What a cool place! Pulling on to Gisella's driveway, you immediately feel transported. The property is lush and gorgeous. She has a carport under which you can park your car which is helpful when raining. There's a path which is a quick walk behind the big house to get to the cottage. You walk by beautiful flowering plants, past the pool and finally arrive at the adorable cottage. You'll see chickens, cats, geckos and frogs along the way.
The cottage itself is very well kept and many of the original fixtures, floors and charm have been kept intact. It feels like you are transported to a different time, but with all the modern amenities you need.
The location is good, located between the bigger town of Hilo and the little village of Pahoa which both have great restaurants. Volcanoes national park is 30 minutes away. Akaka Falls is 40 minutes and Rainbow Falls is 20 minutes. There's a grocery store close by as well as some other options for food if you don't want to cook.
This is a unique property in that it's full of wildlife (which is part of what I loved) and although the house itself is sealed and we hardly saw any flies inside (we had a couple cute gecko visitors) it is loud at night. I would agree with previous reviews that if you're a light sleeper, this might not be the place for you. Additionally, you need to know that if you're visiting this part of the island, it can be rainy and humid. I usually dislike rain very much but surprisingly the rain didn't bother me at all. Perhaps because the place is just so gorgeous and it was the perfect temperature.
I loved it here. My partner said this is one of the rare cases that he would return to an Airbnb because even though we like to see new places as much as possible, this was just so magical!