Hilo is home to the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, ʻImiloa Astronomy Center, as well as the Merrie Monarch Festival, a week-long celebration, including three nights of competition, of ancient and modern hula that takes place annually after Easter.

Although archaeological evidence is scant, oral history has many references to people living in Hilo, along the Wailuku and Wailoa rivers during the time of ancient Hawaiʻi.

When William Ellis visited in 1823, the main settlement there was Waiākea on the south shore of Hilo Bay.

Hilo expanded as sugar plantations in the surrounding area created jobs and drew in many workers from Asia.

This tsunami also caused the end of the Hawaii Consolidated Railway, and instead the Hawaiʻi Belt Road was built north of Hilo using some of the old railbed.

[11] On May 22, 1960, another tsunami, caused by a 9.5-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile that day, claimed 61 lives,[12] allegedly due to the failure of people to heed warning sirens.

Low-lying bayfront areas of the city on Waiākea peninsula and along Hilo Bay, previously populated, were rededicated as parks and memorials.

The downtown found a new role in the 1980s as the city's cultural center with several galleries and museums opening; the Palace Theater reopened in 1998 as an arthouse cinema.

Closure of the sugar plantations (including those in Hāmākua) during the 1990s hurt the local economy, coinciding with a general statewide slump.

[16] Hilo has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen: Af), with substantial rainfall throughout the year.

The railway ran northbound to Paʻauilo and southbound to Pāhoa, Glenwood (near Volcano), and Kamaili.

The oldest city in the Hawaiian archipelago, Hilo's economy was historically based on the sugar plantations of its surrounding areas, prior to their closure in the 1990s.

It is home to the Panaʻewa Rainforest Zoo, shopping centers, cafés and other eateries, movie theaters, hotels, restaurants, and a developed downtown area with a Farmers Market.

[32] The Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation is in Hilo, south of the main town off Hawaiʻi Belt Road, north of Keaʻau.

Hilo is home to most of the astronomical observatories on Mauna Kea as well as the ʻImiloa Planetarium and Museum.

[33] Astronomy on Mauna Kea was developed at the invitation of the Hawaiʻi Chamber of Commerce following the collapse of the sugarcane industry.

[38] The District of North Hilo, along Hawaiʻi Belt Road from north to south, encompasses the following unincorporated towns and localities: There are locations inland along Route 200 including Mauna Kea mountain road, Puʻu Huluhulu, and others.