Can't say enough about this marvelous location. The room and amenities were appointed with care and style. Overall, the architecture and design of this compound and gardens are awe inspiring. We loved the pool, sitting outside our room watching the fish in the beautifully maintained tank, fresh ground coffee in the morning, the box of chocolates on our arrival, written (& laminated so you can take them with you) directions and descriptions of local sights, fresh fruit from Paul's trees, plenty of toiletries & supplies in the room and thank-you-very-much....no television. Let me say that Paul's 3 dogs are delightful and we wish we could have kidnapped Felicia and brought her home! The jungle sounds at night were amazing as well; truly enchanting. While this location is "off-the-grid", we had everything we needed including internet. And as a bit-of-a-clean-freak, this place was very well-kept and exceeded my "clean" standards. We ate many of our meals on the beautiful lanai and found the fridge/microwave adequate for our needs.
We had one of our best snorkeling experiences in the nearby tidal pools (thank you Paul for use of your snorkeling gear), visited all the beautiful beaches along 137, hiked on lava fields in Kalapana, enjoyed nearby Lava Tree State Park, biked/hiked & actually found active lava (quite a ways up the mountain at 1,500-2,000 feet), hiked 10 miles in and around Kilauea, explored everything on Chain of Craters Road and hiked out to the lava fields past the end of the road exploring the coastline, explored the funky vibe of Pahoa, visited the Botanical Gardens north of Hilo (terrific) and explored the Hamakua Coast up to Waipio. This is our 2nd time to the Big Island and feel like we are barely discovering all there is to see and experience.