Contact or stop by the Downtown Hilo Improvement Association, 252 Kamehameha Ave., Hilo, HI 96720 (tel. 808/935-8850; www.downtownhilo.com), for a copy of its very informative self-guided walking tour of Hilo, which focuses on 18 historic sites dating from the 1870s to the present.
On the Waterfront
Old banyan trees shade Banyan Drive, the lane that curves along the waterfront to the Hilo Bay hotels. Most of the trees were planted in the mid-1930s by memorable visitors like Cecil B. De Mille (who was here in 1933 filming Four Frightened People), Babe Ruth (his tree is in front of the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel), King George V, Amelia Earhart, and other celebrities whose fleeting fame didn't last as long as the trees themselves.
It's worth a stop along Banyan Drive -- especially if the coast is clear and the summit of Mauna Kea is free of clouds -- to make the short walk across the concrete-arch bridge in front of the Naniloa Hotel to Coconut Island, if only to gain a panoramic sense of the place.
Also along Banyan Drive is Liliuokalani Gardens, the largest formal Japanese garden this side of Tokyo. This 30-acre park, named for Hawaii's last monarch, Queen Liliuokalani, is as pretty as a postcard, with bonsai, carp ponds, pagodas, and a moon-gate bridge. Admission is free; open 24 hours.
