It's been difficult. We're we're new in this but we're trying to figure out how when people come down, we're noticing they love this cultural thing. It wasn't what they expected. We're like we're marketing this thing wrong. Our whole intention was to put the culture into this and it's not an ATV, ATV ride and so we just have a hard time really figuring out how to market it so people can experience what we have. And we're just kind of in that right now we're trying to figure that out.

Unknown Speaker 15:07

I think it's been hard because people see ATVs. And they automatically think they know what the tour is the only way I could describe it as if you took all of the crowds out of the Polynesian Cultural Center on a wahoo. And you let the guests ride around on an ATV and stop and have fun and participate. So no lines, no crowds, and submit personal so that the ATV just adds a little bit of adventure and excitement to it.

Bryan Murphy 15:36

Do you guys feel? Or have you seen a shift in tourism as far as talking about the ATV tours and whale watching experiences and going up to the Polynesian culture Center, which is amazing. But do you feel like there is more of a we're kind of flirting with it but just more of interest or a yearning tours, culture and experience. But it feels like people are starting to come to Hawaii more with a bent towards Now it could be a lot of the recent news as well. But there's more of a yearning for Hawaiian culture. And you mentioned to Leah just in your kind of your guys's world travels, you go to a place in a posture of wanting to be a learner learner of culture. Maybe speaking to that point a little bit too, because that's something that on Hawaii's Best we try to get across. And no matter where you're going, you can be coming to Hawaii. Hawaii happens to be a part of the United States. But it's such it's like going to a whole different country. Yes. whole different culture. So maybe talk a little bit how do you just in a broad sense, how do you guys go about posturing yourself to be receiving a culture

Unknown Speaker 16:46

of one thing as we've as we've talked about marketing strategies, and how do we get the point across about what we're doing? We realize a lot of people visit Hawaii, a lot of people have been visiting. For aeons. They have their little routine they do they know the beaches that they like. And when I say visit, it kind of means they come. They head up the Waikiki strip, they they know they're few little spots, and they spent a lot of time at a resort or a hotel. And I'm sorry, can you hear that a TV in the background?

Unknown Speaker 17:20

Yeah, it was awesome.

Unknown Speaker 17:22

And we really want people to come and experience Hawaii to get beyond just the pretty beaches and the good food, but to really experience it. And I think here at aloha adventure farms, we and our guides, really try to embrace Aloha, and what does that mean, to how we interact with others? And our I think a lot of times our guides end up with like best friends, because that's how they are they just make best friends with everybody who walks through the doors. From all we've had people from all different backgrounds, all different cultures. Am I answering your question?

Bryan Murphy 18:04

Yeah, I was even thinking maybe even zooming out more like even going to a foreign land yourself? How do you posture yourself to be a learner of that culture?

Unknown Speaker 18:13

Well, whenever we've planned vacations with our kids, my kids probably look at as obnoxious because I'm not like, oh, we're just gonna go cruise past the arch and Cabo or we're not just going to go get that Instagram picture by something that they want to post. We're all about what can we learn? what foods can we try? Who can we connect with? That's going to give us that experience. I mean, when we took our family to Billy's, we did some cool stuff. But one of the things I remember the most was talking to a lady on a bus that we were on. And she was telling us about her life, who she lives with what her kids do what her two other jobs are that she has. And my kids got to listen to her and they asked her questions, and they got to learn about what her kids life was like there. So I just think that we on purpose, try to set ourselves up with experiences, and not just photo ops.

Bryan Murphy 19:11

I think that's great. I mean, that's what you guys are doing, talking about experiences and ATV tour. And you also offer a carving tour as well.

