Number 2: the Big Island 
Think of the sunny Kohala coast, the Big Island’s main resort area, as a
giant sheet of overcooked brownies that cooled off in the Pacific. At just over
one million years, the Big Island is the youngest of the islands and, at
4,000 square miles, by far the largest.The queen of the Big Island is Mauna
Kea Resort. Conceived by Laurance Rockefeller in 1965 and fronting a crescent
beach, the hotel’s public spaces are decorated with Rockefeller’s collection of
Asian and Pacific artifacts. The Trent Jones Sr. course has a famous
trans-cove par 3 (No. 3) and rolling fairways framed by exotic flowering trees.
Mauna Kea’s sister property, the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, is a sleek resort
nestled on a lava plateau, its Palmer-Seay target-style course sculpted from
volcanic foothills.
At Mauna Lani Resort, ancient Hawaiian
fishponds, petroglyph fields and shelter caves create an “old Hawaii” ambiance.
The hotel’s ponds and lushly landscaped open-air atrium make an indelible first
impression, as does the Fairmont Orchid, formerly a Ritz-Carlton. Mauna
Lani’s well-groomed North and South courses are woven like green ribbons through
spiky blankets of black lava.
The Big Island’s big kahuna is Four Seasons
Resort Hualalai, an ultra-luxe enclave that offers Hawaii’s finest resort
experience. Within the corridor-free resort are three oceanfront swimming pools,
a snorkeler’s “aquarium” pond stocked with tropical fish and the torch-lit Lava
Lounge, where the mai tais are perfect. The resort’s Jack Nicklaus-designed
course begins in an oasis, proceeds through lava fields and draws near the
pounding surf at the finish.
Off-course attractions range from horseback
riding to blue marlin fishing. All the islands offer helicopter tours, but none
can match the Big Island for scale and splendor, starting with 13,680-foot Mauna
Loa and 13,796-foot Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s tallest volcano. Watch as rivulets of
molten lava spill from still-active Kilauea; delight in the chasms and
1,000-foot bridal-veil waterfalls in the Waipo Valley.
