Hilo Town Tour Hop On Hop Off Experience

I went on this tour with my daughter and my parents, and we all had a good time. Our main tour guide, the very handsome Bulla, was entertaining and charming. (So I will take one of his applications!) The shuttle service was comfortable and convenient to the cruise port. We liked the stops including the options for downtown and the beach.

Bulla was a great tour guide. He was knowledgeable,funny, and professional. We would definitely recommend this tour

What a great Experience! Extremely friendly! Gene was a fantastic tour guide. Everything was easy to find with them and they were really good to travel with.

Our driver was knowledgeable and friendly. Too bad it was raining but the drive was nice and smooth.

Bulla was quite funny and knew his Hawaiian history. Great job !!! The Rainbow falls were fantastic. Careful on the steps.

Tour was great. Tour guide Bulla was awesome! He was able to provide us with so much cultural information about Hilo, the types of trees, the tsunamis, the agricultural. It was great having a tour guide from the island. Very authentic.Shuttles to and from the beach and downtown is great too. You have options on what you want to do. I’m so glad we did this tour.

My husband and I found Hoppa On Hoppa Off Hilo online while looking for an excursion during our cruise stop in Hilo, Hawaii, and we're so pleased we did. At just $45 per person, it was considerably cheaper than the excursions offered by our cruise ship, with the added bonus of much more flexibility. Our first bus was with Gene, who was an excellent guide. We visited and the driver stayed with us at Big Island Candies, King Kamehameha Statue, Wailoa River State Park and Liliuokalani Japanese Gardens. He was friendly, knowledgeable and had a great sense of humour, making the sightseeing tour both interesting and enjoyable. We paid an additional $5 per person to visit Rainbow Falls, and it was worth every penny. It was absolutely beautiful to see the natural splendour of the falls and appreciate such a wonderful part of Hawaii's landscape. Afterwards, we left the driver at the downtown shuttle town and spent some time browsing the farmers market and local shops before boarding another bus with Dan, who was equally pleasant and friendly. Dan took us towards the two beaches, Richardson Black Sand Beach and Carl Smith Lagoons. We decided to visit Carl Smith Lagoons, which was a lovely introduction to Hawaii's beautiful coastline. Our final bus journey back to port was with Paul, who was also extremely pleasant, friendly and welcoming. In fact, we cannot praise the Hoppa On Hoppa Off team enough. From the staff who greeted us at the cruise terminal and arranged our transfer to the office, to the reception staff who checked us in, and all three of our wonderful drivers, everyone was so friendly and helpful. We were genuinely happy that we chose this tour company. The flexibility, excellent value for money and, above all, the quality of service we received made our day in Hilo a truly memorable one. We would highly recommend Hoppa On Hoppa Off Hilo, particularly to anyone visiting the island on a cruise. Thank you to Gene, Dan, Paul and the entire team for making our visit to Hilo such a wonderful experience! 🌺

We had an amazing tour. All the selected stops were amazing. We had an awesome tour guild who was very interactive and answered questions. His name was Andre.

Bulla was a great tour guide. He was humorous and had a great deal of knowledge that he shared with all of us.

Bula was an exceptional guide. He was local, knew the area, history, customs and was friendly and accommodating. The best hop on off tour I've done.

Bulla was an excellent driver and entertainer! Many intressant information about the islands history. Thanks

Hoppa on Hoppa off bus was an interesting way to see Hilo. We appreciated Bulla sharing his Hawaiian culture. He was a great tour guide. It was nice to have an opportunity to stop at each points of interest.

Nice way to see the highlights of the area, saved a taxi or shuttle to town. Liked the choice of seeing the falls for an extra $5.00

Great opportunity to see Hilo and learn about the local area and its history. Bulla provided a unique local perspective in both the cultural and the historical perspectives of the area and shared personal family insights into his growing up and current living in the area.

Bula was a great guide. We really enjoyed all the stops.

Bulla was an amazing tour guide

Very efficient and easy to book and tour. The driver Bula was exceptionally good and friendly. Hedescribed everything to us as we went to and arrived at every tourc point, a pleasure to have him as our guide

We had a great tour with Gene - knowledgeable and fun! Very good value and excellent service

BULA was a great guide with a little humor thrown in.

We had a great time. Our driver, Bulla, was great.

Our tour guide Bula was fantastic. A really interesting few hours learning about the island, its history and culture and seeing wonderful sights around the town. Bula made it for us

Great value for money, loved the rainbow falls ( well worth the extra 5 dollars) the driver was great and drops you straight to the boat when done. We also used the shuttle bus to the beach.

Bulla our tour guide was amazing! Sharing so much about Hilo from a personal experience. He is truly a guide you’d want! Thank you again Bulla!

Driver was so nice and very knowledgeable

Five stars all the way for Andre! He was an amazing tour guide. Unfortunately due to the storm we couldn’t access all stops on our tour but the company was absolutely amazing from start to finish! Highly recommend! Andre was a fantastic tour guide with so much knowledge. All staff super helpful and amazing communication.

Even though weather was impacting the tour, company was great at giving us a good experience. Bulla gave us great local flavour and shared knowledge that gave us a greater appreciation

Bulla was a great driver and guide. He was passionate about Hilo, provided great information in a friendly and fun way. The whole team worked well together from pick up at cruise terminal to depot, check in, the tour itself and return to ship. We liked having set times at each place and it was good people kept to them. The Big Candy was a fun stop.

Andre our driver and guide was very knowledgeable and informative with our tour of Hilo. Drop offs and pickups ran smoothly. Lovely friendly company 👍

It was very good even though they were trying to get ready for a hurricane and had to cancel a few stops. Andre was our driver and very knowledgeable Went to Pineapples for lunch, very good

Just finished our tour. What we got to see was as expected. Unfortunately, because of a hurricane watch in Hilo, 2 of our scheduled stops were shut down/closed to visitors. Our guide did his best to show us what was available.

Awesome tour with Andre, in depth knowledge of the area, behetation and volcano. Funny too! The best tour we've experienced so far on the islands and we are touring a lot of them.

Bula was an excellent guide. He gave us so many insights to the bi Isalnd. All the stops were perfect!

Our driver was great but his shirt needed a wash!

We had a great tour today with Ferren . I would definitely would recommend him as your tour guide.

Our guide, Andre, was fantastic.

It was a great tour. Enjoyed all the stops.

We looked everywhere for something to do that wasn't a $300 excursion off the boat. There is one offered by the cruise line that was $120 a person... there were at all of the same stops we were. They picked us up from Port and shuttled us to the office. We had Dan for our guide and he let us know so much about the island, the Banyan trees, the gardens, King Kamehameha, etc. He was a fantastic tour guide and was very informative and fun. Rainbow falls was a great ending of the main tour. The constant shuttles back is a god send. We walked around town and did our own thing and had a good time. We had Bulla on the way back to Port and had a good time just talking about the locals, culture etc. Bulla helped to end the trip in Port on a high note with Dan starting it. I recommended the same trip for friends coming in next year and they are already excited.

We had Bulla as a driver, good value and very good local information from the heart about the culture. Recommend this tour.

Bulla was so knowledgeable and made the trip so much. We saw a lot of things and we got some of the history as well.

Loved the tour very informative. Borra was a great tour guide. He was very knowledgeable about the history of Hawaii.

Hula was very knowledgeable about Hilo, and he was a wonderful driver.

Was amazing and great stops. Dan was great driver and history and recommended a fantastic restaurant Pineapples. Tour is a must see lots of great memories and beauty

This 2.5 hour tour is on a large, comfortable bus that drives you around the town of Hilo. It’s not a traditional hop-on, hop-off arrangement: you stay with the driver the whole time. We spent the first 30 minutes at a bakery watching 6 women dip short breads into chocolate. On the bus, the driver said very little about the Big Island's culture or history. Typical comments were: “On your right is the local fish auction house.” “Here’s where I went to high school.” “This is the bridge that I fish off with my kids.” The driver seemed to enjoy talking about his “aloha” philosophy. We visited 2 parks which were mostly trees and grass. Our last stop was a small waterfall which had an admission charge, paid up front to the tour company. The whole tour can be summed up in 3 words: Boring. Boring. Boring. Don’t waste your money.

I did the hoppa bus. Although it was raining for much of the day I thought the bus stops were interesting and the commentary was helpful. You first do a fixed tour section hitting the gardens, candy store, rainbow falls and then the farmers market. Then you can stay and take a separate bus to the office or port. From the office you can take a separate bus to the black sand beach and or another beach. They have busses every 30 minutes back to the port. It would have been helpful to have one more run since the last bus was 1.5 hrs before all aboard.

Our driver Dan did his best to rearrange our route in between the raindrops and was a fun tour guide. The rain at rainbow 🌈 falls did not produce a rainbow but we did see the falls and some wild chickens. Great price air conditioned bus and a stop downtown to shop before going back to the ship

We really enjoyed this excursion. It was easy to find when off the ship and once at the building the check in process was pretty efficient. We had some weather but the driver did their best to re-order the stops to accommodate and also to get us right up to the door to stay dry. The falls was pretty and the downtown stop was fun. We sadly missed the beaches because we didn’t want to chance being too close to being back on board. Highly recommend

This was our first cruise and we were advised by many not to book on board ship as there would be ample sellers wanting your business when you get off. After being sent from one end to the other of the departure warehouse to find someone offering an excursion we finally settled on the Hoppa On Hoppa Off Volcanoes National Park Tour as he was offering exactly what we wanted to do. We had to wait for the bus to take us to buy our tickets and then we would leave from there. On getting on the bus to the office which was very rustic with no windows our expectations dipped a bit. But it turned out to just be a two minute drive outside the port and in the humid heat no windows was welcome. We got off the bus joined the queue. We were second in line and when we got to the counter were told it was sold out and only the Hilo City Tour was still available. So 2.5 hours instead of 5. No volcanoes, black sand beaches, craters or lava tubes. There was no later bookings or alternatives. Nearly everyone on our bus had been sold the volcanoes tour and ended up on the cheaper version. I asked if there was anything that could be done and was pointed to a competitor who may have spaces. Not exactly a good business model. Unfortunately he was also fully booked so it was Hilo Tour or nothing. When I went back to book our tickets the other lady said “it’s a shame it’s sold out but you need to do something right! Maybe next time you should pre book!” I told her there wouldn’t be a next time. Everyone behind us wanted the volcano tour so the guy back in the port was obviously still selling this option. The only reason I am giving this any score is down to our tour guide Bulla. He is a credit to them and felt like an authentic Hawaiian explaining the culture and history of the islands, the areas and surroundings of where we were stopping. He saved a birthday trip from being a complete disaster. Would I use them again. Definitely not.

I was moved, educated and thoroughly enjoyed our time with Hoppa On Hoppa Off Hilo. Hop On Hop Off was a good way to familiarize oneself with Hilo for a port day. We enjoyed the drive through the banyon trees, the gardens, rainbow falls and the downtown market, (particularly Hula Tuesdays). By far, the highlight of the tour was our bus driver Lei! Hearing her thoughts about the history of Hawaii, from the perspective of a native Hawaiian was as moving as it was elucidating. We heard similar appreciation for her from many others on the bus. Can’t imagine this tour without Lei!!

Our NCL Pride of America cabin steward let us know about the Hoppa On Hoppa Off Hilo Bus Tours. Very cost effective way to see the area around Hilo, Hawaii, when you don't have a rental car. You are picked up at the pier and driven to the office right out side the security gate. We were assigned the bus and then we enjoyed seeing the sites around town, and the bus drivers were excellent sources of information about the island and sites that were visited. After the initial tour you taken back to the office and then are free to go back to town or go the other way to the beaches. The buses run every 30 minutes. We ran back in to the port and then back onto the cruise ship for a quick lunch. After lunch we headed back out the office to be picked up by the buses headed back into Hilo town to hit the Hilo Farmer's Market and then Dolly's Handcrafts before walking the town. Hoppa On Hoppa Off Hilo Bus Tours is so worth your time. I wish we had the time to visit the beaches.