Some vacationers soak up sun on beaches with white or black sand. Not far away divers suit up for a deep dive to get close-up and personal with a variety of denizens of the deep. Other people check out a surreal moonscape of hardened pitch-black lava, then hike through a lush tropical rainforest.
If this sounds like a continent-wide choice of activities, that’s because the island of Hawai'i (as locals spell it) in ways resembles a miniature continent. It’s almost twice the size of the other Hawaiian Islands combined. Visitors find a setting that encompasses virtually every kind of landscape. Dry, cactus-dotted desert lies near lush rainforests. Barren lava fields contrast with waterfalls plunging into verdant valleys.
