Big Island Hawaii Tour Guide Reviews

We love Shaka Guide! Definitely download BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide for the island you’re visiting. You don’t have to do the whole tour, you can just hit play as you’re driving around where you want to go anyway - learn some fun facts and discover some things you might not have otherwise. BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide, however, needs to be updated to reflect the latest conditions of the volcano. It discusses eruptions that have since stopped and does not reflect the eruption of 2021. Recommend updating those portions yearly.
I also wish the apps displayed on Carplay. Last, I wish they either had more Hawaiian music to play in the dead spots between talking or better integration with the user’s chosen music application (Shaka guide will interrupt my music, but my music app will not resume playing automatically when it’s done).

BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide is so helpful with its stories and local legends. It takes you step by step they the area and because the tour is gps enabled, you’re able to take your time with the local sights and then pick back up right where you left off once you’re back in the car. When listening to the narrator tell the stories along your tour, you’ll feel like a local is talking to you. The only suggestion I have for improvement is the waypoints should turn colors once you’ve already stopped and completed them to help you keep track of where you have been. Overall, the best money we spent on vacation; there is no way we would know most of the history and legends that are dictated in each tour. If you’re traveling to Hawaii, make sure you download BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide for your designated island(s) and get the individual tours. You won’t be disappointed!!

This was a great deal! We found sites that our friends who visit twice a year didn’t even know about. We did the bundle and we finished 2 of them and did parts of the other 3, it was still a great deal. I loved that we could take our time, skip what we didn’t want to see or spend more time in an area…we were definitely working on. Island time. My only complaint is that sometimes the audio would start, stop, and then restart so that got a little annoying. Not sure if it was a service issue or what, but we never got lost. The other thing is that I love that they included local music, but I wish they would’ve had more songs. I got sick of listening to the same 10 songs. Other than that it was a great informative way to spend our vacation. 🤙

When my fiancé and I were planning our trip to the Big Island, we knew we had to visit Volcanoes National Park but we didn’t want to pay big bucks for a guided tour. I stumbled upon BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide and I am so glad I did. BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide was amazing for our visit to see the Volcanoes. BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide takes you to every single spot available at the park and you can go at your own speed. You have the ability to pause and/or go back to any spot at any time. It tells you which spots are a must see or which ones you can skip and go back to later. It tells you about all the hikes available and it gives you the history behind the park. We spent about 6 hours in the park and loved using the tour. BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide is so easy to use and we recommend it to everyone!

BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide was such a lifesaver! My husband and I traveled with our nine and seven year olds. We contemplated booking one of those six to twelve hour tours around the island, but I just couldn’t imagine such long tours going well with our kids. We needed more flexibility with our schedule but didn’t want to miss out on all the neat historical facts and sights only a proper tour guide can point out. Shaka Guide was our answer!
Everyone in our family thoroughly enjoyed BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide , the fun stories, facts and cool music. BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide is so well made! We purchased the bundle package and used three out of the five tours. Each one was awesome! Thank you Shaka Guide! My only regret was not being able to spend more time on this amazing island with its amazing people!

On the big island of Hawaii now using BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide. It has been easy to set up (in a rental, no less), extremely user friendly, really educational, and your guide, Mr. Shaka is just downright fun to listen to. Gps is on point and takes you off the beaten path to really cool hidden spots as well as popular spots. Just pick one of their tours and head out for the day. That’s what we did, and hubby and I both agree, this is one of the best apps out there. Oh and, I splurged and bought the $9.99 option which gives you about 5 different tours on the big island alone. You have the option to purchase each adventure by itself but seeing we were going to be here for 1 week, it made sense to get the bigger one. Great deal. Worth every penny. Spend the money. You will love it! Make more of these apps please!!

We have been to the Big Island four times now. By using BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide, we found there is so much more to the big Island than just Kona and Waikoloa!!
We were able to enjoy a “private tour” of the big Island, where we enjoyed learning about the rich Hawaiian history and culture! Saw SO many things that we would’ve never found on our own! Never felt pressured or pushed to seeing a site , and never pressured into visiting a restaurant or anything like that! (speaking of restaurants, definitely stop at Tex drive-in for the donuts as Shaka suggests. Do it now!)
My teenage daughter and I fell in love with Hilo by using BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide! So many things we didn’t know about Hilo town!
Loved the narration and the music !
Would do this again and again! (Do give yourself 8 to 12 hours to explore. So much to see!)

