5 Reasons Not to Move to the Big Island of Hawaii

Paradise is not always paradise

A huge influx of eager buyers has builders throwing up new homes at breakneck speed on the Big Island of Hawaii. My brand new neighbors bought their home sight unseen without ever having been to the Big Island.

I’ve lived on the Big Island for more than ten years. It works for me. But I’ve seen so many people come and go over the last decade.

Before you join the crowd, sign on the dotted line, and hand over your hard-earned money, let me clue you into a few facts that might make you want to get off the island as fast as you got on it.

1. Weather

People assume it’s always sunny in Hawaii. That’s not true.

Each island has a leeward (dry) and a windward (wet) side. The weather will be radically different depending on the side you’re on.

The Big Island boasts 8–11 of the world’s 14 climates zones (depending who you ask) ranging from Hot Dessert on the Kohala Coast to Periglacial on the 13,796 foot summit of Mauna Kea.

I live on the rainy side of the Big Island, below Hilo. I can’t help but smile knowingly when people tell me how lucky I am to live in sunny Hawaii.

Hilo is the wettest city in the U.S. It commonly receives as much as 211 days of rain each year—10 to 40 times as much rain as other parts of the Big Island.

But heavy rain isn’t limited to Hilo.

It occurs everywhere on the windward side of the Big Island. A narrow area closest to the coast, less than a mile in width, is considered a “sun belt,” but it still receives a significant amount of rain. The amount of annual rainfall increases as you climb in elevation too.

Summers are sunnier, but warmer weeks may still be interspersed with wet ones. I’ll get to the summer hurricanes and tropical storms in the next section.

Rainstorms often cause flooding so intense that kids get a day off from school. And our roads are filled with buckles, cracks, and potholes due to excessive rain.

I’ve known any number of enthusiastic newcomers who became depressed once they faced a month of non-stop rain. Sometimes in the winter, rainy days are interspersed with sunny days, but sometimes not.

The windward side gets chilly in the winter too and downright cold if you’re at a higher elevation. I live near sea level, but I’ve slept with socks and a sweatshirt over my nightgown on a few recent winter nights.

If you prefer warm and dry weather focus on the leeward (Kailua-Kona) side of the island—west side and the southern tip. But be aware that the west side of the island is covered in black lava which absorbs the rays of the sun. After a while, it can start to feel oppressively hot.

You’ll also find higher real estate prices on the west side.

Be sure to check a rainfall map if you are considering a move to the Big Island.

2. Natural Disasters

Lava eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis are the four most common natural disasters on the Big Island.

Since I’ve lived on the Big Island, I’ve experienced:

The 2014 Lava Eruption: a miles-long flow from Kilauea volcano touched the edge of Pahoa town, swallowing one home before it miraculously stopped. People thought it might overcome Pahoa, travel the remaining miles to the ocean, and cut off access to and from the lower Puna District.

2018 Lava Eruption: This dramatic series of eruptions caused lava to flow in residential, recreational, and uninhabited areas continuously from May through August. Over 700 homes were destroyed including my own. 60,000 earthquakes occurred during this period. The high level of Volcanic Organic Gases (VOG) drastically lowered air quality in areas adjacent to the eruptions, causing people to evacuate even when their homes weren’t threatened by lava.

Think it couldn’t happen again?

USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) explains:

“The Island of Hawai‘i, with four active volcanoes, is liveliest. Between 1912 and 2012, there were nearly 50 Kīlauea eruptions, 12 Mauna Loa eruptions, and one Hualālai intrusion of magma. Mauna Kea most recently erupted only about 4,000 years ago.”

Kilauea Volcano is erupting right now and has been since September 29, 2021. However, all activity is currently taking place within Halemaʻumaʻu crater in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Update: On November 27, 2022, Mauna Loa erupted at its summit and lava has emerged from a series of fissures in its north-east rift zone. No communities are threatened at the current time, but lava is within a few miles of Saddle Road, used by those who commute between Kona and Hilo.

Be sure to review a lava zone map before you buy a home on the Big Island.

2014 Hurricane Iselle: The strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall on the Big Island of Hawaii, Iselle’s tropical-storm-force winds impacted most of the state.

I lived in the Kapoho area at the time. Homes were unroofed, power lines felled, and the geothermal plant leaked toxic hydrogen sulfide gases. The area was without power and water for two full weeks. Road access to town (meaning access to food, water, and supplies) was blocked by an unending row of downed Albizia trees.

Hurricane season runs from June to November. I’ve prepared for quite a few over the years. Fortunately, the volcanoes act as a buffer and tend to weaken hurricanes before they make landfall. Nevertheless, a tropical storm can cause serious damage as was the case with Isele.

Earthquakes: Thousands of earthquakes occur on the Big Island each year. Most are unnoticeable.

But there are big ones too. In fact, we had a 4.3 earthquake on January 3rd (2022) and a 6.2 quake a few months ago. The 6.9 quake at the start of the 2018 lava eruption was a whopper.

Tsunamis: I’ve waited through one serious tsunami warning. Fortunately, the tsunami didn’t arrive.

But the April 1, 1946 tsunami devastated shores on the east side of Hawaii bringing waves as high as 55 feet above sea level in some spots. Nearly a third of the city of Hilo was destroyed. 159 people were killed.

3. Far, Far Away

Hawaii is remote. It lies 2,285 miles from the U.S. mainland, 3,850 from Japan, and 5,673 from Australia.

Many people come to Hawaii full of excitement. A few years later they begin to miss their family and friends and decide to leave. For example, a neighbor couple decided to move back to the mainland so they could see their grandchildren grow up.

