We loved Faith's house as soon as we set foot in it. It felt very homey, almost everything we needed / wanted (a teapot would have been awesome ... ;-)) was there, the kitchen was really well equipped, the house wasn't cluttered with stuff and had a really nice vibe to it. Faith herself was very responsive by email and the people who take care of the house in her abscence were really awesome and very quick to come and help us out when we had a little problem.

The only thing that I didn't like about the house was the very bad queen mattress in the guest bedroom. Not sure what it was about that mattress, cause I usually prefer hard mattresses, but the back of my head started hurting just lying on it and I had the worst night of sleep ever. We switched to the twin beds in the guest bedroom after that and put our kid is his cot in that room.

The house is perfectly located to explore the tidepools and heated natural pools on this side of the island. And don't forget to go to the Wednesday evening market in Kalapana (with some luck you might see the lava in the distance, or you could take a guided tour to actually go to the lava).

About driving times, it usually took us about 10 minutes to get to Pahoa and about 40 to get to Hilo (airport).