The experience begins at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden—located just north of Hilo on the Big Island's Hamakua Coast—on a 500-foot long boardwalk that descends along a streamside Eden. Though not huge by Hawaiian standards—about 40 acres that front two coves on a rugged coast—the gardens offer dozens of wandering paths that are punctuated with ideally situated benches. The longer you sit, the more you see, as layers of the tropical profusion emerge and envelop. The seeming chaos of greenery reveals itself, the master plan of dedicated botanists and gardeners who have tended thousands of plants, trees, and flowers for more than 3 decades at the nonprofit garden.
