We have been visiting the Island of Hawaii as a family for years now and one of the things we love most about the island is visiting the coffee farms. Greenwell Farms is a place we constantly go back to and we’ve noticed more and more varieties of farms popping up over the years. This time we visited a vanilla farm, and a few more new to us farms so I’ve created a list of Hawaii farms to visit below.
I’ve also included some other farms like an Octopus Farm I wanted to go to so badly but didn’t get to because it was all booked up. In 2022 it’s really important that you book your farm tours in advance. (Booking in advance is something we’ve noticed universally as we start to travel again. Even Disneyland needs reservations and we missed a few museums in New York recently as well because we didn’t reserve in time so this is definitely something we all need to be more mindful of in this new era of travel.)
Also, so many of the places we visit on the Big Island are not walkable from the resort areas so I strongly recommend renting a vehicle for at least part of your trip.
A vanilla farm on the big island: The Vanillerie
We did not have a tour booked at the Vanillerie but we were treated to a mini tour to see the vanilla pods so I will definitely look into booking a longer tour next time we’re on the island. Vanilla is related to the orchid family and I think it would be really beautiful to see the plants in bloom one day. It was incredible to see all the vanilla bean pods growing and think about all the wonderful things we make with vanilla. We bought some delicious ice cream (they created a collaboration with locally made Tropical Dreams Ice Cream) and my mom bought a kit to make her own vanilla extract at home.
Buddha’s Cup: a fabulous coffee farm if you are traveling with kids
We have been to many coffee farms on the island and this is one of the best we’ve seen for young children. We were told about this coffee farm on our boat tour with Alii Ocean tours(where we saw dolphins and a shark while we snorkeled on a private tour) and it turned out to be such a great visit. We just wanted to try coffee but this place also has ATV tours of their farm as well (we did not do this but it looked like it could be fun). We ended up visiting with cats, goats and parrots. We learned about tea and saw it growing. We met a man who was working there from Japan who also worked at one of our favorite restaurants in Vancouver (it’s Stepho’s Greek Taverna and we have loved it since our college days.) We also met Manny, who is the owner and grower and learned he was now growing chocolate too. A lot of the coffee farms we visited have now started growing chocolate since we first started visiting nearly 20 years ago.
Buddah’s Cup farm had lots of great spaces to self explore and it was on such a picturesque piece of land. We drove a long way up curvy roads through tropical vegetation and had no idea if we were in the right spot until we started seeing colorful flags as we got closer. We did a coffee tasting at this farm and also tried some dried fruits, chocolate covered coffee beans and were given papayas to take back to our rental home at the Mauna Lani too. The coffee was really robust and tasty and we bought some to take home. (coffee makes the best Hawaii souvenir!)
The Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory
The Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory is such a fabulous spot to visit as well. We were given a few chocolates to try and then were told we could watch a video or come out and see the chocolate pods in real life. After living near the Theo Chocolate we really wanted to see the real life chocolate pods growing on the trees. The ones we saw on this farm were vibrant red and bigger than I imagined. We visited a chocolate farm in Costa Rica years ago that was really impressionable and it’s cool to see chocolate growing a bit closer to home.
Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Farm and visitor Center (and solar farm too!)
Mauna Loa Macadamia nuts are sold on every island in Hawaii and in shops all over the world too. The Mauna Loa Visitor Center just reopened when we visited and you can do a self-guided tour of the facility-we saw some people packaging macadamia nuts in the factory. They have a solar farm on site to allow the plant to run on renewable energy and it’s neat to see how places like this are trying to become better for the planet. There were no samples on our visit but we were told they were working on permitting for that as well as a cafe with Mauna Loa treats. (So hopefully next time we go back)
Punalu’u Bake Shop
We love the taro buns from this local bakeshop and it isn’t a small shop at all. You can even find Punalu’u buns at Costco. We stopped by the factory on our way to Hilo from Kona and it was very busy and had a great outdoor area for eating. Next time we’ll plan more time for a longer stop here. I love seeing where foods we find all over the island come from and these are really delicious too.
The Octopus Farm
If you do go to the Kanaloa Octopus please let me know. I looked at this one so many times and was just about to book when the tour I wanted filled up completely and we missed out. This farm along with a seahorse Farm and an abalone farm are all in a similar area and they seem like they are bringing such awareness about animals that live in the local waters. It’s so important to know about these creatures to realize our impact. Next visit my goal is to go to at least one of these tours.
We have seen a really cool salt farm in Okinawa, and the Kona Salt farm seemed intriguing too. We just didn’t have enough time.
And a Baumakuchenfarm?
These Baumakuchen cakes are really popular in Japan and I noticed a flyer for this Baumackuchen farm when we picked up our rental car. I think it might be a fun tour if you have more time than we did on the island. It’s always fun to make foods on an open fire and this place also has a free farm tour.
Do you get excited about finding factories and farms on your travels too? We also love visiting pottery factories and our favorites have been Heath in San Francisco, Wedgwood in England and Delft in Amsterdam.
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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