I was skeptical but after reading the reviews we decided to use this for our family trip. We absolutely loved it! Even our 7 and 9 year old girls were really into it, and it really helped pass the time on our trip from Waikoloa to Volcanoes National Park. You will definitely need a car charger to keep your phone alive, because this provides GPS navigation as well as the commentary. I would recommend buying the bundle because if you do the south coastal journey it pauses at Volcanoes and prompts you to switch to that tour, so you really need both. You can use each tour in bits and pieces once purchased, so one day we went to Kona for a couple hours and just listened to that portion of the south coastal journey. My family and I highly recommend this guide!

My husband and I did an island hopping cruise earlier this year and decided we wanted to come back to Oahu and the Big Island this time. We did the tourist thing and road a bus tour on Oahu and walked a lot, which was very good and all but rented a car on the Big Island and found a flyer for BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide at the Kona airport. We are SOOOOOO glad we did!! It is PERFECT for how we like to travel! We love the history and scenery and to stop at as many places as we can. BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide DOES ALL THE WORK FOR YOU WITH THE ADDED BONUS OF FUN & EDUCATIONAL INFO AS YOU GO. we told as many people at stops as we could to get the word out. We also loved the helpful tips on where to taste the local treats and foods. Thank you so much for your app. We will def tell people back home and use it when we come back to the other islands. Mahalo!!!

My teenage son and I came to the Big Island and didn't want to be herded around like cattle on a tour nor did I want to spend $150+ per person to see the Volcanoes. We downloaded BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide , rented a car and set out on our adventure. At first I didn't think my teenager would be listening to the stories or even be interested but he not only listened, he repeated them several times throughout the trip! One of the best things about the trip were the hidden secrets and the best places to stop or keep going. There was one stop called the Devils Throat with no signs and was the "best kept secret". We pulled over on the side of the road and someone following us pulled over too. When we got out and walked down a small dirt path, whoever was in the car behind us decided to keep going since there were no signs as to what we were visiting. Too bad for them! It was so exhilarating to see this crater ... even a little eerie and definitely the best view of all the views. Needless to say ... this was ABSOLUTELY the best tour App I've ever downloaded! Hopefully you will leave the Islands and travel around other places and create the same app!

Stumbled on this little gem doing internet searches and found BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide was well made and with great pricing. The narration was nicely done and our family learned a good deal on history of Hawaii and other interesting tidbits that I’m sure will come in handy as conversational topics. Linking the waypoints to gps location makes navigation easy and straightforward. BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide ran smoothly with 0 hiccups and the intro to usage was simple to follow. The developers put in a lot of time and effort and it shows. I ended up getting all 5 tours because the price point was just right. My only recommendation on the next release of this 5 star app is to give the user some selection over the waypoints to fit into time allotted for the tour and that could be either through a menu to click and choose or pre-picks based on popularity. And personally I wouldn’t mind paying $10 for this premium feature. And if it so happens that the developer of this fine app finds this suggestion useful and decides to implement, I wouldn’t mind being a beta tester and free lifetime user ;-) Mahalo from J Chia in CA

My Husband and I just spent most of a month on 4 of the Hawaiian Islands. Since my Husband permanently uses a wheelchair, most tours and beaches are not available to us so we rely on exploring on our own a lot. So often we drive by something and wonder what it is or maybe what it’s greater significance might be. With Shaka, it’s like you have a high quality travel guide right in the car with you. Literally, there are times we would see something and say Wow and 2 seconds later, Shaka would say wow and then explain what you are seeing. We loved the Hawaiian music between points of interest, we loved that BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide is incredibly seamless— truly you set it and go and never have a glitch the entire day. It’s an amazing value for the service. Now that we’re home, we find ourselves missing Shaka and his corny jokes and laugh.

My girlfriend and I are both servers. We worked for 14 months to pay off a 8 day Hawaiian cruise. On this cruise we went on multiple excursions off the boat. Large groups and bad tour guides on some of those excursions really made us question why we spent so much money. But on our trip to Volcano’s National Park we rented a car and downloaded BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide. Just the two of us in our car using BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide to go where we wanted to, when we wanted to, all while receiving great information from to audio tour on BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide . It follows your gps locations and gives great recommendations on where to stop. It even tells you about the spots in the park that aren’t worth your time. BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide allows you to make your tour your way and it is pretty funny at some points. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants a great time without the hassle of large groups and subpar tour guides

We did the National Volcano tour yesterday and it was the best narrated tour I’ve ever been on. We are three seniors and didn’t want to do a bus tour because of a crowd. This was a perfect way to spend time at stops we were interested in and either skipping some of the stops or spending a short time there. We talked to people on the way who were just using the supplied map at entrance and we told them things that were not on their maps. This was our third Shaka tour on this island. We did three Shaka tours on the island of Kauai last week and after we learned how the first one worked we were very happy with all three tours also. Thank you for making these tours available. If anyone is planning on driving on these islands look into these tours. You don’t have to purchase them to find out about them. Well worth the money.

BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide was exactly what we needed on our trip to the Big Island! We love the history and stories it provides like a tour group but in our own car at our own pace! It had so many wonderful suggested routes and stops and the information as you were guided through was second to none. While speaking to another traveler about BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide he told us it had taken him years to hear some of the stories we had heard while using BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide .

If you like the history, culture and entertaining stories behind all the beauty you are seeing and you like to take your time, go at your own pace. This is BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide for you!

It also provides information about the upcoming stops. Like what is involved (parking, a hike, how far the hike is, if it’s worth it) so you can decide if you want to do it or if you’d like to keep moving. Uncle Shaka (voice) is an awesome addition to the road trip!

My wife and I used the Oahu and Big Island Shaka tours on our honeymoon. The apps were amazing. They took us to the normal spots but also took us to little know areas which greatly enhanced our trip. The apps provided music, fun stories, and got us to the areas efficiently. Only issue was when doing the opposite way tours there were some spots that told us the wrong turn directions but it was very obvious which way was the correct turn way (ie volcano National was one spot). There were times we doubted we were heading in the right direction but we should have trusted BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide because we got to some great spots. One area for future expansion it would have been nice to have a “find a place to eat” option. It did call out some places to eat but they were off our eating schedule based on when we started the tour. I would - and have recommended - to others BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide. A great addition to our trip.

Don’t have time to do reviews but making an exception. BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide is really well done. The sync with the drive is spot on - my biggest surprise. The spots they identify are things I’d never heard of and I’ve visited here many times. The voice over is spot on. Great positive inflection and well written script. Seriously worth every penny. Package price is a no-brainer. Get it.

Suggestions to the developers: 1) add more great Hawaiian music. I enjoyed every song and was sad during the breaks when it stopped. 2) I’d pay more to have the map display using CarPlay. Keep my phone screen off and use the display in the car to follow along with the drive. 3) when I get out of the car and walk the trails, give me an option to GPS navigate the walk to the point of interest. That’d be awesome.

Hopes this helps others as it did me. Thanks Kyle and Susan for the suggestion to get Shaka guides. When I visit the other islands I’ll be doing the same.

Generally, When vacationing in Hawaii, Thom and I prefer to just let the wind takes us wherever on a road trip to explore the island we are visiting. However, this time we decided to get a little help as there were just too many possibilities to see in a week. We downloaded the Shaka Guide app and couldn’t be more pleased! Through a narration that was entertaining and informing, we were able to take the backroads with ease and find beautiful locations all across the island! We learned a lot about the history of the island and the Hawaiian people which was truly the best part! Using the GPS on our phone, this guide gave us turn by turn directions and options for side trips along the way! It almost felt like the “Choose Your Own Adventure” chapter books I loved as a kid! Except with this guide I didn’t have any regrets! If you are planning a visit to any of the Hawaiian Islands, I highly recommend BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide to guide you!

I can’t say enough about BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide! We downloaded the package for our trip to the Big Island. We were able to complete 4 of the 5 tours. They were so informative. We learned so much history along our drives, and also there were a lot of suggested stops we would have never come across ourselves. It was especially helpful when letting you know what beaches were good for snorkeling and which ones you should just admire and not swim, as well as describing hikes so we knew what to be prepared for endurance and time wise. I HIGHLY recommend. It was worth EVERY penny of the $25 for the tour package. We are looking forward to doing the tours again, and also doing the tours on the other islands. I wish I had a guide like this for every trip!
My only suggestion is that there would be a “farewell” tour on your way back to the airport lol. We enjoyed it so much we played the tour on our way to the airport again just to hear all the history and music. We all thought it would be fun if there was a last little tour for the way home. Hopefully maybe others will feel the same and they’ll add one!!! ~Aloha

If you don’t like organizing a To Do list on your trip then BigIslandHawaiiTourGuide is for you. I was blessed to find it back in 2020 when I visited Kaua’i, then used it for O’ahu during 2020 during the pandemic out of boredom (I was born and raised in O’ahu and still reside there 😀) and now, 2022, I’m using it on the Big Island and it is still amazing!

Monday we did the South tour and it took us 14 hours! We left Waikoloa at 7am and got back here at 9pm 😳 AND… we only stopped at 10 of the 25+ items listed! Over 200 miles! There’s so much driving so be sure to know what you really want to do(watch travel vlogs about vacationing on the Big Island if that’ll help you narrow down some choices)

I got all the tours for $30-what an amazing deal! It’ll give you the option when you go to purchase 1 tour(cause I was freaking out before that lol)