Unknown Speaker 19:21

I mean, we're open to learning we are obviously not local here on the island. We have guys only have so many awesome people around us working with us and we aren't like you're saying okay, this is what you need to do. We have the guides and we also have a teacher who's from the area that teaches so we're making sure that everything is right on topic when it comes to them learning in Hawaii and Fiji and Tonga and Samoa. And to add to that we have a Tongan who's a fourth generation Tongan and he he's a fourth generation car. Yeah, we have a fourth generation Carver from Tonga and he is here as well and he has a hot up there work with a nice view and he teaches classes on how to carve, and they go home with an awesome Tiki. I mean, the most every one of them do, it doesn't matter, they start making messes of it and learning how and then they come home with the best Tiki. And it's cool because it has their marks on it, and it has his marks on it. And so we're learning, we're learning from him. And we're learning every day more and more about the Polynesian culture. And so our vision for this farm is the Polynesian culture, we have a lot in our minds of what we want to do. It's not just going to be an ATV tour. But we do want to keep the Polynesian culture in this whole farm. And so that is our vision. And that's what we're doing. But it's just it's constantly learning every day. It's not coming in, like we know everything because obviously we don't, that's we don't want to profess to be like that. And we kind of just let these guys go. And people are doing the right things about the culture and they love it. It's awesome. Sometimes we'll have the molins Come on a tour, and they'll go all we had when I was in Samoa, this is you know, this is how we did it. I like how you have a round hallway because this is what we have in some all round hallway. And they would add to it. They say they would talk about the family members and they each have their own posts to sit by on the hallway. And that's how we knew who they were. And so we incorporate that into our tour. And it's a lot of fun. So we do have Polynesians contours. And they we know that that there we have Tongans come and they add to it. You know, here's the top, oh, this is what we had at the top. We had top as you know, growing up, this is how we did it. And so we're constantly learning. And it's a lot of fun.

Unknown Speaker 21:32

I mean, let's be honest, the carving station has the best view on the farm. It is amazing. And when you get to sit there and talk with money, he's our, our Carver there. That's one of the best times you can have listening to his stories about growing up, and Tonga and his family there and how him and his brothers and his dad all carved. You know, I mean, it's, it's just, that's what experience and Polynesia is. It's

Unknown Speaker 22:00

really cool. It's cool.

Bryan Murphy 22:01

How many acres are you guys on?

Unknown Speaker 22:03

We're just under 300 acres. It goes from about 1000 feet to 2500 feet elevation.

Bryan Murphy 22:09

That's awesome. Now you talking about even doing more? Are you cool to talk about some future ideas and plans

Unknown Speaker 22:16

I'll just say we have some really cool things that are already in the process. And I don't know if we want to put it out there right now but a lot of people know what we're doing around here but we have a lot of really cool stuff to do with this problem.

Bryan Murphy 22:29

How is how is life been adjusting talking about you know, these acres and you still only been about not even a year yet that you've been on island? How is adjusting to life on Big Island for you guys been starting your own company but also just getting in groove with kind of the slower pace especially even coming from Arizona at a slower pace of the island.

Unknown Speaker 22:54

I don't even know if we can go there. I'm

Unknown Speaker 22:57

you developed.

Unknown Speaker 22:59

I think I was I my calling was to come to Hawaii to become patient because at least that's I'm sure my wife would say that but we were in a fast paced world back home and no matter whether you like it or not in Hawaii, you're just gonna have to slow down. I mean, you're gonna have to, you're just gonna have to, you have no choice. And so that's one thing that we've we've tried to adapt to. It's tough when you're starting a business and doing everything and trying to you know, it's it's hard. It's hard we've had it's it's still everyday if you

Unknown Speaker 23:33

probably heard the rooster.

Unknown Speaker 23:36

The roosters, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 23:41

And home. They don't just crow in the daylight morning, early hours they call night long and all day long. And to say we like we're in a fast pace in Arizona is kind of funny because we live in a really small town in Arizona, a farming and ranching community. But you know, big island is huge, but the whole entire island. I don't know if this is exact, but I've been told it's like 200,000 people, and I already I go to Costco and I run into people I know I run with people at Safeway. I run people at the gas station like it really is. It's a big place, but it is a small really cool community.

Bryan Murphy 24:20

Yeah. Has it been fairly welcoming?

Unknown Speaker 24:22

Yeah, yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 24:24

The people are great here. Yeah. Now we've got four kids in school. And that's been an adjustment. We already said public school back in Arizona. And here we're doing like a online and in person hybrid charter school. So there's been adjustments all around. Some of the biggest struggles in Hawaii is finding housing, just housing in general. And then if it's affordable, that's a great bonus. So that's different. I don't think people always realize that when they are visiting, so many houses are used for vacation home. Yeah, you know through Airbnb, which isn't affordable for your everyday resident. There's all sorts of adjustments.

Bryan Murphy 25:01

Yeah, on that topic, if someone is actively looking to possibly move to one of the islands say, Big Island in general, what is something now that you would wish you'd known then, for some advice for somebody slow down.

