Maunakea Stellar Explorer From Kona

This was a great starter experience for star gazing. Getting to see not only the stars, but great view of the sun and the moon too, learning a little about the constellations, our galaxy and beyond.

This is a SCAM and I am very disappointed with Viator selling this tour. You will never see the Milky Way the way it was advertised. you will see constellations and stars, that’s about it. Marcus is the only highlight who is trying to make it interesting far more than it is. This tour is nothing but him driving up the mountain and showing us constellations through his telescope. Don’t be fooled by the pictures on Viator and Viator should be ashamed to promote a scam like this. Dinner is to pass time and it was horrible for the $750 we paid for three people. I will now think twice before I buy tours from Viator. I come to believe that TripAdvisor or Expedia might be better options to buy tours than Viator. PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS TOUR.

Our tour guide Marcus made every effort to find a spot without clouds to see the sky and he was successful after 30 minutes of driving to different spots. Super knowledgeable of the constellations and stars. Great experience!

This was a really nice experience. I believe my guide's name was Sam, and he was very professional and knowledgeable. After all the guests were picked up, we went for dinner at the Harbor House Restaurant. Before we went in, Sam pulled out the telescope, which had a sun filter, and we were able to have a look at the sun in the parking lot. I've never looked at the sun before, and it was pretty cool. You could even see the solar flares. After that we had dinner. I had the fish and chips. The fish was delicious (note that the portions are huge). Then we went down to the pier entrance of Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park, the part where the beach is. We got to see several sea turtles coming in to eat, which was awesome. Then we went up to Mauna Kea. Our viewing spot was 7000 feet up. We stopped at an overlook and watched the sun set. It was beautiful. We had some time before the sky got dark enough to see stars, so we drove up the road for a bathroom break. After we returned, Sam set up the telescope. Keep in mind that while this is a really good telescope, it's not the Hubble. It will let you get a closer look at celestial objects, but you're not going to be able to see the clouds on Jupiter or anything like that. We had a look at the moon, several types of stars, Venus, Jupiter, and a distant galaxy. Sam provided tons of information about the stars and also about wayfinding and indigenous navigation techniques. He also showed us all the constellations visible using a laser. Hawaii is the only place in the US where the Southern Cross is visible, so seeing that was pretty cool. I also liked being up on the mountain. It was dark, the air was fresh, and it was absolutely quiet. Halfway through the stargazing, we had a break for hot drinks. We were each also given a small Milky Way bar, right on par with the theme of the evening, which was a nice touch. It was a pleasant and relaxing evening, and a way to see Hawaii from a different perspective.

Marcus was an excellent guy who really kept us entertained throughout the entire tour. Very knowledgeable about stargazing and what you could see. The set up was nice and we had a good view all session long so overall thumbs up very good job done. Parkers and hot coco was added bonus as it got chilly. Definitely would recommend this tour! Thank you!

This trip isn't worth the money--it included 1.5 hours of picking up travelers, 1 hour of a dinner not worth eating and 2.5 hours trying to find stars to gaze on the Saddle Road--could do without! Driver was the only highlight.

We had a terrific time. Sam is so eloquent and informative that we felt we had taken a college astronomy course. Highly recommend!!

In short, this is a scam. Because of the rain, we couldn't even go up the mountain, so we gathered at 3:30 PM for a hamburger, which was all we had for this activity. The tour guide also asked the company to refund our money, but they refused. We paid a total of $1,033 for our family of four, but received nothing back. We even disputed the $750 refund with our credit card company, but they said it couldn't be refunded because we received the service. If you're willing to endure all this and still choose this activity, then that's your decision.

DO NOT BOOK WITH THEM!!!! THEY WILL SCAM YOU BE CAREFUL! !!!AVOID THEM!!! I booked this excursion with them and it was supposed to start at 15:00 and they told me that they will pick me up from the hotel at 16:20 and they literally sent me an email canceling my booking at 15:45 , so just 35min before they were supposed to pick me up. I tried calling them from my number when I saw their email and they didn’t answer, but after I called them from my mom’s phone they answered immediately and when I asked what happened they took like a few seconds to think of an answer and after that they told me that the car broke down, probably a total lie. They ruined my whole day since I stayed at the hotel the whole time in order to be ready to go on this tour and not to mention the fact that any other excursion to Mauna Kea was sold out everywhere for the period I was staying in Big Island so I ended not going. I also want to mention that I booked the excursion with them about 2/3 weeks in advance. I would advise you to avoid them and do not book anything with them, they ARE TOTAL SCAMMERS!!!! Hopefully I will get my money back.

