New appreciation for Old Hawaii.
Laid-back small towns where the original island spirit still thrives.
Typically, you can find it in the local grocery store. It’s where people “talk story,” and where the stock includes bait, school supplies and, on the counter, freshmade Spam musubi or butter mochi with a handwritten label.
Or alongside the road, where aunties and uncles — the local term of respect — sell malasadas, boiled peanuts or smoked fish. Or at parties, where no one shows up emptyhanded, or leaves hungry. That’s where you find Old Hawaii. Newcomers to the islands are often told it no longer exists: Too many luxury resorts now rise above former fishing spots, suburban homes sprawl where sugar cane once waved, and mainland chains (not to mention Amazon) have put the squeeze on mom-and-pop shops and humble cafes.
But residents and savvy travelers know the spirit of Old Hawaii is still out there. While you can find patches of it in populous places such as Honolulu, Hilo and Kahului, it’s easier to savor in the islands’ small towns.
Old Hawaii towns often have no hotel — but if they do, it’s typically a thin-walled inn from the plantation era. Instead of dipping in a resort pool, you’ll have to ask directions to the nearest swimming hole, or head to a beach where fishing poles and coolers are more common than fancy umbrellas and lounge chairs. Nightlife may consist of watching the sunset, while Sunday mornings see dawn patrols of surfers and churchgoers.
With the advent of online vacation rentals and Airbnb, more and more people are choosing to stay in towns that radiate Old Hawaii. Here are four smaller, less well-known enclaves that strike a balance between hospitality to strangers and nurturing the home-grown community — two Native Hawaiian values key to experiencing Old Hawaii. Puako, Big Island Driving along the highway, you’d be forgiven for thinking nothing but scrubby kiawe groves and lava rock lie between the elegant Mauna Lani and Mauna Kea golf course resorts on the Big Island’s Kohala Coast. But keeneyed map readers may note the dot labeled Puako, a coastal hamlet strung along 3-mile Puako Beach Drive and a half-mile of Old Puako Road.
A Hawaiian fishing village for centuries, its population fell with the spread of Western diseases in the 1800s and a nearby lava flow in 1859. After a brief flirtation with sugarcane, Puako mostly stayed off the map until 1952, when a subdivision of 163 lots went up for sale. Big Island residents snapped them up, even though electricity arrived only 5 years later, according to “Puako: An Affectionate History.”
While many of the oceanfront lots today sport sprawling mansions, original houses remain on both sides of the street, along with two churches, a general store and a go-slow vibe shared by the shoreline’s numerous turtles.