choice of three tour companies HILO

I have had responses from

Hawaii cruise excursions

Rick of Ricky's tours

Big Island Aina Tours

pretty much all are the same duration, same places are visited and price ranges are all within each other...

Recommendations? Advice?

I have had responses from

 

Hawaii cruise excursions

Rick of Ricky's tours

Big Island Aina Tours

 

pretty much all are the same duration, same places are visited and price ranges are all within each other...

 

Recommendations? Advice?

We were happy with Ricky's Tours. I don't know about the others.

We did Big Island Aina this past January, Gil was our guide and it was one of the best private tours we have done. He was able to answer all of our questions and we were able to change our plans as we went along. I decided I wanted to spend a little more time at the black sand beach and at Volcanos Nat'l park - no problem.

I have had responses from

 

Hawaii cruise excursions

Rick of Ricky's tours

Big Island Aina Tours

 

pretty much all are the same duration, same places are visited and price ranges are all within each other...

 

Recommendations? Advice?

We had a lot of luck with our tours with Hawaii Cruise Excursions.

You can read my review of our tour on trip advisosr http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60583-d2195037-Reviews-Big_Island_Volcano_and_Waterfalls_Tours-Hilo_Island_of_Hawaii_Hawaii.html

We booked 4 tours with Hawaii Cruise Excursions, all were exxcellent tours.

We toured with Ricky's, and really enjoyed it! Mary

We used Ricky and he was $15 cheaper than the others. Same sites, same tour as others. He keep us out an extra 1/2 hr. Pick up was at the pier. He has a van and keeps some cool water if needed. I would use him again for a different tour, if he had one.

Joanne

We did the VNP tour with Rickey. Next time we would like to go the other direction to the waterfalls and the Botanical Gardens. We would like to find a tour guide for that one. A friend recommended Big Island Aina Tours, so we will probably check out that one. Her pictures were beautiful!

We did a tour with Ricky in April of 2012, and had a great time. You pay Ricky at the end of the tour, and he was very knowledgeable, having lived in the area for a long time. We felt we had a good tour, at a good price.

Elsie

We are using Marylou Big Island Tour in Hilo in two weeks, they seem terrific on the phone. I will post on return.

We are using Marylou Big Island Tour in two weeks, they seem terrific on the phone. I will post on return.

Still trying to decide whether to rent a car and do VNP on our own or go with a tour company. Does Ricky's (or any of the others) take you all the way down to the ocean to see the lava formations?

I like the idea of the car rental so we can explore on our own at our own pace and see what we want to see - but I like the tour idea so we don't need to hassle with picking up/returning a car and also getting inside info from someone who knows the area.

Sooooo confused!

we just got back from our hawaii cruise last month, what a wonderful holiday! We booked with our volcano tour with www.hawaiicruiseexcursions.com ; we chose them for a few reasons, but the main one was that they have a lot of vehicles, if i recall they have around 12 touring vans or so. While im willing to book my tours separte from the ship to save some money and to get away from those frickin big tours the ship does, i want to be confident that i will get back to our ship, on time, no matter what. I looked at the other guys, Rickys, Aina and Marybeth but it concerned me that they only had a couple of vans....what do they do if there is car trouble? I had visions of being stranded on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck and being worried about our ship departing without us. Our tour was excellent, we had a great tour :)

we just got back from our hawaii cruise last month, what a wonderful holiday! We booked with our volcano tour with www.hawaiicruiseexcursions.com ; we chose them for a few reasons, but the main one was that they have a lot of vehicles, if i recall they have around 12 touring vans or so. While im willing to book my tours separte from the ship to save some money and to get away from those frickin big tours the ship does, i want to be confident that i will get back to our ship, on time, no matter what. I looked at the other guys, Rickys, Aina and Marybeth but it concerned me that they only had a couple of vans....what do they do if there is car trouble? I had visions of being stranded on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck and being worried about our ship departing without us. Our tour was excellent, we had a great tour :)

I took a look at Hawaii Cruise Excursions site but it looks like they don't run the business but just refer you to a company. From what I see you are not really dealing with the company you are going with.

I took this off of there site:

Hawaii Cruise Excursions is a Hawaii Excursions and Tours guide. We provide firsthand information on every company and excursion trip we recommend.

I took this off of there site:

Hawaii Cruise Excursions is a Hawaii Excursions and Tours guide. We provide firsthand information on every company and excursion trip we recommend.