It is a beautiful experience with a very knowledgeable guide. Sam was great. A really great experience.

The Mauna Kea Star Tour was an absolutely amazing and beautiful experience! Our guide, Marcus, was extremely helpful and very knowledgeable on all things space related as well as Hawaiian history and culture! He made sure that all of the participants had a great experience and answered everyone's questions while providing tons of valuable knowledge. This is absolutely an unforgettable experience for my wife and I!

We really enjoyed the star watching trip. The dinner before was at a restaurant we had not tried before. Food and service were very good. Our guide Marcus was very knowledgeable about stars, volcanoes, Hawaii in general... We were able to view and learn a lot about the stars, planets and galaxies. Great time, even if we only went up to about 7000 foot, which was fine with us!

It’s very rare to visit a place that leaves you speechless. The Milky Way is nothing short of extraordinary. The guide is very knowledgeable, patient and warm

None of the things happened because Viator contracted with a company that does not do any of this. I unfortunately did not see this disclaimer in. Kapahokine Adventure email they put down in the email. I was not expecting to be booked on a totally different experience. Both of these operators are aware of this happening but they have your money so so sad to bad.

Marcus was great. He was knowledgeable, entertaining and kind. Plus he provided all the stars for us on what looked like a cloudy night! Simply amazing.

The tour was a great experience. Nice dinner and good hot choc at the end. Marcus drove the Saddle Road, set us up for sunset viewing near a parking lot and if there were no partial clouds obscuring would have set up the solarscope, and then drove to a secluded spot for 1.30-2 hours using his portable Dobsonian telescope giving each of us turns to watch e.g. Alpha Centauri (a twin star!), Venus and as top of the bill Saturn with the clearly visible ring pattern. And in between used the laser pointer to show lots of stars and nebulas. Even had 3 falling stars, a rarity! However we were disappointed that all only went to 6000 feet (2 km), meaning we missed the far better sunset views including ocean from the visitors centre. (Summit is not really needed to visit, partly due to sensitivity for local culture but also as it’s simply too cold and can bring altitude sickness). Company delivers as advertised, but we should have read better – though the pickup options in Kona for this tour were amongst the best. The tour would, both because of less delivered quality and of far less fuel cost for the company compared to the other routes, need to be sold at USD 75 at least below the current level. For the current level of price, go for a tour that visits the visitor centre (9000 ft/3km) for sunset vistas (and stargazing similar to this one) like Mauna Kea Summit sunset and stars, Mauna Kea Summit tour, Mauna Kea stargazing experience.

The tour was a great experience. Nice dinner and good hot choc at the end. Marcus drove the Saddle Road, set us up for sunset viewing near a parking lot and if there were no partial clouds obscuring would have set up the solarscope, and then drove to a secluded spot for 1.30-2 hours using his portable Dobsonian telescope giving each of us turns to watch e.g. Alpha Centauri (a twin star!), Venus and as top of the bill Saturn with the clearly visible ring pattern. And in between used the laser pointer to show lots of stars and nebulas. Even had 3 falling stars, a rarity! However we were disappointed that all only went to 6000 feet (2 km), meaning we missed the far better sunset views including ocean from the visitors centre. (Summit is not really needed to visit, partly due to sensitivity for local culture but also as it’s simply too cold and can bring altitude sickness). Company delivers as advertised, but we should have read better – though the pickup options in Kona for this tour were amongst the best. The tour would, both because of less delivered quality and of far less fuel cost for the company compared to the other routes, need to be sold at USD 75 at least below the current level. For the current level of price, go for a tour that visits the visitor centre (9000 ft/3km) for sunset vistas (and stargazing similar to this one) like Mauna Kea Summit sunset and stars, Mauna Kea Summit tour, Mauna Kea stargazing experience.

Booked tour through Trip Advisor. KapohoKine Adventures called to say the booking was wrong and I'd need to rebook. I went through a different service instead. They never cancelled the reservation and despite me never traveling with them - charged me over $400. They were defensive and adamant about keeping my payment. There are lots of companies offering this tour - (I actually used Mauna Kea Sunset & Stars Tour through Taikobo Hawaii - they were fantastic) I would highly recommend going with one that isn't going to stick it to the customer if there are misunderstandings or other unavoidable irregularities.

Excellent tour food was great. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and yes parkas were provided. It was 29 degrees. We were not at the summit or at the visitor center if that is where you wanted to be please read all of the descriptions

Our guide Marcus was amazing. He was very knowledgeable about the stars and Hawaiian history. Super friendly and nice.

