The Merland house and its surrounding tropical gardens are much more beautiful than the pictures show. We loved our week-long stay there. Elizabeth has planted so many wonderful flowers and interesting plants - we never got tired at looking at them and at the cardinals, mynahs, and saffron finches that fly around. The house itself is clean, elegant, interesting, and beautifully decorated. We wanted a place that was somewhat secluded, and the Merland house worked out very well for us.

While there we visited the tide pools near Kapoho, Issac Hale Park, McKenzie Park (with a hidden lava tube - bring a flashlight), two different warm ponds, the "new" black sand beach near Kalapana, and Kalani Retreat Center (a good place to eat a buffet lunch or dinner or to just stop by the front office/store for some ice cream). If you're there on a Wednesday afternoon or evening, go to Uncle Robert's market at Kalaplana for a uniquely Hawaiian experience - lots of interesting food, music, and people. Pahoa is about 25 or so minutes away, and we had a delicious dinner at Kaleo's Bar and Grill. We also drove up to Volcano National Park (maybe an hour and a half or so away) and on to South Point, the southern-most place in the US. I recommend that you have a car when staying at the Merland house.

The kitchen is well equipped and the refrigerator is large. It would be nice to have a little larger dining table, but because the idea here is intimacy maybe the little round cafe table is just right. The bathroom is really amazing, with lots of travertine marble and a bathtub that seems to hang out into the outside greenery. The shower works very well.

The WiFi system was easy to connect to and never caused us any problems.

Elizabeth warned us ahead of time about the possibility of encountering mosquitos outside, but as it turned out, we never saw one mosquito. In fact there was an amazing lack of insects everywhere we went. Maybe it was just the time of year (mid-February).

We hope to be able to stay at the Merland house again.