It’s not as easy to fly back and forth as you might think. Flight costs have increased radically. It takes a good five-plus hours just to reach Los Angeles. You easily end up with a full day or two of travel depending on your ultimate destination.

4. Shortage of Healthcare

The state of Hawaii has a severe shortage of doctors and a lack of specialty care.

According to a Wall Street Journal article

“Hawaii has among the fewest hospital beds per capita of any state and the 10th longest emergency-room wait times.”

The best care is on Oahu. Shortages primarily plague the neighboring islands. Most neighboring islands are small with the exception of the Big Island. But the Big Island suffers the same healthcare issues.

If you have a heart attack on the Hilo side of the Big Island, you’ll receive emergency care but you’ll be flown to Oahu if you need surgery or treatment.

There are no allergists on the Big Island. Fortunately, my allergist in Oahu flies to the Big Island one day a month to see patients here. But I had to fly to Oahu for my initial appointment. Some insurance companies will pay for travel expenses, others don’t.

You’ll find a similar situation with other medical specialties.

5. High Cost of Living

Hawaii is expensive.

Almost everything costs more in Hawaii because it has to be shipped here by air or water. The cost of groceries, gas, propane, electricity, dining out, and rent will make your breath stop for a moment.

While the cost of real estate might be lower than some places on the mainland, at least in more susceptible lava zones, the prices have climbed madly in the last few years.

State taxes are high as well—one contributing cause to the shortage of doctors.

There you have it—five main factors you should seriously take into consideration before you decide to move to the Big Island of Hawaii. Isn’t it better to know these things now rather than make an expensive mistake?

A Few More Things to Consider

But why stop there? I can easily add a list of smaller factors that may or may not be deal-breakers for you.

• Traffic

Hawaii Island roads aren’t adequate to handle the increasing amount of traffic they endure. Rush hour is the worst in Kona and Hilo.

• Drugs

There’s a significant crystal methamphetamine problem on the Big Island. This has led to an increase in home burglaries and car thefts. I’ve witnessed multiple burglaries myself.

• Annoying Creatures

Centipedes, cockroaches, coqui frogs (east side only), geckos, mice and rats, mosquitos, little fire ants, feral pigs, minah and frankolin birds, roosters.

• No Trash Service

There’s no trash service outside of Hilo and Kailua-Kona. You haul your own trash to the local transfer station, which could be ten minutes or more away.

• No Home Mail Delivery

There’s no home mail delivery outside of Hilo and Kailua-Kona. But you won’t automatically get a rural post office box either. In some areas, it could take years once you apply for one.

Instead, you’ll have to pay for a post office box if one is available. If not, your next step is a retail store that hosts boxes.

While it’s easy to access my mail at the post office when I’m in town, I often have to wait in line for up to an hour to pick up packages.

• Catchment Water System

The majority of Hawaii outside of major cities relies on rainwater catchment. When your catchment tank is dry due to low rain, you’ll have to have water trucked in at a significant cost.

Catchment water is not drinkable unless you have a sophisticated and costly water filtration system. If you don’t, you’ll have to purchase your drinking water each week and lug it home with your groceries.

• Boredom

Kaliua-Kona (mostly a tourist center) and Hilo are small cities with populations around 50,000. The rest of the island is rural dotted with a few small towns.

If you’re a surfer, nature lover, organic farmer or, an introvert, you’ll probably be fine. If you crave an active nightlife, plays and concerts, and intellectual stimulation, Hawaii Island may not be the right place for you.

Sure, we have art galleries, occasional musical events and festivals, and Hawaiian cultural events like the amazing Merrie Monarch festival. But generally, there’s not that much to do.

• Jobs

Finding employment can be difficult unless you’re a healthcare worker. Most jobs relate to tourism: retail sales, waiting tables, and service positions in the hotel industry.

Have I covered all the bases?

A Sacred Connection to the Land

There’s another downside to an influx of new buyers on the Big Island.

Traditionally, Hawaiians had a sacred connection with the “aina”—the Hawaiian word for land and sea. The Office for Hawaiian Affairs explains the word this way:

“Land is not a commodity to be exploited, it is a relative that is respected and cared for and, who, in turn, cares for us. Mālama ʻāina expresses our kuleana to care for the land and to properly manage the resources and gifts it provides. Aloha ʻāina expresses our love for this land and beyond that, our love of country — the sovereign nation stolen away but ever in our hearts.”

Sadly, this deep sense of connection with the land and sea slowly erodes away with each bulldozer that clear cuts yet another lot.

No one thinks of the animals that are killed in the process or the fact that their homes have been decimated. Where will the birds, the ‘Io (Hawaiian hawks), the insects, the feral pigs and other creatures live now?

Closing Thoughts

I love the Big Island. But I know it’s not the right place for everyone.

Don’t get so caught up in a passionate urge to move to “paradise” that you make a costly mistake. Seriously consider the real facts before moving here:

1. Weather (It’s not sunny everywhere)
2. Natural disasters
3. Far away from family and friends
4. Healthcare shortages
5. High cost of living

Honestly, I’m worried for the Big Island. I’m not sure it can sustain more and more people.

If you do end up moving to the Big Island, please try to cultivate a connection to the land and sea. Don’t bring bad habits from the mainland like leaving bright lights on all night long. Slow down, learn what it means to respect for the aina, and act with “aloha aina” in your heart.

Otherwise, paradise will no longer be paradise.

Epilogue: Remember my new neighbors who bought their home sight unseen? Nine months later, a gigantic “For Sale” sign has been hammered into the black cinder at the head of their driveway. They’re moving back to the mainland due to several of the considerations I listed above.

For more inspiration, sign up for my bi-monthly Wild Arisings newsletter.

You might also like: