Arnott's Lodge and Hiking Adventures: Basic Information about the premiere hiking and travel adventure destination on the Big Island of Hawaii

We have laundry facilities at $2:00 per wash including liquid soap and $2:00 to dry. We also have a "Fresh Grind" coffee vending machine with excellent coffee and a soda machine offering other beverage choices such as juice, water, iced coffee and of course, Coke, Sprite and other favorites.

For those with rental cars who wish to visit other parts of the island go to our Links page..

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Our own daily world famous adventures are described in an accompanying section. Mauna Kea is banned by rental car companies due to damages to vehicles and accidents due to failed brakes. So even if you have a car, leave space in your schedule for these great adventures because most of it requires specific knowledge of places that are not on any map and require a guide. Please note expedition times vary seasonally and in response to changing lava flows, so be sure to check times by calling or E-Mailing. Our earliest departure is 9:00am. our latest 2:00pm. On your day of arrival try to get to Hilo in time to partake in the days expedition.

Hilo town is a mix of old and new with a good selection of supermarkets, modern stores and a Mall. Old Hilo town is in the midst of change, has a great museum, a great Farmers Market on Wednesday and Saturdays and many restaurants covering a reasonable range of cuisine and prices..

Our free 8:00am shuttle, the free County Bus, our bicycles and our practice of stopping at a market outbound for expeditions, allow our backpackers to get their daily food needs. More substantial fare may be obtained at a neighborhood store about 800 yards away. There are many stores and major markets within a few minutes drive for our car renters.

Hilo, of course has large Supermarkets catering to every conceivable food need.

No check-ins or business is conducted before 7:30 am. After 8:00 pm and until 10:00pm check in only - No check ins after 10:00 pm. If you have early flights out we can arrange an early pick up by taxi at your cost. Our one free outbound Airport shuttle is at 8:00 am with Downtown Bus service available all day except Sunday. Checkout time is 10:00 am and we ask that you strip your bed of sheets and pillow slips (leave bed spread) and bring them to our laundry area. (De Luxe rooms leave on the bed.)

With the near universal spread of cellphones we do not have any phone access to guests, our public phones are outgoing only and we are not staffed to take or deliver messages. If you are involved in urgent matters and do not have a cellphone, may we suggest a full service Hotel.

Arnott's Lodge - What It Is and What Its Not!
The Lodge is run by its founder - Doug Arnott, Annette Nakamoto our General Manager and a small dedicated staff who work extremely hard so you can have fun.

What It Is:
A high energy, fun, international Hotel with rooms for regular guests, dorm space for backpackers, daily expeditions, gathering areas, lamplight patio, a large movie room with a huge collection of latest videos, vending for drinks snacks and good coffee and extensive grounds for your pleasure. It is located near a beautiful wilderness coastline that is a must to visit, with turtles year round and whales seasonally. We created the lodge for international travelers on a budget who are out to have fun and share their adventures.

We maintain a secure format where mothers in London or Sydney or school and college groups can send their daughters and sons with confidence...

It is also available for interstate and local travelers who are easy going and fit into our format.

What It's Not:
� Arnott's Lodge may not suit those who like luxury full service hotels or who expect Lotion, Shampoo and a cotton robe in their room.

� We have great prices but "no frills" service.

� It is not for people who use drugs or consume alcohol to excess, or have "problems" and do not want to join in the fun.

� We do not take long stays, preferring to have a constant turnover of interesting guests being energized by their discoveries, there is a 7 day stay limit although genuine travelers with an onward ticket may request an extension, at our discretion.

� Arnott's is not for people who have no cellphone etiquette, if you are an inconsiderate person who yells on their cellphone in public places, please go elsewhere.

We Do Not Have:

� Air conditioning except in de-luxe rooms, we have fans in every room.

� Telephones in rooms as everyone has cellphones these days.

� 24 hour front desk, wake-up calls, daily linen service, phone message or fax service.

� Late partying or disturbing others... our guests are adventurers who rise early to visit the wonders of Hawaii.

If what we are is to your liking - - WELCOME - - you join over 120,000 happy travelers who have enjoyed our Lodge over its 20 years of existence..

If it is not to your liking we would be happy to help you find a suitable full service hotel in Hilo.

And you can still take our "Great Expeditions". Arnott's Lodge is set up to make your stay as enjoyable as possible at the most reasonable cost.

We look forward to seeing you!!

Enhanced security with new card style door locks.
Arnott's Lodge has now installed keyless card style locks on all guestroom doors.

This is a major advance in security for our guests as the cards automatically cancel on the day you check out. It also makes administering our dormitories very easy compared to giving out and changing combinations under the old system.

We are looking forward to the day when even more advanced locks that can be programmed to take your own credit card become within our price range....this would eliminate the taking of a small deposit against return of the IC cards which cost over $1 each.

Arnott's Lodge leads the way with Green innovation.
While many large Hotels and our visitors bureau are now claiming all kinds of "Green" initiatives, here at Arnott's Lodge we were the first hotel with all solar hot water, the first with 100% CFL (compact florescent) lighting and now are again leading the way with all LED security lighting. As an example our Deluxe units building, office and Van storage are all on one meter...in July and August of 2008 we consumed between 44 and 45 KWH per day for a cost of $560 to $606 per month.. our latest bill for the same area used 23 KWH per day at a cost of $214. We are very handy and do most installation ourselves...while most are still installing CFL we are embracing the future with LED technology.

We of course have re-cycling stations for all recyclable material which is regularly taken to county recycling sites.

Our roofs are painted reflective white to deflect solar heat buildup and minimize need for air-conditioning.

Doug, Arnott's Lodge's owner, is currently gathering knowledge on photovoltaic electric generation with a view to further lowering our carbon footprint.

Of interest, Hawaii Island derives some 30% of its power from Geothermal sources and about 10% from wind energy, various biomass burning plants are proposed to use up huge resources of Eucalyptus, however none has passed permitting yet as this is still a polluting energy source. Puna Geothermal is set to increase capacity however it is artificially restrained by a coalition of supposedly Green organizations who have blocked further development on the unfounded fear that cheap electricity will bring some industrial plant to Hawaii !! As a result we still have the United States most expensive electricity currently around .36 cents a kilowatt hour.

Big Mattress upgrade at Arnott's Lodge.
When Doug and his staff travel, they notice trends. One of the latest of course, is the upgrade by most good hotels to the bedding and pillows.

A large import to Hilo of good quality new mattresses by one of our large stores has enabled us to replace virtually all the "old" mattresses, some obtained second hand from major Hotel refurbishments several years ago.

As part of our continual upgrade of our facilities we are placing new mattresses and extra pillows in all rooms that do not already have them as a result of previous upgrades.

Some of our staff have been beneficiaries of the "old" mattresses which were an upgrade on what they had at home.

What goes around comes around !!

New vending area includes great fresh ground coffee & snacks...

In our quest to bring ever better facilities for our guests, we have a fresh grind coffee vending machine.

This machine makes coffee as good as that produced on an espresso machine.

We also have Soda's, water and Snacks now available 24 hours a day.

New hourly County Bus service makes us even more accessible.
The County of Hawaii Transit Agency launched a new Monday thru Saturday Hele On bus service for Keaukaha.

For guests wanting to take the bus into town, they operate every hour from 7:00 in the morning and every hour from 1:35 in the afternoon until 4:40pm to the Mooheau Bus Terminal. If you wish to catch the bus to the Prince Kuhio Plaza, University of Hawaii or the Hilo Shopping Center, you will need to catch the 3:35pm or earlier bus. You can wait on the highway by Arnott's and flag down the medium sized white bus with the green waist stripe.

The County of Hawaii Mass Transit offers this FREE island wide bus service on all scheduled routes, however some routes do not run on weekends. Check here for more information... http://heleonbus.org/

Free Saturday dinner in appreciation of you our guests.
In appreciation of all our great guests over the years, we treat our current guests to a free meal* on Saturday evening at 7:00pm.

This is great mixer where people from all our diverse accommodation types get together on our lanai/patio and talk story on their mutual interest....Travel.

With soft lamplight and a convivial atmosphere we have local music from the stereo and sometimes live shows by our staff.

For the Lodge birthday on the first Saturday in each August we have a special meal, cake and Hula show.

The meal is most often Pizza with a free beer for those over 21 years old.

We appreciate everybody being there at 7:00pm for required announcements.

Sign up at our front desk, in advance of 5:30pm for numbers..and a refundable $5 a head deposit is taken.
*Due to the recession, Tent and Dorm guests two night stay for free dinner, one nighters pay a nominal $5

Arnott's Lodge outreach program for schools and community groups.
Doug Arnott believes in giving back to our community and encouraging youth education.

He is a member of Rotary, the Salvation Army advisory Board, the Better Business Bureau and other community organisations.

To this end we provide free or discounted accommodation, tours and donations for worthy groups.