Unknown Speaker 25:17

That's what I'm here, you're going to be in a long line at the grocery store, you're going to be in Long, long in your car, you're gonna just just, you're just gonna have to slow down or you're gonna go home back home,

Unknown Speaker 25:27

it comes to embracing the Aloha, because a lot of times, I'm annoyed, let's say I'm trying to check out somewhere at the grocery store, the people in front of me are taking a while because they're talking about they they're talking story you're telling a story with, with a friend that they've known forever, or someone they haven't seen in a long time. I gotta remember to settle down sometimes, in those moments and be like, this is what's driving me nuts sometimes. But it's also what we love about here at the same time. So it's more adjusting my perspective, not trying to change anything here, but

Unknown Speaker 26:00

it's still life, you don't come to Hawaii, and you're on a constant vacation when you live here. So don't come here thinking that you're, you're just going to be in a constant vacation every day, it's not, you still have to pay the bills. In fact, they're higher bills, you're still gonna have to live and eat. And a lot of people have to have a couple jobs just to live here. So you may not have the time to vacation, like a lot of people think they're coming to do. So

Unknown Speaker 26:26

I would say figure out how much money you think it's going to take you to live a year here and then double it, then that will probably be a good idea for what it's really going to be like some of the biggest complaints I hear from people is people move here without a place to live. They really do. They just think, Oh, I'm enough. I've got x amount of money in the bank, I'm just gonna go and stay there for a week and then find somewhere to live. And that's not how it works here. I mean, there is it really is, I would say like a housing crisis, in my opinion, but there just really isn't housing for everybody. This is something I never thought of, because you you look from a distance and you think, oh, there's this and there's that and whatever. But there's a lot of scams out there that aren't real online. So you really have to be careful about that.

Bryan Murphy 27:15

Mm hmm. Kind of back to the farm a little bit.

Unknown Speaker 27:18

What else do you guys offer that you want to make sure that we cover? We offer a full package of Polynesian experience and the things you do there I mean, I'll just be brief on the many things you do in the different places on this tour you you get to the try some some local Hawaii food. One is Boy, you get a bash a coke, sorry, a pineapple with a with a club. And that's you take all your frustrations out on that and then you get to eat afterwards. And then you get to throw Spears at a pig.

Unknown Speaker 27:51

Fake pigs

Bryan Murphy 27:54

Come on,

Unknown Speaker 27:55

it's got to make it exciting. But But you you just have an adventure. I mean, you get to open a coconut you eat the meat and the coconut you get to drink the water and the coconut you get to play drums, you get to watch a fire dance at the end. You ask all kinds of questions to the people you see at the luaus way back on the stage. And and then you leave, you get to be with them. You are with the culture. I've had someone come on a tour and they said, Man, this was like the last day of their vacation. They said I wish I took this tour on the first day. So I really got to feel what Hawaii is I that I could experience the rest of the week. Because then they went to the beach, they went to the you know, do the little things that people do when they come. But you're going to experience the culture here. We have embedded into it and it's not boring. It is fun. Everyone from I've seen a kid jump out of a UTV, if you're young. You can take a UTV if you can't drive the ATV. And I've seen a kid come out and say that's the best tour ever. And I've seen an old guy that's in his 80s come off of an ATV. See and that was so fun. And so it really it the whole family can come. And one thing we haven't we have a hard time marketing is people think, Oh, it's just an ATV tour. I I'm too old to ride an ATV. Or I don't feel like riding an ATV. We have utvs which are very, very comfortable on the tour and we take you in there and you just go from place to place and you're going to Island Island experience. So if you're not just driving in ATVs and so we're trying to market that, hey, if you're older, you're younger, and you don't want to drive an ATV. You're still gonna have a lot of fun and just come on, we got a UTV you just right in with us. And so that's one thing we're trying to market out there because the ATV thing we're trying to get this out because it's not like you were just riding ATVs up hills.

Unknown Speaker 29:51

I think that is important to remember is that all of our ATVs and utvs are are new. They are automatic. They are Our power steering. Our paths are really nice pass or we're not doing 20 plus miles an hour on an ATV. This is something that we've had some older people who have opted to take the UTV and they're like, Man, this is the Cadillac that was smooth. And then we've had some a little bit more adventurous who hopped on the ATV. And I was like, Well, I hope they're gonna make it and they come down and just love it.

Bryan Murphy 30:27

About how long is the tour.

Unknown Speaker 30:29

The ATV tour is two hours long. And the carving tour is hour and a half.

