About Arnott's Lodge - What It Is and What Its Not

• A range of accommodations from our private bath, air-conditioned "ensuites" and our affordable "Semi Privates" to backpacker dorm new options and tent spaces..
• Camping on our large lawn area, tenters use flush toilets and special covered outdoor showers. We encourage neatness in use of facilities so that all guests enjoy our space.
• A large covered entertainment area with lots of chairs, tables and evening lamplight, that allow you to sit with other guests and chat, or sit privately to write home, read or catch up on postcards.


• Free Internet access and WIFI access 24/7 and a new laptop/cellphone charging area.
• A large lattice enclosed gazebo with an array of wall maps to inform you about our Island.
• 55 inch Hi Def TV with HBO Free movies in the gazebo and a 47 inch on the patio for sports and news.
• A highly tropical surrounding, beautiful garden and lawns, and landscaping around our huge Lychee tree. We are only 200 yards from a small white coral beach and the magnificent lava coastline.

$1 County bus service passes by hourly, except Sunday or use our inexpensive bicycles.

We have laundry facilities at $2 per wash including liquid soap and $2 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..

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 great museums, a great Farmers Market on Wednesday and Saturdays and many restaurants covering a reasonable range of cuisine and prices..

The $1 County Bus, our bicycles and our practice of stopping at a market outbound for expeditions, allow our guests 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.


Our office hours are: Office 7:30 am to 7:00 pm - All Services, Rooms, Tours, General advice. 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm - Room Check in only, Tours etc will be handled the following morning. After 10:00pm -Desk closed, No check in, except tenters who may set up and pay in the morning. Daily 10:00am- Checkout. (Late checkout to noon $10) Daily 3:00pm- Checkin begins.

Say aloha to Adam and Melani when you check in at the front desk

No check-ins or business is conducted before 7:30 am. Please check in by 9:45pm, after that reservations will not be held unless you call us, 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. Downtown Bus service is available all day except Sunday. Checkout time is 10:00 am.

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 cable movies, 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...for this reason we are hard on anyone caught with drugs or who becomes drunk..

If your idea of a good time is to party till 2:00am and get drunk please stay elsewhere.

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. We do not have baggage service, please pack what you can carry.
• 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 deluxe 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 there are several concrete and glass conventional Hotels in Hilo at double our prices.

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!!


Arnott's has joined forces with Lobo Del Mar (www.lobodelmar.com) which operates a tour division C Big Island ( www.cbigisland.com )...This company began with tour desks in Hotels but rapidly expanded into both land and sea activities on the Kona side.

They began with Arnott's by providing guests for our Mauna Kea Summit Sunset and Starshow adventure, but we quickly noticed their on-time performance and care of their guests comfort. As they expanded into Marine activities...Manta Ray and Dolphin Dives, as well as snorkeling to neat, "off the beaten track" places...we began to send them our guests who always returned raving about the quality of the adventure and about this incredible family where every member even the youngsters play a role....how about Bagpipes playing Amazing Grace at sunset on the Manta Ray dive boat..! Their next venture involved representing Kona Islander Inn which for the affordable crowd we represent, is the ideal place in Kona (Note 2 day minimum stay)....Kona is usually associated with inflated prices specially in the center of town but Lobo Del Mar found this Hotel consisting of individually owned units run by a manager as a Hotel....and we have personally stayed there three times in different rooms and each time has been great. In addition, Lobo forged an alliance with Iolani Air, a super safe aircraft tour company who does volcano overflights from Hilo or Kona....as of November 2011 this is the only way to see molten lava as it is in very remote areas prohibited to public access. As if all this were not enough Lobo operates the hugely popular restaurant "Bongo Bens" right on Alii drive, Kona's main street and a short walk from Kona Islander Inn Hotel...

In conclusion we have you covered....come to East or West side for the unique offerings each has to offer then transfer over and enjoy the other side....factors that may influence your decision where to go first, may include Continentals flights from LA and SFO directly into Hilo, and some great advertised rates into Kona on Alaska Air and others...we even heard you can come into Hilo and leave from Kona on United/Continental...!!

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.

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.

According to guests, this machine makes coffee as good as that produced on an espresso machine.

We also have a variety of Soda's (soft drinks) and chilled water in our "Coke Machine".

And we have a large variety of candy, snacks and "emergency" food at our front desk.


Hourly County $1 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 bus which varies in size and color but has KEAUKAHA on the sign board.

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



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