I love that KOA is all open-air and outdoors! It just FEELS like vacation. Everyone was so friendly and in a great mood! The TSA agent who screened my luggage (first at the entry, then again at an agricultural scan) when I was leaving Hawaii was hilarious - throwing out tons of one-liners and friendly sarcasm to people who complained about having to go through a second luggage security scan for their carry-ons. There are no gateways from the plane to the gate, you have to walk down the mobile staircase they wheel up to the plane in order to enter/exit the plane.

The lines can get a little confusing when you go to leave.  The first line is to get your boarding pass, the 2nd line is to send your checked luggage through a scanner, the third line is the regular TSA checkpoint, then there is a fourth line to check any carry-ons before boarding the plane. Considering the general astronomical expensiveness of Hawaii in general, I was pleasantly surpirised to find that Kona International Airport parking is $10/day. And coffee hounds, listen up: that rubbish called "Kona" coffee in the mainland States is the reject stuff. Run, do not walk, to taste the most ecstasy-inducing coffee on earth; real Kona coffee obtainable only IN Kona. Volcanic soil, tropical breezes, you can guess for yourself. If you're looking for a Kona International Airport hotel, you simply cannot go wrong, even with a blindfold on.

And no matter what, you are in Hawaii and when you get off the plane for the first time, you are instantly transported to tropical paradise!

10/05/2017