Where to Stay on the Big Island?

We stayed at this little place, the http://volcanoteapot.com/, near Volcano and it was great; private place, private hot tub, breakfast in the morning, not terribly expensive (and it's in your price range). Not far to the park. I'd go back again in a heartbeat. We also spent a couple days at the Hapuna Beach Prince; it was nice in a big-hotel-on-the-beach sort of way. If you're not staying on the water, ask for a room high in building 4 for the best views.

We used vrbo.com to rent two nice, 2-BR vacation houses (both around $150/night, if memory serves) over the course of our 8 days on the Big Island a couple of years ago -- one just outside Kona and one in Volcano. I would definitely recommend not staying for the duration in Kona; unless you plan on doing water activities every day, it felt like it would be pretty easy to run out of things to do there, and there's definitely a lot of the island you'll want to see without having to make it back to Kona to sleep every night. Have fun! We loved every minute we were there.

When we went to the Big Island in 2009, we got an amazing deal at the Hilton Waikoloa Village through Priceline. It's a gorgeous resort, and we kind of regretted that we really only spent time there to sleep. I think a 9 year old would love it: you take a monorail to your room, there are extensive pools, including a dolphin pool which is awesome (the only dolphins we saw on that trip). Super comfortable beds. We had an in-room fridge and microwave, though not a real kitchen. But good enough to do our own breakfasts and lunches. We had a cheap "garden view", no ocean, but beautiful mountain sunrises. The only downside was that the evening we went to watch the lava flow, it was a looooooong drive back. You pretty much could not be further from the active volcano. A quick search on Priceline shows that it would be under your budget (although I suppose it depends on exactly when you're going). It was $199/night for the random dates I selected.

Nine days is a nice amount of time to enjoy the Big Island. I would suggest going the airbnb or vrbo route for maximum flexibility (and to get a more downhome experience). Given your flight plans, I would consider staying your first few days somewhere on the Kona side, then decamp to Volcano for the middle portion of your trip. Volcano is a really special community in itself, with fun explorations of coooooooool volcanic stuff for the kiddo; it also puts you in easy driving range of Hilo, and the rather intriguing Wild West of Pahoa town, and Kalapana/Kapoho, where you might/might not be able to hike out across lava along the coast to see the lava flow spilling into the ocean (depends on the whims of Madame Pele). You could feasibly then move base to Hilo -- rent a condo down by the sea turtle beach in town; even if it rains, you can still go swim -- and see some waterfalls and maybe the farmer's market. From there, you could head back to Kona side via Saddle Road (a truly world-class drive -- don't be put off by the outdated scare stories; it's been repaved/improved in recent years), and spend your last day or two in Kona, before flying home. I'm on the fence about recommending the observatory expedition. If there's snow (or even if not), it's really cooooool up top, but it will take up a whole day, and if any of you have altitude sickness/driving sickness issues, it could be tricky.

On preview: heck yeah, the Waikoloa is a great kid-friendly venue. Maybe end your trip there for the last few days? It would be kind of the "Disneyland" (in a good way) portion of the trip...might want to save it for the grand finale.

I stayed two nights in Hilo, two nights in Kona, and two nights at the Volcanoes National Park lodge, called the Volcano House. It was a perfectly manageable plan--the Big Island isn't really that big. If I had it to do over again, I would get a rental house in Hilo, or south of Hilo, near the water--the hotel we stayed in there wasn't anything special, though it had a nice view. Kona didn't appeal much to me, but it was near great snorkeling, so, again, I'd probably try to get a vrbo-type place to the south. Now, the Volcano House isn't fancy or nice or special, really, no in-room refrigerator, have to go to the bar to get ice, old and a bit shabby, but http://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/lodging.htm, and it's a great launching point for volcano hikes, which are magical in a way that's hard to describe.

We stayed at these two places in 2009 and loved both: http://mailetreehouse.com/ - near volcanoes, beautiful and large with kitchen http://www.luckyfarm.com/ - in Kona, amazing fruit at arm's reach! even the coffee is grown on premises. We stayed in the coffee barn. Both very affordable especially compared to resort-type places.

We stayed at the Waikoloa Marriott for nine days & had an incredible time. I highly recommend it. I think we got our deal through Priceline or something similar. We loved the Big Island and our resort. I'd rebook it in a heartbeat. We didn't spend all of our time there, but definitely enjoyed our lazy days there.