Arnott's Lodge/Lava Walk

[wwbill4]

Has anyone done Arnott's Lodge Lava Walk on Hilo?

[ttime]

Arnotts does NCl's shore excursion. We did the lava walk with them our guides were great. They have a web site www.arnottslodge.com. If I ever get back to Hawaii I would book with them direct. They do a night walk that would be amazing. We didnt see red hot lava do to the concern about the bench breaking off. If was still a great adventure. We had to turn back due to the wind shifting the sulpher gases towards us. :)

[tdiii]

Two younger couples traveling in our party booked the Lava Viewing Hike done by Arnott's through our cruise ship. They had an awful time. They likened it to a death march as it was so hot. They were provided no water, their guide disappeared, and there was no lava to be viewed (and apparently Arnott's has known this for many months!). Another guest from their van fell and cut her knee openand as the guide was nowhere to be found, a park ranger had to provide first-aid. The ranger told my friends that the park was having a lot of problems with Arnott's safety. A great thing to find out on the middle of a lava field! And the provided "lunch" consisted of a dry sandwich and nothing else. They were very excited for this excursion, seriously disappointed, and when they complained onboard received a partial refund. They made fun of my wife and I as they said we chose a more, shall we say, "mature" adventure. But our adventure, the Secrets of Puna tour, turned out to be the highlight of our trip!

[worldsbestcandles]

Two younger couples traveling in our party booked the Lava Viewing Hike done by Arnott's through our cruise ship. They had an awful time. They likened it to a death march as it was so hot. They were provided no water, their guide disappeared, and there was no lava to be viewed (and apparently Arnott's has known this for many months!). Another guest from their van fell and cut her knee openand as the guide was nowhere to be found, a park ranger had to provide first-aid. The ranger told my friends that the park was having a lot of problems with Arnott's safety. A great thing to find out on the middle of a lava field! And the provided "lunch" consisted of a dry sandwich and nothing else. They were very excited for this excursion, seriously disappointed, and when they complained onboard received a partial refund. They made fun of my wife and I as they said we chose a more, shall we say, "mature" adventure. But our adventure, the Secrets of Puna tour, turned out to be the highlight of our trip!

 

I'm not sure when they had issue with Arnott's, but I used them 10 days ago and they were great. We were on a ship excursion and they gave us tons of water (even though we had a camelbak as well). The lunch was a brown bag lunch with a turkey and sprout sandwich with chips and cookies. I don't like turkey so it wasn't good for me, but overall everyone else liked it.

 

As for safety, we had a person fall and three of the guides stopped to help her out and they all had first-aid kits on them. Her cut wasn't very big at all either. Another guy got a piece of lava rock in his shoe and didn't realize how sharp lava rock is so it cut the back of his heel (one more reason to wear hiking boots, in MHO tennis shoes are not optimal for this and don't really count as sturdy shoes). A guide stayed by him the whole hike and changed his badage several times along the way.

 

My biggest gripe about this excursion is actually on RCL not Arnott's. RCL advertises it in their most strenuous category, yet they don't monitor who signs up for anything. Our group could have gone farther if we had been able to go faster but the group needed to stay together and several people were slower walkers. At least maybe break people into two groups a faster paced one and a slower paced one. Not sure...

 

Again just my thougts and my experience, I know every group is different.

 

WBC

[tdiii]

People were lined up for refunds after the Death March. This was only a couple of weeks earlier than WBC's. Black rock (the "lava" on this tour) can be seen easily, even from the ship. There is nothing special. And I don't really expect to have at least three people experience bloody injuries on a tour. But it's great that there are excursions available for various expectations.

[worldsbestcandles]

People were lined up for refunds after the Death March. This was only a couple of weeks earlier than WBC's. Black rock (the "lava" on this tour) can be seen easily, even from the ship. There is nothing special. And I don't really expect to have at least three people experience bloody injuries on a tour. But it's great that there are excursions available for various expectations.

 

Wow, you must be a real treat to travel with!

 

First of all, you can see "Black rock" everywhere on the island (did you know that the islands are formed from volcanoes?), yes, but to see what nature has created on those lava fields was absolutely amazing. Were we disappointed that we didn't end up right next to a lava flow? Somewhat. But standing out close to the ocean and looking back up the volcano and seeing the paths that the different flows have taken. Seeing where they have missed, leaving greenery and seeing plants growing back over the lava was breathtaking. The lava hike in my opinion is like the saying "Life isn't a destination, it's a journey". There is no guarantee of lava flowing in front of you. They don't even pretend to tell you that there is. They show you the beauty of the National Park and with a group so you aren't out there by yourselves. If you go on the trek to see red lava entering the water, then you are missing the point of the experience in my opinion.

 

Given the short amount of time we had on the island, that made the most sense for us. Not one person on out trip asked for a refund to my knowledge, nor did anyone complain about the hike whatsoever.

 

As for the injuries.... well it is sharp rock over uneven ground. Even some of the best hikers I talked to on the trip said that it was way more jagged than they ever expected..... For the number of people who go out there, I think three is actually a really small number. After all, that is not on the guide's hands at all. It is on the carelessness of the people who are on the hike.

[tdiii]

My comments were strictly observations about the tour. It's simply what happened. Nothing personal, and certainly no comments aimed at another subscriber.

 

I don't think that the spirit of this message board is to make personal attacks on each other, and I don't understand why one subscriber would feel compelled to make snide, rude, and personal comments towards another subscriber when discussing something as simple as a tour! Just make your observations about your experience and move on. Comments like, "Wow, you must be a real treat to travel with!" and "did you know that the islands are formed from volcanoes?" have no place on a community message board. If you enjoyed yourself, good for you! But you can't change my experience through your meanness, nor should you feel compelled to try.