Snorkeling was my absolute favorite activity during our time in Hawaii. There are so many things to see, so many places to go, and any range of experience is fine! We did all of our snorkeling on Hawai'i Island (Big Island). Despite being strong swimmers, we started at a beginner snorkeling beach to get a feel for it. I'd definitely recommend doing that. We rented our snorkel gear from Snorkel Bob's, and it was pretty reasonable for a day rental. It's great to rent if you want to save room in your bags when you travel, but it would also have been nice to have the snorkel gear whenever we wanted. Luckily for Daylen, Snorkel Bob's had prescription masks so he could see great!
First, we went to Kahaluʻu Beach Park, a great spot for beginners. The snorkeling area is in a cove, and there are volunteers there helping beginner snorkelers, as well as plenty of signs and information. We loved seeing all of the fish there feeding on the algae! It's a great spot with lots of room and it feels very safe and protected. I recommend going here first to learn about snorkel etiquette, see the names for the fish, and get used to snorkeling in the ocean.
Another spot we loved was Two Step Beach near Captain Cook. It was less of a beginner area, and quite a bit deeper than our first spot. There are no volunteers or lifeguards here. I loved seeing the different corals in the reef and lots of cool formations of lava rock. I would love to snorkel here again! It's a perfect spot for snorkeling because there isn't any sand, just lots of reef. You jump right into the ocean from two steps in the lava rock. It was scary at first, but once I jumped in it was so beautiful! We even saw some spinner dolphins in the distance, which is a common sighting at Two Step Beach. I would spend more time at Two Step Beach next time!
Our last day snorkeling spot was Pahoehoe Beach Park, and we had the whole beach and reef to ourselves. There were some cool new fish there that we hadn't seen before! This was by far the most "free" snorkeling we did. We were the only snorkelers at that beach at the time, and it was all open ocean. The current was much stronger than our previous two spots so we had to watch closer to make sure we weren't too far from the beach. I loved all of the rock formations here, and how many fish there were. I would say we saw more fish here than the other two places we snorkeled. I'd go back!
Our most unique snorkeling experience in Hawaii, however, was at night. We booked a Manta Ray Night Snorkeling adventure with Hang Loose Boat Tours in Kona while we were on Big Island. We loved them! We met up at the Honokohau Marina to hop on our boat and were given a wetsuit before we headed out into the ocean. It was sunset, so the ocean was so pretty. We boated over to a spot past the airport where there were a couple of other boats in the water with snorkelers. After we saw a few manta shadows in the water, our captain decided this was the spot! Manta Rays stay near the shore, and don't travel far during their lives, so we just boated a bit up the coast.
We were given some instruction before we hopped in the water. We swam out to some floating platforms with big lights on them in the water. At first it was a little scary to be out in the open ocean in the dark, but as soon as I looked down, I was so excited! They told us to expect about 1-2 mantas on average, but when I looked down I saw that there were 25-30 mantas in the water! Daylen and I swam out to a platform first, and the rest of the family was just behind us. We held on and looked down! It was so cool. There is truly nothing like it, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing the entire time. The Mantas were huge and kept brushing up against us. Truly a once in a lifetime experience.
We loved snorkeling on Big Island! If you get a chance to go snorkel there yourself, I'd love to hear about your favorite spots. We used an underwater camera we got on Amazon for this trip, and it did pretty good. If you buy a cheap underwater camera for snorkeling, just make sure it shoots in 4K and at least 30FPS, 56 MP, and goes deep enough to snorkel.
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