The discount depends on the needs and resources of the group and entails a frank discussion with Doug or Annette Nakamoto, our general manager.

We have taken groups of local high school students and Hawaiian cultural practitioners up Mauna Kea for free.

We have done tours and dorms at 50% and 75% rates for visiting mainland schools, colleges and Eco groups.

We expect groups who can well afford it, to pay their way, allowing us to give discounts to the worthy.

We also support local youth, schools and sports, Hula programs, and more recently Robotics and Literacy in our remote Schools.

Donations are made possible by our tours and association with the cruise industry which supplies 50% of our business.

Some of the groups we have assisted with donations, discounts or free consideration over the years are:

-The Royal Order of Kamehameha.                           -Gustavus Adolphus College, MN.
-Liliokulani Trust.                                                        -Waiakea Intermediate School, HI.
-The Salvation Army.                                                  -Bosque School, Albuquerque, NM.
-Keaukaha Intermediate School.                                -Bridgewater-Raritan High School, NJ.
-Hilo Youth Soccer league.                                         -Colchester Sixth Form College ( UK ).
-Hawaii Youth Rugby.                                                -Concordia College. Moorhead MN.
-Special Olympics.                                                       -Ellis School, Pittsburgh. PA.
-St Joseph's Hilo.                                                         -Luther High, Onalaska, WI.
-Young Democrats Pacific Century.                           -Bishop Stopford ( UK ).
-Serteens Oahu.                                                           -Putney Student Travel, VT.
-Molokai High School.                                                -Seabury Hall, Makawao Maui, HI.
-Various canoe paddling clubs.                                   -British Military. ( UK )
-Hilo High School.                                                       -US Coast Guard.
-United States Navy.                                                   -Navy League.
-VASH, Visitor Aloha Society Hawaii..                        -Hawaii County Youth Summit.
-Outward Bound, Australia.                                        -Ka'u High School.
-Kona Hawaii Civic club.                                             -UHH Career Day.
-UHIFA Astro Day.                                                      -RYLA Rotary Camp transport.
-SURE Foundation youth transport.                          -UHH Elder Hostel transport
-Naalehu Elementary School                                      -Youth Videography classes

Arnott's Lodge owner Doug Arnott addresses "comment sites" that rate us poorly.

We are members of Rotary, the Better Business Bureau, the local Salvation Army Advisory Board, and VASH (Visitor Aloha Society Hawaii), we help take care of people who meet misfortune while on our Island. We are good people who grow fruit, flowers and orchids and maintain our beautiful property for your enjoyment.

Many of you are aware there are certain websites which attempt to "rate" businesses, airlines, hotels and hostels by accepting unverified comments from unknown sources. Most Airlines despite carrying millions of passengers safely seem to have nothing but bad comments. The reason for this is simple.....people who get what they expected or have a good time rarely write anything...you reading this are probably one of them....they are too busy with their present moments. In a lifetime of travel, I tip what I enjoy and don't tip what I don't enjoy...I have never had time to sit and write a complaint..!!

This used to be much longer and address specific comments, but a happy world travelling guests advised me not to waste paper...."Anyone who writes a comment to a Travel site more than a couple of sentences is a professional whiner without a life, he told me.....if they have a genuine gripe they go to the BBB, which I see you belong to," he said. BBB has adjudicated resolution of the complaint, with a satisfactory outcome the goal...."people who write a Page to a travel site" are out for revenge not resolution, he said. And this is true....BBB will even get you a refund if one is due.

For 2010 we have eliminated three sources of complaint:

1. We no longer have a late check in fee of $5 between 8pm and 10pm. No check in after 10pm to maintain budget prices.

2. Any time our Mauna Kea Tour Van does not reach the Summit area meaning the Caltech and James Clarke Maxwell Telescopes, or above, we will give an automatic refund of 50%...however we will most likely head up to the Visitor Center unless days long blocking conditions exist. We also have alternate places to go that beat sitting at the Lodge.

3. We have a two tiered price for the Lava Hike and Volcanoes National Park adventure in case there is no Lava..you pay less.

Be aware also that Lonely Planet has gone up market and no longer writes its Hawaii Guidebooks for its former budget traveler customers, if its latest issue is to be believed, Arnott's, Uncle Billy's and Seaside, the core of Hilo Budget accommodation are all to be avoided.....so you can spend $200 at a B&B or $150 at a big hotel. Turn in your Lonely Planet for $10 off your stay cost. !! Buy Rough Guide a good source of Big Island info.