Girls Who Went to Hawaii

Did you take any sort of day trip to the big island to do a volcano tour? Was it worth it? Was the smell completely unbearable (I hear its a very strong sulfur smell)? Did you actually see lava flows?
Please let me know as I'm trying to decide if this is worth the $300-450 per person it seems to cost...

DH and I were going to do it on our first trip over there but after doing some research on it, most of the day trips over there are fly over to the island and then take a bus tour.

I've been to the Big Island before and really the best way to see the volcanoes is by air. The bus trip didn't do it for us so we decided not to do it.

I remember the smell of sulphur being strong but not so much that it makes you sick - although if you have a sulfur allergy, you may want to be careful.

Our next trip over (hopefully 2011) the plan is to hit the big island for a few days (DH has never been).