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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 - Begin the adventure with a delightful dinner.
- Saddle Road - Continue the journey across Saddle Road, nestled between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, two of the Earth’s tallest and most massive volcanoes. A guide, trained by the National Park Service, will share insights into the volcanology, geology, and history of these magnificent…
- Kailua-Kona - Begin the adventure with a delightful dinner.
- Saddle Road - Continue the journey across Saddle Road, nestled between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, two of the Earth’s tallest and most massive volcanoes. A guide, trained by the National Park Service, will share insights into the volcanology, geology, and history of these magnificent formations, along with detailed commentary on the diverse lava flows and the flora and fauna encountered along the way. Finally, the guide will lead you to a favored spot on Mauna Kea for an evening of stargazing.
- Mauna Kea - Experience the wonders of the night sky by observing deep space and planetary objects through a large aperture Dobsonian telescope, under some of the clearest and most pristine skies on Earth! These Dobsonian telescopes offer a pure viewing experience, with their fast focal ratio allowing for expansive wide-field views of celestial objects that other tours’ telescopes cannot provide. Depending on the current sky visibility and weather conditions, you may observe galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, planets, double star systems, the moon, and much more; all the highlights and spectacular objects like never before! Afterwards, enjoy warming up with Kona coffee and hot chocolate before heading back to your resort. Warm jackets are provided. This tour respects Native Hawaiian concerns by not visiting Maunakea’s summit.
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
Tourist55578796111
Mar 1, 2026
See the heavens in Kona with Sam - We had a terrific time. Sam is so eloquent and informative that we felt we had taken a college astronomy course. Highly recommend!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Susan_f
Mar 2, 2026
Not worth the money - This trip isn't worth the money--it included 1.5 hours of picking up travelers, 1 hour of a dinner not worth eating and 2.5 hours trying to find stars to gaze on the Saddle Road--could do without! Driver was the only highlight.
Review provided by Viator
Susan_h
Feb 14, 2026
Find another activity. This is a waste of money. - In short, this is a scam. Because of the rain, we couldn't even go up the mountain, so we gathered at 3:30 PM for a hamburger, which was all we had for this activity. The tour guide also asked the company to refund our money, but they refused. We paid a total of $1,033 for our family of four, but received nothing back. We even disputed the $750 refund with our credit card company, but they said it couldn't be refunded because we received the service. If you're willing to endure all this and still choose this activity, then that's your decision.
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
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