Six months ago, we rented a house in Kapoho for May 12-16. On 10 May, that rental became unavailable due to the evacuation. Since we had planned so many months for this vacation, we scrambled to find a different rental house and were delighted to find this one on very short notice. Juan went out of his way for us. Of course, we were concerned about air quality and safety, and had contemplated cancelling out trip all together. We are very glad that we did not cancel. Other than what we learned while searching the internet, we had absolutely no sense of the volcanic action going on to our south. The trade winds kept the air pristine. We felt no rumbling of earthquakes. Altogether, it was a very pleasant experience. On 16 May, we moved to the west side of the island,. The air here is definitely more hazy than in the Hilo area, but there is no scent of sulphur.
The house itself was wonderful for our group of six adults and six children, ages 1-7. The swimming pool was a big hit for our group.
We were warned that there was a possibility of brief electrical outages, but that never happened during our stay. As a precaution, we kept at least 3/4 tank of gas in the car,
We are glad we did not cancel our long-anticipated vacation to the Big Island. This was our first visit here, but from what I have read, the number of trip cancellations mean that the crowds are smaller than usual. Also, in years to come, we can recall the adventure of being here during the eruptions fo 2018.
The two weeks before departing for Hawaii, I spent several hours each day trying to get accurate information on the safety of coming here. There was a fair amount of contradictory information, which complicated our decision. A statement by the state government urging people to not cancel their trip carried a lot of weight.