Leave a Review Big Island Revealed Drive Tour
Love! But- some recommendations for the develops
Our family of four had a full day tour scheduled with one of the lux tour companies and one member of our party wasn’t feeling well that day. We didn’t want to be tied to being stuck on the tour van for 11 hours just incase we wanted to go back to the hotel. We ended up canceling our tour and used this app to hit up select parts lux tour (coffee farm, bake shop, black sand beach, volcano natl park) itinerary and ended up having an amazing day together. We saved $1200, made memories as a family, and learned all about the Big Island from the great commentary on the driving tour. Highly recommend!!!!
With that being said, there are a couple of shortcomings of the app:
- the audio guides only auto play if you’re driving the correct direction on their suggested route. If you’re doing parts of the route backwards, they won’t auto play and the commentary might be backwards. (ie- telling you that something is “coming up”, when in fact you’ve already passed it.) I wish there were two versions of the audio blips depending on which way you’re traveling. (This came into play when we drove saddle road back to our hotel near Hapuna from Volcano NP. It’s a dark, winding, boring road, and having the audio guide auto play with relevant facts would have been awesome for this particular stretch.)
- you should have an idea about where you want to drive and your itinerary for the day before starting. There is no option to click off what points of interest you want to see and then it makes a route for you. You need to know your route, plug it in in Google Maps/Waze, and then have that running concurrently with this app in order to get the commentary.
All in all, thank you to the author of Hawaii Revealed and his team for making an awesome travel tool! Highly worth the $12.99 price. Mahalo :) We are headed to Maui for our next stop and will def check out that guide as well.Show lessRachelmle
Loved it!
We just had a few car audio issues but worked through them. So happy to have the app and good, interesting narration. A few more restaurant recommendations along the way would be great!jpatter50n
Totally worth it
We have been fans of the revealed book series so when I saw they had an app I bought it thinking it was the book in an app form. (My bad as I should have read the description). Once I realized what it was I wasn’t planning on using the app, but on our first drive from the hotel to Kona turned it on. We were completely blown away by the detailed information and the narration style. We used on every drive, every day on the island. Even the kids loved it. Totally worth the money spent.
One suggestion I would have is to make the points bidirectional, the first time we drove on the saddle road was from Hilo to Kohala and didn’t get to hear about the road till we did the reverse the next day.Show lessyumdee
Developer Response
Aloha, Firstly, mahalo for being a longtime fan of ours. We are so glad you mistakenly bought the Driving Tour app and found it fun and useful! Andrew was your narrator, so you probably feel like his best friend now. He really is that great of a guy! We have talked about bi-directional points before. Andrew's point was the island is so big that it may get boring. We do have a section in "Help" on the app that tells you the optimal ways to drive on that island for our app. We will bring it up to him again though for Big Island cause it is sooooooo big. He likes to have different info in each direction when possible, so it may cause some cut off records technically, but we will bring it up again. Mahalo for your 5 star review and great comments. Hope you return soon. A Hui HoMust have for the island
This island is huge and has so many hidden gems. No need to sit and stay put at a resort when this island has so much history and beauty to explore. We own the physical book, but this app makes it enjoyable to drive and not miss out on hidden gems. One downside was when we were heading from Hilo to Kona via the south route the cues were after the location. No issues at all on the Hilo side. Great way to explore Volcano National Park!!Show lessMrs Gibson
Developer Response
Aloha Mrs. Gibson, Mahalo for your kind review and being a loyal fan! When you see our recommended tour directions in the app's Help section (under Where To Start) for driving between Hilo and Kona they are over the top of the island. This is why your triggers were going off after the sites. You drove the opposite way of what we suggest. Most people won't make the trip twice, so we put all the site triggers in the optimum direction for what we felt was the best way to drive that stretch of the island. We hope you return soon. Aloha.Great app
We just came back from our first trip to Hawaii- a 10 day trip to the Big Island. Several months before our trip I bought the book Big Island Revealed and studied it as my official bible of what to do and where to go. I also downloaded the app a few days before we left. It was an amazing compliment to the book. We turned on our friend every time we got in the car. It was like having our own personal tour guide with us at all times. Using the app totally enhanced our travels around the island and allowed us to make good decisions about timing and where we wanted to go. I would definitely recommend the app to anyone traveling to any part of Hawaii.
Thank you!Show lessloved Hawaii
Developer Response
Aloha and mahalo for your 5 star review. We are so glad you enjoyed our book and this app. Andrew had so much joy narrating this app as your personal tour guide. It sounds like you could tell his love of the islands using it. Hope you return soon. A Hui hoExcellent
We used this app for our recent trip to the big island. Absolutely loved it! We loved the cultural stories, the gps tracking and timely and accurate directions of where and when to turn. We’ll worth it!Denise Mumm
Fantastic guide
Entertaining, informative and critical for first timers. Having the book and the app covered all of the bases! It was great having the history and local intelligence about where to eat and hidden gems! We were able to find many great sites and also appreciated the restaurant and beach guide in the book!Show lesspb2d
Don’t leave home without this app!!
Absolutely extraordinary!! Years ago “Maui Revealed” was our “bible.”
This new book/app takes it to the next level! Turned it on everywhere we went on the Big Island - and we went EVERYWHERE just about.
With this app you literally have the most knowledgeable “tour guide” sitting in your back seat!!
Seriously, don’t you DARE leave home and visit Hawaii without this app!
10 out of 5 stars for this one!!Show lessAre You Serious 101
Developer Response
Aloha and Mahalo for the 10 star review :) ! We are so glad you enjoyed having Andrew in your backseat for your tour around Big Island. We appreciate the love and hope you return soon to Hawaii. A hui hoA new must have for all our trips to Hawaii
I’ve loved the guidebooks for years now and on a recent trip to the Big island bought into this driving app. It was indispensable! GPS tracking/timing of the app is perfect. The whole thing is entertaining and kept us smiling the whole drive. Almost all of the content is replicated in the book but it was still worth it because it’s hard to keep us reading the book while being a passenger.Show lessBig Island Anon
Developer Response
Aloha and mahalo! We are so happy that we kept you smiling while driving around the Big Island (cause that is a LOT of driving)... mahalo for being loyal fans of our products. A hui hoMade our Hawaiian vacation so much better
This app is amazing. What a great idea and solid implementation. We have purchased the Revealed guidebooks for every one of our previous trips to the islands. This was our first visit since the drive apps came out and it was a no-brainer for us to purchase.
The very first night - we landed at around sunset and had to drive from Kona all the way to our B&B in Hilo. “Andy”, as my wife and I affectionately nicknamed him, kept me awake and engaged the whole drive with his anecdotes and tidbits. After that we were hooked and turned on the app every time we got in the Jeep. We especially loved the gimmick that Andy was in our backseat, just pointing stuff out as we drove along.
This app is PACKED. There was way more than we could possibly have seen and done on our 10-day stay. Everything we DID stop for was great - and enhanced by the commentary or tips Andy had given before we got there.
Andy - we wish we could buy you that Mai Tai for being such a great guide - hopefully this review is a decent substitute. Thanks for a great trip!Show lessGunnerJr
Developer Response
Aloha and mahalo for your super kind review of our products and app. Andy said, "when are you coming back for that mai tai?" He (and we) are so glad you had such a great trip! Mahalo for being loyal fans. A hui ho