Bryan Murphy 30:35

So if you were to do the ATV tour and the carving tour, is that kind of included in your ATV stop? Or do you do the ATV tour, come back and then do the carving? How does that work?

Unknown Speaker 30:46

So you can book each tour individually like some guests will just do an AK or some people will just do a carving tour. On our website, we do have where you can book the package option, which gives you a substantial savings when you book both items together. And then the way our timing is set up, you can take the ATV tour, and then you probably have 30 minutes, come down, use the restroom guest snack and then go back up. Some guests have even taken like a sack lunch up to the carving holiday to do their stuff. But really, when you buy the package, I mean you could do the ATV tour one morning and then you could say the last day of your trip maybe on you know five days later, you could do the carbon one so you can do it back to back or you can spread it out if you want and we really want to do whatever fits into people's schedule.

Bryan Murphy 31:31

Is there is there a time of day that you find to be better to take the tour? Be it morning afternoon? Or does it really matter?

Unknown Speaker 31:38

I think any time of day we have a tour at we've got two in the morning and two in the afternoon.

Unknown Speaker 31:44

Okay

Unknown Speaker 31:45

very last for the day you maybe have a sometimes the year have greater chance that you might get sprinkled on every time tours get rained on they just come down and they I think it's like they think they got an extra bonus.

Unknown Speaker 31:59

They love it. It's weird a daylight. It's like part experience. I've seen him come down wet. And they don't even mention that a wet. Like I said they're so excited about what just happened. Yeah, funny that I look at them wet and they don't even they don't even talk about being wet. It's just It's so weird. So it's really, anytime the day works like we've never had one one time better. Really, honestly, we it's the same,

Unknown Speaker 32:22

you know, and we we put the ATM tour on there, which feels kind of early sometimes. But a lot of times people come here on vacation and they can't sleep because of the time difference, right? Oh, having something where guests have to get here early and can do something at 8am is kind of fun.

Bryan Murphy 32:39

And what side of the island Are you guys located on?

Unknown Speaker 32:42

We're located on the west side of the island just 10 to 15 minutes outside of Kona. If you are one of those that has a late airplane out of the airport here, we're about 25 minutes away from the airport. So

Bryan Murphy 32:56

there's a lot of experiences on the Big Island. But I think there's still a lot of unknown about the Big Island and what it offers. And what's unique about it

Unknown Speaker 33:07

like from a tourist perspective.

Bryan Murphy 33:09

Yeah, yeah. Even even talking about the different side, you know, Hilo side, Kona side, you know,

Unknown Speaker 33:17

farm moving here to the Big Island, we'd only been here one time, and all of our other Hawaii vacation experience had been on a wahoo. And so we kind of fell into that category of someone who didn't know a lot about the big island effect. I thinking Looking back, I think I only know two other friends who had been to the Big Island before. But when I would ask people on vacation, you know, you asked like a waitress Hey, what's, what's your favorite island? Everyone said the Big Island over and over and over again. And so we came here, and I can see why the Big Island is super unique. You've got the Kona side on the west side where you've got a lot more sunshine. When you first land at the Kona airport, which that I mean let's be realistic. That might be one of the best things on the Big Island is that airport. It is so small. It's really cool. You land and it's like desert, it reminded me of Arizona. You've got the lava fields. You've got the mesquite trees. I mean, it just reminds you of Arizona and I kind of thought What is this? This isn't you know, I'm thinking the green a wahoo. And so you've got you've got that area of it. You've got Javi up at the North Point that is gorgeous. And you've got pololu Valley and YPO Valley and then you go over to the Hilo side that is so green and gently but it rains a lot over there. You've got volcano National Park, you've got Monica, you've got the manta ray sparkling here. I mean, there's so much that this place has to offer so many different things. And it's huge. There's so much to see. Yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 34:56

think it's just like nobody thinks of the Big Island when you travel. I mean, it's just not It's not the touristy place like a wahoo and the Honolulu Maui now is becoming another big place in a way we like it, you know where the bins, that's where we want people here, but it's like, okay, stay away, we'd like our place here. Nice. It's a hidden gem. And I think that it's the next thing that people are starting to, like think about and want to go to. And I think when they get here, like, oh, okay, this place, we're going to Big Island cuz I've just talked to a guy who's like, oh, I've been doing this every year for, I don't know, 10 years, he's been coming here every year, he stays a month. And so the big islands got it all it really does for the Hawaii islands. It's it's got everything and I think more and you have less people and so there's there's a benefit to that. It's you may be in lines and crowds but you're gonna have that everywhere in all the Hawaii islands. But you're gonna have less people here and and you're gonna be able to travel and do all kinds of things. It's it's the snorkeling is awesome here. It's I mean, everything's are

Unknown Speaker 35:54

the snorkeling here is amazing. Like, I don't know if this is okay to say on the podcast. It's better than on a wahoo? In my opinion. Yes. Amazing. Yeah, it is so clear. It is so beautiful. To see so many different types of fish, the big islands, awesome. Everyone should come out here.