Yes we just booked a tour and the confirmation said that we would be touring with Green Travel and Tour. I think it might have been $10 cheaper to book directly with them, but I didn't know that at the time. Oh well live and learn, still much less then the ship.

Absolutely Ricky. He is an amazing tour guide and an interesting man to speak to on a personal level....if you are interested in people as we are.

He is very knowledgeable about the area, although not native.

He was so accommodating to everyone--reasonable price, and not tied

to any clock except when we had to be back on the ship. I cannot say enough good things about him.

We were on the POA last March & booked a private tour with black orchid tours. You can customize the tour & see whatever you wish or just go with one of their pre-set tours listed on the website. We had a wonderful time!

We were on the POA last March & booked a private tour with black orchid tours. You can customize the tour & see whatever you wish or just go with one of their pre-set tours listed on the website. We had a wonderful time!

Can you point me towards their website? I found a black orchid tours in Belize, but somehowI don't think that's the right one :o

Sorry, it is wild orchid tours (not black orchid) at www.wildorchidtours.com

Sorry, it is wild orchid tours (not black orchid) at www.wildorchidtours.com

Got it! Thank you :D

We were on POA just a few weeks ago and booked the tour with Big Island Aina Tours and it was beyond fabulous. Due to how the booking worked out, we and one other couple booked with them, but we wanted the black sand beach addition, the other couple chose the additional falls option. When we arrived, Gil asked if anyone would object if he combined tours (we were with him an additional couple of hours but were only asked to pay the originally agreed upon price). We ended up seeing soooo much but never were rushed. I would recommend this company to anyone.

The tour "bus" is a newer model toyota minivan, so it's really comfortable. And by using a regular passenger car, you have the option of visiting locations & going down roads that the big buses cannot.

We were suppose to be on Ricky's tour last month but the lines getting off the ship were crazy so we arrived ten minutes late and he was already gone. I contacted him a week later (he never contacted me) and he told me for security reasons he was not allowed to wait. But the van we did end up riding on spent 15 minutes there on the pier getting a dozen people together and no one was hassling him. Ricky probably figured ten in the van was worth two on the ship :rolleyes:

With the other van we did get to see all the same places for ten bucks less per person but we didn't care for the driver too much so I will not recommend them here. I think there is a picture of their van in my picture review in my signature.

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We used Ricky and he was $15 cheaper than the others. Same sites, same tour as others. He keep us out an extra 1/2 hr. Pick up was at the pier. He has a van and keeps some cool water if needed. I would use him again for a different tour, if he had one.

 

Joanne

It does seem like he has only the one set tour. :eek: Am I right????

I told him we did not want to go to Volcano National Park, but wanted to do the Puna district, lava fields short walk to the ocean & etc. He tried to persuade me to do his standard tour.

Thanks for anyones info on this,:D

...took Ricky's Tour. Yes, his tour is set but he was flexible with our group. One passenger wanted to stop at Walmart (to buy laundry soap of all things), and he accomodated the lady. My guess is this: If you can fill up a van full of friends and family...I'm am almost sure he'll "customize" your tour. Ricky was a talking encyclopedia and would recommend him.

Note: With only the two of us, we opted for his tour...if we had been able to find another couple to share a rental car,...driving would've been our first choice. We've rented a car both in Maui and Kauai.

We took Ricky's tour on April 29th. He was there promptly by the Aloha Room on the dock where he said to meet him. There were six of us who showed up and two others were missing. He waited quite a long time for them but after 1/2 hour or more he finally left. Evidently there was a misunderstanding as to what time the other people were supposed to meet us. Anyway....after we had already seen the waterfall he got a call from another tour operator who had the other couple with them. They were not too far from where we were when he got the call (seemed like only a few blocks) so Ricky stopped and picked them up and they completed the tour with us. At the end of the tour he offered to take that couple back so they could see the waterfall that they missed but they were tired and declined his offer. I thought that was nice of him. Ricky was very friendly and knowledgeable and gave a very good tour. He said if we were ever back he could put together a different tour if we were interested. I would definitely recommend him.

Ricky was very friendly and knowledgeable and gave a very good tour. He said if we were ever back he could put together a different tour if we were interested. I would definitely recommend him.

We had the same experience last week. It seems that everyone does a standard tour (sometimes in slightly different orders) and we kept passing the same groups and waving "Hello" at every stop. Ricky also offered to design a custom tour for us if we ever returned. We would recommend Ricky for first time visitors to Hilo, but if we return on a cruise, we'd probably choose to do a different activity.