Awesome star viewing and Marcus our trip guide was amazing!! He was very knowledgeable about astronomy and the formation of the universe

Fantastic tour!! We saw the rings on Saturn, the bands on Jupiter and much more!!! Guides are so knowledgeable and really fun to be around!! This telescope is amazing!!!!

Marcus was an excellent guide! He was friendly and knowledgeable about stars and Hawaii. The meal was decent, typical tour food, maybe a touch better. My only complaint was having 20 people (we had another tour w/us) to one guide made things a little long, but we made do and were able to see some very cool things. If you have never had the opportunity to see the night sky through a telescope, would recommend this trip. If you have, you can skip it.

I especially liked that the guide used his laser pointer to highlight the stars and constellations he was talking about.

We were very fortunate to have great weather for viewing some constellations and planets (Saturn and Jupiter were viewable) with the solar telescope. Our guide was Sam who brought his environmental science background to the tour and was also incredibly knowledgeable about the local culture and, of course, astronomy. Also very thankful for the coats they provided, it was below 50 degrees at our stargazing point! A must do excursion!

Marcus is a very knowledgeable and friendly tour guide. ,.............forcing a minimal of words in this rating isnt a good idea.

No star-gazzng...rained whole time...driver drove around very slow to extend time...was obvious by 6:30 trip was a bust...yet until 8:30 to get back to hotel...I understand one can't c9ntrol weather but weather forecast prediczed clouds throughout night ...and vedor persisted with trip...I WANT A REFUND...my wife is a heavy weight publicist and this experience is going to end up all over the internet and beyond if you cannot return f7nds...have been coming to Hawaii for decades and this was THE WORST

Seeing Saturn and getting a video of the moon through the Dobsonian telescope. Seeing the Milky Way against the really dark sky. Our tour guide was friendly, knowledgeable and funny. Make sure you wear warm clothes: sweat pants, warm socks. Warm jackets are e provided and were much appreciated. Worth the money.

Please read thoroughly because the description is very clear this does not go to the top of Mauna Kea. I saw a few not great reviews because it did not go to the summit. We had Rich as a guide he was amazing. So much knowledge about constellations and the Hawaiian islands. We have children who are teenagers and we would totally recommend this tour with Rich!

Short version: Do not spend your money or time on this tour. Cancel if you have already booked. Trust me. We booked this back in January for our Hawaii trip in July. We paid approximately 1100 USD for our family of 4. We are traveling with two kids aged 8 and 11 so we knew that we would not be going to the summit from the outset. We were picked up at 3:50 pm near Mauna Lani. Then drove 35 to 40 minutes to Kona to pick up the other six members of the party. We then went to Kona Harbor for dinner and honestly what we were served was probably 15 dollars per meal. Basic fish and chips and hamburgers. The price covers a soft drink but not even a single alcoholic drink for the adults. You are on your own nickel for that. We then began our drive to what we thought was Mauna Kea. On the way the tour guide told us we would be going to an elevation of about 8000 ft for viewing and that we would not be going to the summit because access is limited to companies with permits (apparentlu they do not have one) and there were children in the party. This was expected. He then also teased the possibility of viewing through the solar telescope to see solar flares. After about 50 minutes of driving, we pulled into a park just off of Saddle Road, which based on Google searching later that evening is "Gilbert Kahele Recreation Area." I checked my phone, the elevation was 6300 ft, leas than half of the total elevation of Mauna Kea. We then waited at a playground for 45 min to an hour for the sun to go down. The guide made it seem like they were eyeing cloud conditions during this time like we could move to higher elevation if need be. Eventually the clouds did begin to clear after sunset and we piled back into the van and drove.....across the street. Our viewing area for the evening was just off of Saddle Road with headlights from motorists shining into your face and lights from the bathroom at the park also providing nuisance lighting. Not at one point during this tour did I feel that I was on Mauna Kea or had climbed Mauna Kea. I know the actual location is on the slopes of Mauna Kea, but at less than half the.elevation and right next to Saddle Road you never felt that you were "on" the mountain if that makes any sense. At this point, the guide then began to setup the telescope. He pointed out some planets, constellations and stars with the laser pointer. The telescope was a complete and total letdown. All the bluster on their website about how great it is and you will see galaxies ane nebulas....Looking through the eyepiece I could see a slightly larger version of what I could see with the naked eye. Someone else wrote a review saying it was about the same magnification you could achieve with a good pair of binoculars. I totally agree. What we were told was a galaxy was a star with a glow around it. After this my kids totally lost interest. To make matters worse there was always some cloud cover throughout the evening. For the price we paid one would expect every attempt would be made to obtain a cloud free viewing, like maybe moving to higher elevation? This was not done or even hinted at. Regarding the solar telescope, I would guess that you will have a very low chance of being able to experience this since you must have no cloud interference. The guide indicated that the clouds begin to dissipate...after sunset. So you do the math on that one. We were then served the equivalent of Swiss Miss hot chocolate in a small paper cup and that wrapped up the evening. Note: we were not offered Kona coffee as a choice as the website indicated. The entire viewing experience lasted about 1.5 hours and we dedicated over 6 hours of our precious time in HI between pickup and drop-off to this tour. For the last 20 to 30 minutes of the viewing time, my kids and the other party of six were so bored they were back in the van being entertained by my kids telling them stories about their friends and which YouTube videos they think are funny. My wife and I were the only ones who viewed for the entire time determined to extract any possible value we could from the tour. Our guide was a nice guy but was not an expert in astronomy and admitted to looking up some of the knowledge from the internet. He is a college student studying marine sciences. There were two other vans from the same company that we met at the park and shared the viewing area together and he basically admitted they were more knowledgeable than him. I listened to some of their discussions and can confirm this. I certainly did not get the sense that any of the guides from this company designed the telescope or whatever claim they make on the website. Overall this was a completely waste of money and more importantly time in Hawaii. I cannot recommend this tour to anyone and would advise you to just go to the beach with your family and keep your ONE THOUSAND hard earned dollars in your pocket. If you really have the itch to look at stars just drive to the same spot I told you about and park next to them and keep your money. Or better yet..drive to the Mauna Kea visitor center at 8000 ft and actually be above the clouds. Final thoughts: My wife and I are from Michigan and remarked to each other that we have seen WAY better stars, I mean stars that will knock your socks off, in Northern Michigan in the summer. Am I saying MI stars are better than HI? No. But what I saw with partial cloud cover the whole time did not beat what I have seen in Michigan. Secondly, my 11 year old noticed as we walked into our rental near the beach that the stars were better here than where the tour took us. I am just heartbroken from this experience as I had been looking forward to it for 5 months with the expectation that it would be one of the highlights of our trip. I guess I should have done more research. Do not make the same mistake!!!! Do not book this and cancel if you already have...you still have time.