Bryan Murphy 36:14

Awesome. One thing I like to ask everyone who comes on the podcast is for someone coming to the islands for the first time, what is something that you'd want them to know?

Unknown Speaker 36:24

I think it's part of the aloha spirit thing. But there's no honking here really, if there's honking at someone that just came from the mainland, China, you can be like you cannot your phone, and the light is green. And there's a Hawaiian or there's someone local behind you, and they won't honk at you. They'll sit there. It's a weird thing, because the first thing I want to do is honk when I came here. But you know, you really need to slow down. If you just come here for the first time. Just just expect lines and things and just enjoy your time here. Just just relaxed.

Unknown Speaker 36:53

It's important to be respectful and mindful that you are visiting someone's hometown and living here. I'd never lived in a high tourist area before. But we get a lot of people from a lot of different places every single day. And it's just to be mindful that you're, you're in someone else's house, basically, when you're here and to be respectful of everyone.

Bryan Murphy 37:20

Yeah, well, I appreciate what you guys are doing. I really think you guys are ahead of the curve with combining culture and combining experience. You can get so many great experiences across any one of the, you know, major islands, but combining culture and that experience, I think is really is what's gonna continue to set you guys apart and set apart what Hawaii is really about what it really offers. So way to go. Thank you. Yeah, well, again, thank you so much for coming on the show. And appreciate you guys.

Unknown Speaker 37:51

Our pleasure. Awesome.

Unknown Speaker 37:52

Thanks for having us on. That was awesome.

Bryan Murphy 37:54

You got it. All right. Aloha. Aloha. Well, I just want to say thank you so much to Lee and Adam again for their time, and I can't wait to get over to the Big Island and be able to experience aloha venture farms firsthand with my family, and also with the soda shop, which just opened recently, within the last month. So if you're traveling over to the Big Island, be sure to hit up aloha adventure farms, they're gonna treat you right, you're gonna get an authentic experience of the culture of Hawaii. And I think that's probably my biggest key takeaway is, they have a great experience, but they're also incorporating so much of the culture. And I really think that's what a lot of people want when traveling. If that's what you want, I want I want to hear from you, when you travel, is that what you're looking for? Are you looking for learning more about the culture, learning more about how the culture came to be, and how it has expanded and how it has evolved? I want to hear from you, you can just let me know in the review below. But I think that as people are traveling more, especially post COVID, there's been a lot more purpose in in traveling, speaking for myself speaking for my family, we used to take it for granted, maybe that's you we take traveling for granted. We love being able to hear and learn more about the different environments, different cultures where we're traveling to even if we're just traveling to, you know, a different state or a different, even a, you know, a couple cities away, putting yourself in a posture of just learning and absorbing, you'll be able to gain so much more than coming with expectations and coming with just this to do list on your vacation. So next time we travel to Hawaii, just keep that in mind. It's important to do the to do list and to get all those things done and do all those experiences. But at the heart in the center of everything that we do, ought to be about the people who is helping to provide those experience. It says, In the people whose home that we are traveling to be at Hawaii, Greece, anywhere around the world, Australia, or even to a state next door, wherever you travel, just to have that posture of just to have that posture of wanting to learn, and wanting to just be immersed into the culture. And that's really what Hawaii's Best is all about. It's about bringing you the behind the scenes look of Hawaii's Best experiences, businesses and influencers. If you found value anything that we've done in this episode or any previous episodes, please hit the subscribe button, drop a rating and review. If you're on Apple podcasts. If you're on Spotify just hit follow. That would mean a whole heck of a lot to me and all of our ohana at Hawaii's Best. But until next time, friends be well. Aloha.

Unknown Speaker 41:00

Thanks for listening to Hawaii's Best travel podcast. To stay up to date on future episodes. Be sure to subscribe. For more information to help you plan your next trip to Hawaii visit Hawaii's Best traveled.com