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Maunakea Stellar Explorer: Big Island Star Tour
3.8
104 Ratings
Kailua-Kona
Embark on a thrilling adventure with Maunakea Stellar Explorer in Hawaii. Experience night sky and solar observing with experienced astronomers. All ages welcome!
Embark on a thrilling adventure with Maunakea Stellar Explorer in Hawaii. Experience night sky and solar observing with experienced astronomers. All ages welcome!
Duration:
6 hours, 30 minutes
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Kailua-Kona - The adventure starts with dinner.
- Saddle Road - Next, you’ll travel across Saddle Road between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, two of the tallest and most massive volcanoes on Earth. Your National Park Service trained guide will discuss the volcanology, geology, and history of these monstrous wonders, as well as providing in-depth…
- Kailua-Kona - The adventure starts with dinner.
- Saddle Road - Next, you’ll travel across Saddle Road between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, two of the tallest and most massive volcanoes on Earth. Your National Park Service trained guide will discuss the volcanology, geology, and history of these monstrous wonders, as well as providing in-depth narration on the various lava flows and flora and fauna that you’ll be passing by. Lastly, your guide will take you to one of our preferred locations on Mauna Kea for nighttime stargazing.
- Mauna Kea - You’ll observe deep sky and planetary objects through a large aperture Dobsonian telescope under one of the darkest and most pristine skies on planet Earth! Our Dobsonian telescopes are a true purist’s experience to view the night sky. Their fast focal ratio enables you to see sprawling wide field views of objects that simply aren’t possible with the types of telescopes used by other tours. Depending on what is visible in the current sky and weather permitting, you’ll observe galaxies, nebula, star clusters, planets, double star systems, the moon, and much more; all the highlights and showpiece objects like you’ve never seen before! Afterwards, warm up with Kona coffee and hot chocolate before returning to your resort. Warm jackets provided. This tour does not visit Maunakea’s summit out of deference to Native Hawaiian concerns.
What's Included
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Bottled water
- Driver/guide
- Dinner
- Jackets
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Bottled water
- Driver/guide
- Dinner
- Jackets
What's Not Included
- Gratuities
- Gratuities
Additional Information
For an extraordinary experience, explore the Maunakea Stellar Explorer with KapohoKine Adventures. This exciting journey is the only star tour on the Big Island that offers both nighttime astronomical observation and safe daytime solar viewing, welcoming all ages! The in-house stellar explorers are the most skilled and experienced in Hawaii, with one…
For an extraordinary experience, explore the Maunakea Stellar Explorer with KapohoKine Adventures. This exciting journey is the only star tour on the Big Island that offers both nighttime astronomical observation and safe daytime solar viewing, welcoming all ages! The in-house stellar explorers are the most skilled and experienced in Hawaii, with one having established the Mauna Kea Visitor’s Center and managed it for ten years. Other team members have contributed notable articles and reviews to renowned astronomy magazines and have worked at prestigious observatories.
This tour respects Native Hawaiian concerns by not visiting Maunakea’s summit or Visitor Center.
Location
Kailua-Kona
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
3.8
(104 Ratings)
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Kathleen_p
Aug 5, 2025
Amazing Star Tour - It is a beautiful experience with a very knowledgeable guide. Sam was great. A really great experience.
Review provided by Viator
Christopherdg9781gm
May 29, 2025
Absolutely Stunning! - The Mauna Kea Star Tour was an absolutely amazing and beautiful experience! Our guide, Marcus, was extremely helpful and very knowledgeable on all things space related as well as Hawaiian history and culture! He made sure that all of the participants had a great experience and answered everyone's questions while providing tons of valuable knowledge. This is absolutely an unforgettable experience for my wife and I!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Betty_e
Feb 9, 2025
Star and knowledge - We really enjoyed the star watching trip. The dinner before was at a restaurant we had not tried before. Food and service were very good. Our guide Marcus was very knowledgeable about stars, volcanoes, Hawaii in general... We were able to view and learn a lot about the stars, planets and galaxies. Great time, even if we only went up to about 7000 foot, which was fine with us!
Review provided by Viator
Peter_j
Jan 15, 2025
Night sky - It’s very rare to visit a place that leaves you speechless. The Milky Way is nothing short of extraordinary. The guide is very knowledgeable, patient and warm
Review provided by Viator
Keiko_n
Dec 24, 2024
Marcus was great. He was... - Marcus was great. He was knowledgeable, entertaining and kind. Plus he provided all the stars for us on what looked like a cloudy night! Simply amazing.
