madamwitty

were actually a little disappointing to me. They were apparently “reconstructed” by some British archaeologist in the 1900s, so a lot of what’s there is really only his interpretation. But it wasn’t built up enough that we could actually go inside any of the impressive buildings.

Definitely take a boat ride out to the volcano hot springs! I did a tour that involved a hike on one of the volcanic islands and then a trip to the hot springs. The hot springs is like a little cove right on the edge of the island; there wasn’t a dock nearby so they stopped offshore and you had to swim about 50 yards into the cove, where the water changed from blue to red (from lots of little iron oxide particles.) Some people dived right off the boat, but I used the ladder they put down into the water. Lots of fun!

First come, first serve, but not crowded at all
Nice and shady
Near a fairly busy highway (a bit noisy, but easy enough to get to)
Close to town
Very close to a 1.5 mile nature hike
Not particularly close to any other trailheads (that I knew of)
Pleasant for a weekend getaway