Food was good, and the stars were great! Hunter was our driver/guide and I can not say enough about how knowledgeable he was about everything Hawaii and the night sky! Ask him literally anything.... he knows!

Driver and Guide had a excellent knowledge about astronomy. Especially, they had an amazing passion! It was the most impressive.

Diego was super nice, and I feel bad for giving a bad review as he was great, but this tour was just not what we expected. We were hoping to go higher on the mountain, have more telescopes to look through, and have a bigger dinner experience. This tour was probably more worth $100 or less not the price we paid..

The best of the tour was Matcu's guide. He was highly knowledgeable. Excellent time. I will recommend this tour .

This tour takes you on the road and stops at the side of the road and shows the sky. Even the visitor center of Mauna Lea is higher than where they take you and anyone can go to the visitor center for sunset and stargazing by themselves. Do not waste your money on this tour and time. Take a tour that takes you to the summit or go yourself. This is worth no more than $20.

Amazing experience. And not something I would usually sign up for. But my kids(young adults) and I were really surprised. The sky was amazing with the abundance of stars. I loved seeing Sirius and learning so much astronomy and myths. Both Adam and Diego worked really hard to make it spectacular . Diego thank you for putting up with the Southwest airline struggles we were facing at the same time. My only hiccups were dinner changes and challenges. And they got worked out. It was a fantastic last excursion for our Hawaii trip. Thank you Diego

Stars Stars …….. Stars!! Spectacular view of millions of stars !! With telescope it was still great attraction!!

Nate was an amazing guide. He was extremely knowledgeable about the stars, volcanoes, and Hawaii. We really loved the stargazing portion of the night. The only reason. I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is that I wish we had more time on the mountain. We started by having dinner at a restaurant, which felt random and maybe like a way to stretch the experience to justify the price. I’d much rather have gone earlier to Mauna Kea to see the sunset before stargazing. Or else just had a shorter tour and I could have gotten my own dinner. Still, the star part was awesome and Nate was a great guide. Viewing the night sky from Mauna Kea was a great experience!

Loved the guide, Mark! Great vibe and awesomely informative. It was a really memorable experience seeing galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, planets, and moon details.

This was the most frustrating, disappointing, and complete waste of $479.00 for my husband and me. Six hours, terrible food and no stars to be seen. We had to sit in the van for one hour and 45 minutes to pick up other people from hotels and then finally arrived at what was supposed to be a restaurant with dinner. It turned out to be a Small dump/dive like place with a very haphazard service that someone shouldn’t even have to pay five dollars for. The service was haphazard at best. Everyone at our table had finished eating before my husband even got his food. The portions were child size it was disgusting. To top it all off we drove to a parking lot stood outside and saw absolutely no stars we then drove to another parking area and saw no stores all of this for $479 is extremely disappointing to say the least I would never recommend this experience to anyone because it was a horrible waste of time on one of her precious days in Hawaii.

