My family stayed at this rental for 30 days and working remotely. It’s a great location and live like the locals do. It’s not your average downtown, most stores closes fairly early and there isn’t much of a night life, just a laidback vibe away from the tourist area that Kona is. Although, Kona is about 1:30 minutes away, not bad at all. The rental was very clean when we arrived and was quite surprised with how clean the rental was. Parking was easy as it was where the apartment entrance is located, very convenient. Although, the apartment is located in the second floor and no elevator. Not a big deal.
Most essential was provided but for as long as we stayed we purchased additional items. We respectfully rearranged the furniture to suit our stay and moved it back to its place as we arrived. There was the occasional pest but nothing too crazy. There’s a gecko that will occasionally enter from the sunlight located in the dining area and leaves us a surprise but that’s okay, they’re known to be good luck if found inside the home.
A portable AC in the living room help cools the apartment, but during peak hours it can become very warm even with the sunlight windows open. Make sure the sunlight windows are closed when leaving the apartment, it’s Hilo it can rain at a moments notice. For the most part it rains during the night up to early morning, which works out to go and explore then back to the apartment. The apartment is located across the street from the fire department, but they’re very respectful and we rarely heard sirens as they turn on the lights when leaving and the sirens on when needed.
If you need to wash clothes, just a one minute drive or few minute walk is a 24 hour hour laundry mat that has employees working there during the 24 hours and I’ve always felt safe there. A Salvation Army is located behind the apartment in which free food is provided once a week, friendly people. Below the apartment is a pizza parlor with video games and it’s very delicious, i highly recommend it.
A few famous beaches are just a 10-15 minute drive. We love how it’s mainly locals and not super busy as beaches are in Kona. There isn’t a smart TV to log into your own account to watch streaming television, but we managed to connect our spare laptop via HDMI and was able to stream our accounts that way. Hopefully, this is upgraded so it’s a bit more comfortable for long term visitors.
Issa’s communication is amazing. We had issues with the internet reaching speeds below 1 MB and was having issues working remotely. I messaged Issa about this and the following day he provided a wifi extender, this helped for a couple of days and again the internet speed was very slow and cannot even stream videos. I brought this up to Issa and within a week he was able to have fiber optics installed and speeds reached up to 275 MB. My wife and I were super happy about it and didn’t have any issues after that. I can go on but these are the main points to share.
I will definitely stay at this apartment again and maybe when we find a house to move to Hilo, we’ll stay here until all the paper work goes through and sale finalized. Hopefully there’s a TV in one of the rooms and an upgraded smart TV in the living room when we stay here again to make our long term stay it tad bit more like home. If you want to visit the big island with the laidback island life while working remote, Hilo is the place and this apartment is the one to stay at. Last thing, don’t trust the Yelp reviews for restaurants if the ratings are low. Try them yourself, you’ll realize those yelpers are just complainers and the food is delicious.