Some come for the incredible views. Others love the peace and privacy. Still others praise the breakfasts, always prepared from scratch with ingredients growing just steps from the kitchen.

Whatever the reason, Holualoa Inn has earned a place among Hawaii’s most memorable escapes.

In the heart of the Kona coffee belt 1,400 feet up the slopes of Mount Hualalai, this elegant bed-and-breakfast is the centerpiece of a living canvas of vivid, fragrant greenery. On its 30 acres are aworking coffee farm and gardens where, it seems, every tropical fruit and flower imaginable flourishes.

Thurston Twigg-Smith, former owner and publisher of the Hono­lulu Advertiser, built the three-story house in 1978 as a vacation retreat for his family and remodeled it in 1987 to accommodate guests. Current owner Cassandra Hazen, who has lived part time on Hawaii island for 15 years, added her touches to the interior design.

Furnishings reflect her appreciation of fine art and rare artifacts. Among pieces collected on frequent travels abroad are her favorites, two 18th-century bronze Buddhas from Myanmar, which flank the entrance to a lovely garden.

Also displayed throughout the inn are works by Hawaii island artists, from pottery and oil paintings to hand-painted gourds and bowls carved from native woods.

The six guest rooms in the main house are decorated in distinctive styles. All have ceiling fans, eucalyptus floors, original art, fresh flower arrangements and fabulous ocean and/or garden views.

A separate one-bedroom cottage features a wraparound lanai, dressing room, living/dining room and fully equipped kitchen. It’s named after the late Darrell Hill, a renowned artist who lived, taught and painted some of his best works there over the course of more than 20 years.

At Holualoa Inn, days begin with breakfasts befitting a splash in Bon Appetit. Crystal Butori, the lead breakfast innkeeper, plans the menus around what’s ready to be harvested from the inn’s nursery and orchards. As a girl she spent a lot of time in the kitchen with her great-grandmother, and that interest grew when she worked several summers at James Beard’s cooking school in Seaside, Ore.

Breakfasts always include a fruit plate. One morning the seasonal selection might be banana, mango, rambutan, papaya, pineapple and lilikoi (passion fruit).

Entrees alternate between sweet and savory. The Queen’s Heirloom Breakfast is indeed fit for royalty. Sliced heirloom tomatoes with a tomatillo drizzle are topped with spinach, a poached egg and herbal creme fraiche sauce and garnished with basil and toasted macadamia nuts. Bacon-wrapped figs complete the dish, which is almost too pretty to eat.

Eggs come from the resident hens; the figs, basil, spinach, tomatillos and tomatoes, from the inn’s gardens; fresh-squeezed lilikoi-guava juice and coffee brewed with beans picked from the 5,100 trees growing on site.

A snack of iced tea, cookies, muffins, mixed nuts, cinnamon rolls and banana chips is served in the late afternoon. Before heading to dinner, guests can listen to jazz, oldies, Latin, contemporary and Sinatra hits on the player piano in the Great Room. Or they can relax by the pool, in the hot tub, at the rooftop gazebo or on the Makai Lanai, which all overlook a panorama encompassing 16 spectacular miles of the Kona Coast.

Offering books, games, puzzles, a TV and DVD movies, the poolside Ohana Room is another great place to unwind. Those wanting to barbecue supper on the gas grill will find everything from fridge to foil to forks in the room’s kitchenette.

Many guests spend the waning hours of daylight in the gardens, which meander over the natural contours of the land. Bordered by thickets, gravel paths wind up slopes; a few end in secluded nooks with stone benches.

Sit. Breathe deeply. Clear your mind. Tension from everyday life will melt away there in the gentle embrace of nature.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.