There are plenty of memorable things you can do on the Big Island, but floating in the Pacific after dark while enormous manta rays glide just inches beneath you is in a category all its own. At first, it can sound a little intimidating. You are getting into the ocean at night, after all. Then…

Picture the sun rising over the clear Pacific Ocean, the pleasant trade breezes brushing against your skin, and then—out of nowhere—a huge humpback whale jumps out of the water just a few yards from the coast, its strong fluke sending water cascading down as it goes back to the deep. Whale watching on the Big…