Guide Exploring Waimea, Hawaii | SolarTravels.com

<body> Destination Guides Search for a City Destination Guides > North America > USA > Hawaii > Big Island > Waimea Waimea Travel Options Flights Hotels Vacation Rentals Cars • Waimea • Practicalities • Hotels in Waimea WAIMEA BE THERE NOW Hotels in Waimea • Rq Waimea Plantation Cottages Waimea from $155.00 USD • Rq Waimea Plantation Cottages Waimea from $155.00 USD • Rq Waimea Plantation Cottages Waimea from $155.00 USD More Hotels in Waimea >> READ IT HERE The interior of the Big Island comes as a surprise: pastoral meadows roll over gentle hills where once stood forests of sandalwood. This is cattle-ranching country, most of it - ten percent of the island - owned by the United States's largest private ranch, the Parker Ranch . WAIMEA (also known as Kamuela ) is not the company town it once was - the Parker Ranch now employs just one hundred of its eight thousand inhabitants - but more of a sophisticated country-town resort, which retains traces of its cowboy past. Though you can no longer tour the ranch itself, the ranch has an interesting visitor center (Mon-Sat 9am-5pm; $6) in town; the nearby Kamuela Museum is enjoyably eclectic and eccentric, with an extensive range of ancient Hawaiian artifacts (daily 8am-5pm; $5). </body>