Five long hours riding in a van and seeing no stars. The “dinner “was a plastic bowl with portions that were small enough for young children but not for adults this was the most expensive trip to see zero stars. Definitely would not recommend this to anyone

Rich and Hunter were AMAZING tour guides! They were both so knowledgeable and it was a pleasure to ride with them. I highly recommend this tour for anyone with an interest in Astronomy!

We loved rich and hunter so much! What a beautiful experience this was! I proposed to my partner and Rich was such a great help. I would recommend eating a good meal before, the food wasn’t the highlight by any means. And bring a good camera if you want any pictures.

Marcus was very personable and knowledgeable. Great guide, saw many stars and a few planets. The dinner was ok, ate at a small diner next to the harbor.

Adam was a great tour guide. We had an amazing and fun experience. The stars were amazing and Adam had a lot of very interesting knowledge and information about plants on the island.

We booked this tour via a local (Kona) tour agency based on their recommendation after I told them we were interested in doing a Mauna Kea summit tour. At the start of the tour though, our guide Marcus outlined the itinerary for the evening and it soon became clear that we would not be going up to the summit. Even more disappointing, we barely left Saddle Road, and could have done this drive easily ourselves. While this could easily be viewed as a problem with the booking agency, I am mentioning it in this review as there was at least one other couple in our group who were similarly disappointed with the tour not going to the summit after booking through a different booking agent and expressing the same requirements. The fact that two agents don’t seem to know enough about this tour to sell it correctly points to an issue with the company not accurately describing the tour to those who are supposed to be selling on their behalf. Marcus, our guide, did a great job with narrating the evening and was an excellent host. No complaints there, but the so-called dinner was another huge disappointment. For the price we paid for the tour as a whole, the dinner was completely underwhelming. The “garlic prawns” were simply 4 small prawns and a cup of white rice. Honestly, we’ve had better catering provided on the snorkelling tours we’ve done, and those tours are less than half the price of this one. All in all we certainly wouldn’t recommend this trip to anyone - if it were to provide value for money I’d be expecting an improved quality dinner, some seating around the telescope so that we can view the stars more comfortably, a quality photo or two of us against the stars (not just an offer to take photos with our own camera against the sunset) and at least an attempt to take us some way up the summit road, for better viewing of the sky. As it was the tour did not represent value for money at all.

KRYSTAL WAS AMAZINNGG!!! This was honestly a life changing experience for me. My stay in Hawaii was for almost a month and out of everything I did even island hopping between Oahu and Kona, this was the highlight of my entire trip! Dinner was tasty, the trip there was scenic and Krystal was very knowledgeable. Not only this the star gazing along with Krystal's expert knowledge made this the experience of a lifetime! I almost cancelled because I injured my leg the day prior but they were able to accommodate me. Thank you so much Krystal! This was amazing!

So I’ll start off by saying our tour guide Adam was FANTASTIC! Very knowledgeable and has some fire hot sauce! I was disappointed that we didn’t see many stars. The moon was bright and beautiful but also made a lot of light pollution therefore more difficult to see stars. Also thought we would be going to the actual observatory on the summit of Mauna Key based on the photo and description but we went about 1/2 way up. Overall a bit underwhelming for the money paid.

This was a poor experience from the get-go. I called several days ahead to verify something and found out they didn't have a contact number for me. I had registered online. We had to give our meal request three times. We were sent standard liability releases online, but had to re-sign it on paper to board the van. Of the 7 hours of the event, we were in the van 5 of them. Adam, our driver, had many interesting stories, but few of them related to astronomy. Most were general Hawaiian history or culture that are staples of other tours. We knew this tour would not go to the summit, but we topped out lower than expected - under 7000 feet, he guessed. And we parked very close to an Army base, from which we got to listen to helicopter flights and live fire artillery practice! For all the talk of providing parkas for us, it was in the mid 50s and I would have been comfortable in just a sweatshirt I brought along. The star views were a bust. The brightness of the moon made seeing the Milky Way impossible. There were no planets. Clouds blotted out stars for a time. None of these things were the fault of Kapohokine, but they contributed to a bust of a night. Adam wasn't very informative about astronomy. He would use an app on his phone to identify constellations, but they didn't always match up with his narrative. This was just a poorly executed trip.