Kaeo was absolutely wonderful! Lots of snacks provided, she was also enormously helpful with things to do! So friendly and free flowing as well! We can't wait to come back!! I felt the location was perfect. The kitchen was well stocked, grills and "stove" out on the porch were clean and well working. My only complaint is that it's damp and feels much colder than it is. Obviously you're in a jungle/rainforest so that's a given but the space only has 3 windows, no heating/air conditioning, fans. So to get fresh air you have too open windows/door and it lets in so much moisture. BUT the water at the space was hot when needed. Bed was springy, neither very soft or hard, lots of extra blankets and pillows.
We were about 1-2 hours from everything we wanted to do. We went to a black sand beach, hiked the 5 miles round trip to the green sand beach, went to Hilina Pali, and saw snow on Mauna Kea (which is on the way to the airport). We found two health food stores, island naturals in Hilo (a one stop shop!), and Keaau natural foods who has raw macadamia nuts that are out of this world! After the green sand beach there is a yummy Thai place called is lae garden and just up the way a mile or so is a pizza place that advertised gluten free and vegan called DJ pizza. Stop at the kona brewery if you fly into kona. Their food is amazing, strawberry salad and sweet potato pie were A+👌!! Kaeo gave us great ideas and pointed us in the right direction to find what we wanted to do. She also has huge binders of info in the room of local things and volcanos. Really awesome! She suggested the boat tour for seeing the volcano and lava vs flying.