Captain Cook, Hawaii by Honaunau-Napoopoo. Hawaii Route 11, part of the Hawaii Belt Road, passes through the community, leading north to Kailua-Kona and south to Naalehu. Hawaii Route 160 diverges from Route 11 in Captain Cook, leading south by a winding road to Napoopoo on Kealakekua Bay. According to the United States Census Bureau, the Captain Cook CDP has a total area of , all of it land. Most of Captain Cook lies between the and elevation, which makes it ideal as a coffee-growing region. It sits on the top of an ancient fault which created the famous Kealakekua Bay. Prior to the
Captain Cook Hotel became a major node since these were the major routes in and out of the area. The site of the Captain Cook hotel was owned by the Australian Gas Light Company in 1860. A photo dated 1864 by the Freeman Bros shows the site to be vacant and the ground level is somewhat lower than the road indicating some local quarrying. The State Heritage Inventory datasheet notes that there was a small timber cottage on the site in the late 1860s in which a Henry Labat lived in 1868. The buildings were occupied by a Mrs McBride in 1873. This