Looking for local's take on quiet, peaceful places to live

[Farmer Larry]

I have spent around 5 or 6 months total time on about 14 or 15 trips over the last 30 years and have wanted to live there since the first time visiting. I believe you are grossly underestimating how expensive and difficult it is to scratch out a living no matter how adaptable and friendly you are. My best guess is a 50K income will allow you to barely exist if living alone, not having a car will be a huge problem.


I would not even consider moving there without a HIGHLY needed skill that pays well or a cool half million bucks in the bank. That much cash with my current pension would get me by for 15 or 20 years if I was lucky. Without some serious cash flow you will never be able to afford a quiet life, most low priced housing is like living in a zoo without cages, crime and drugs all around you.


And the thing that scares me the most is getting decent medical care without having to fly to Oahu or to the mainland for serious problems.


A million thank yous to all the locals who constantly try to inform all the dreamers who have no idea how difficult it is to live in the islands. You will never know how many tragic stories you have prevented.

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by ahab2631

<SNIP>Trouble is, I don't know where to actually LOOK. I don't just want to to move from the suburbs here on the mainland to the suburbs in Hawaii. I need some peace and calm and quiet. A steady pace, if that makes sense.

So here I am, asking for some help from natives and locals, hoping I seem like the kind of person who might seem worthy enough of your home state that you'd be willing to give me some insider information.
<SNIP>

Well, all other things aside, back to more or less the main question.

For the Island of Hawaii aka the 'Big Island', there aren't any cities, so no worries about which city to live in. There's two towns, Hilo and Kailua-Kona. Hilo is more compact and local, folks just living their lives. The U of H Hilo is based there so there's some college presence. Things are rainy, slow and about as close to 'old Hawaii' as you'll find anymore. The 'suburbs' of Hilo would be Hawaiian Paradise Park (aka HPP), Orchidland, Ainaloa, etc. Most of the folks who live in those areas go to Hilo for supplies and employment. There's only one road into Hilo from them and that road can get pretty busy at times. Not as bad as Kona side, but it's getting traffic.

Kona side is more touristy and has a lot of folks 'Living in Paradise'. It's also spread out and not really anywhere you'd be able to do well without a car or directly on a bus line, but check the bus route timing to see if there'd be enough buses. Rents are even more expensive there, so most likely there wouldn't be anything in your price bracket, even if you could find one that fit the rest of the criteria.

Not a lot of public transportation, so you might rely on neighbors to get supplies or rides to where ever. But that's pretty much the whole island. Without a car, it might be best to check the bus routes and look for rentals in that area. There's not that many rentals in your price bracket that you'd not be able to compare them with a bus map.

I'm not sure if we have anything like the mainland suburbs here. Maybe HPP? Or Pacific Palisades on the Kona side? We have quite a few large tracts of nothing but houses, those wouldn't do very well for someone who has no car. They call those 'sub-divisions' generally, although they generally lack things like mail service, water, sometimes pavement, etc. None of them have any sort of retail sales, so no groceries, hardware stores, etc.

As far as peaceful small towns, maybe Honomu, although I don't think there is a grocery store there. Pahoa occasionally gets lava near to it, so that's not peaceful although it may be within your price bracket. They may not be approved for Section 8, though. Pahala may have a grocery store, but it's so far from everywhere else that going to town (i.e. Hilo or Kailua-Kona) would be an all day bus trip, if you could find a bus route that would let you come back the same day. Same with Hawi at the other end of the island. Honokaa would be a nice peaceful small town, but I doubt you'd be able to find a rental at your price point. There is some low income/senior housing in the middle of town, but that's got a multiple year waiting list, I think.

Hmm, you may be able to do your search by pin pointing the grocery stores on the island and checking for rentals within walking distance of those. Many areas, if not most areas, on the island are served by P.O. Box addresses, so having food delivery by mail doesn't work unless you pick it up at the post office. Guess if that was going to be a method of acquiring supplies, then pin pointing the post offices and looking for rentals near them might be an option. Check the price of UPS and FedEx before considering them for food delivery, although I think Amazon Prime will deliver with the delivery fees paid. Although, sometimes they won't deliver to Hawaii, so that may not be a viable supply option, either.

FWIW, I don't think you'd be able to find what you want without being here in person and having the landlord make a situation to fit you. There's all sorts of housing arrangements made, but the sweetheart deals are made between people who know each other or have at least met each other. Housing is so tight that sweet deals just don't show up unless folks are known to each other.