Big Island nightlife, like everything else, divides into Hilo and the Kona-Kailua side.  Hilo's not lively after dark; cynics might say "no alive." -- Sorry Hilo tourism!  While some restaurants offer bland Hawaiian or instrumental music, at least on Friday or Saturday nights, Billy's Hilo Bay Hotel, like Billy's Kona Bay Hotel on the Kona side, has wonderful hula each and every night on Hotel Row on Banyon Drive where you can simply walk from hotel lounge to hotel lounge and perch were the music suits. The Naniloa's Sandalwood Room Bar runs to soft to medium rock with locals, jazz rules the Keauhoa Beach and there's other options too.

If you want action, the best nightlife in Hilo is doubtless during the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival the weekend after Easter if you can get reservations a year or so ahead.

The bar at the Volcano House is the Mason/Dixon line of Big Island entertainment and the best show is doubtless watching the sun set over the Kilauea Caldera

On the Kona side, nightlife seems marginally better, but hardly "woopie." The younger set head for the Merry Wahine, and the location above the Big Island Steak House reflects it's top-40 DJ ambiance in the King's Shops.

"Da kine" Huggo's has offered up a mix of jazz, romantic Hawaiian music and, sad to say, Karakoe for years. Call 808-329-1493 to avoid the last.  Honu bar at the Mauna Lani Hotel up the Kolala Coast runs to laid-back jazz and suits an older, more conservative crowd with drinks by the pool and other mature attractions.

Given the open bar, and the cost of Mai Tai's in Kialua-Kona, serious drinkers who neither get seasick, nor mind middling music and food can sail out on Captain Beans' Polynesian Cruise that leaves around in five in the evening and drink until it's time to stagger of the ship.