Review provided by Viator
Q4157ibmagdak
Dec 30, 2025
TOTAL SCAM, AVOID THEM!!!! - DO NOT BOOK WITH THEM!!!! THEY WILL SCAM YOU BE CAREFUL! !!!AVOID THEM!!! I booked this excursion with them and it was supposed to start at 15:00 and they told me that they will pick me up from the hotel at 16:20 and they literally sent me an email canceling my booking at 15:45 , so just 35min before they were supposed to pick me up. I tried calling them from my number when I saw their email and they didn’t answer, but after I called them from my mom’s phone they answered immediately and when I asked what happened they took like a few seconds to think of an answer and after that they told me that the car broke down, probably a total lie. They ruined my whole day since I stayed at the hotel the whole time in order to be ready to go on this tour and not to mention the fact that any other excursion to Mauna Kea was sold out everywhere for the period I was staying in Big Island so I ended not going. I also want to mention that I booked the excursion with them about 2/3 weeks in advance. I would advise you to avoid them and do not book anything with them, they ARE TOTAL SCAMMERS!!!! Hopefully I will get my money back.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Francis_o
Jan 14, 2025
Not what you should expect - None of the things happened because Viator contracted with a company that does not do any of this. I unfortunately did not see this disclaimer in. Kapahokine Adventure email they put down in the email. I was not expecting to be booked on a totally different experience. Both of these operators are aware of this happening but they have your money so so sad to bad.
Review provided by Viator
Erik_d
Aug 27, 2024
Great tour but way overpriced. - The tour was a great experience. Nice dinner and good hot choc at the end. Marcus drove the Saddle Road, set us up for sunset viewing near a parking lot and if there were no partial clouds obscuring would have set up the solarscope, and then drove to a secluded spot for 1.30-2 hours using his portable Dobsonian telescope giving each of us turns to watch e.g. Alpha Centauri (a twin star!), Venus and as top of the bill Saturn with the clearly visible ring pattern. And in between used the laser pointer to show lots of stars and nebulas. Even had 3 falling stars, a rarity!
However we were disappointed that all only went to 6000 feet (2 km), meaning we missed the far better sunset views including ocean from the visitors centre. (Summit is not really needed to visit, partly due to sensitivity for local culture but also as it’s simply too cold and can bring altitude sickness). Company delivers as advertised, but we should have read better – though the pickup options in Kona for this tour were amongst the best.
The tour would, both because of less delivered quality and of far less fuel cost for the company compared to the other routes, need to be sold at USD 75 at least below the current level. For the current level of price, go for a tour that visits the visitor centre (9000 ft/3km) for sunset vistas (and stargazing similar to this one) like Mauna Kea Summit sunset and stars, Mauna Kea Summit tour, Mauna Kea stargazing experience.
Review provided by Viator
Sandya-and-erik
Aug 27, 2024
Great experience, but way overpriced compared to alternatives - The tour was a great experience. Nice dinner and good hot choc at the end. Marcus drove the Saddle Road, set us up for sunset viewing near a parking lot and if there were no partial clouds obscuring would have set up the solarscope, and then drove to a secluded spot for 1.30-2 hours using his portable Dobsonian telescope giving each of us turns to watch e.g. Alpha Centauri (a twin star!), Venus and as top of the bill Saturn with the clearly visible ring pattern. And in between used the laser pointer to show lots of stars and nebulas. Even had 3 falling stars, a rarity!
However we were disappointed that all only went to 6000 feet (2 km), meaning we missed the far better sunset views including ocean from the visitors centre. (Summit is not really needed to visit, partly due to sensitivity for local culture but also as it’s simply too cold and can bring altitude sickness). Company delivers as advertised, but we should have read better – though the pickup options in Kona for this tour were amongst the best.
The tour would, both because of less delivered quality and of far less fuel cost for the company compared to the other routes, need to be sold at USD 75 at least below the current level. For the current level of price, go for a tour that visits the visitor centre (9000 ft/3km) for sunset vistas (and stargazing similar to this one) like Mauna Kea Summit sunset and stars, Mauna Kea Summit tour, Mauna Kea stargazing experience.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jeremywy3966uw
Jul 29, 2024
Great trip- terrible customer service - Booked tour through Trip Advisor. KapohoKine Adventures called to say the booking was wrong and I'd need to rebook.
I went through a different service instead. They never cancelled the reservation and despite me never traveling with them - charged me over $400. They were defensive and adamant about keeping my payment.
There are lots of companies offering this tour - (I actually used Mauna Kea Sunset & Stars Tour through Taikobo Hawaii - they were fantastic) I would highly recommend going with one that isn't going to stick it to the customer if there are misunderstandings or other unavoidable irregularities.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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