Six days on Oahu, then what? The answer is a boat.
Which Molokini crossing still goes when the wind comes up. What a Na Pali flight costs against the raft. Whether the Hana road is worth losing a whole day to. Reviews of every tour you can book across the islands.
A turtle reef, a crater rim at dawn, and the crossing to Molokini.
Four bookings a first Hawaii trip is usually built around. What each costs, and what the people who went say about it.
01The first full dayOahu Circle Island Tour with Turtle Snorkeling— Small-GroupsOne loop of Oahu with a swim over the turtle reef built in. Sit on the ocean side of the bus going north.
02The Maui crossingMaui Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini and Turtle TownOut of Maalaea before the trade wind gets up, into the crater, then Turtle Town on the way back.
03After dark in KonaBig Island Manta Ray Night SnorkelLights down on the sand, plankton up, and the mantas come in underneath you. Nothing else in the islands is like it.
04The Kauai hourKauai Eco Adventure Helicopter TourDoors off over Waimea Canyon and the Na Pali cliffs. Two thirds of that island has no road at all.
Mask, or deck, or both. That is most of a Hawaii itinerary.
The reef is warm all year and the boat leaves early, because the trade wind builds after ten. Four kinds of water day, what each one costs to board, and which island it belongs to.
Oahu holds the airport, the memorial and the best beginner reef.
Everything on Oahu →
Most trips land at Honolulu and never leave the island, which is fine. One road circles the whole thing in a day, Pearl Harbor takes a morning, and the water off Waikiki is calm enough to learn in.
One loop, north shore and windward coast
Up the windward side past Kualoa, over to Haleiwa for shave ice, back down the middle. A long day, and the only way to see the parts of Oahu that are not Waikiki without a hire car.
Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial
The memorial launch runs on timed tickets and the free ones are gone weeks out. A tour that holds a slot for you is usually the difference between going and standing on the shore.
Turtle Canyon, twenty minutes off Waikiki
A shallow cleaning station where the honu come in to be picked over by tangs. Flat enough for a first mask, close enough that you are back on the beach by lunch.
The most booked days out in the islands.
Every Hawaii review →More travellers take these than anything else across the four islands, and what earns each one the slot.
1
Oahu Grand Circle Island and Haleiwa Tour: 9-Hr Deluxe Experience
This nine-hour Oahu circle tour pairs famous viewpoints with short stops at Halona Blowhole, Nuʻuanu Pali, Byodo-In Temple, Tropical Farms, Haleiwa, and Dole Plantation. Guides such as Marlon, Lola, Tony, and Lulu share Hawaiian history, language, and local tips. Pickup is offered at selected Honolulu hotels, with lunch time in Haleiwa.
From · $140
Read our review →
2
Grand Tour Around Island 16 Locations plus Snorkeling
from $109
3
Parasailing Experience in Waikiki, HI
from $44
4
Salute to Pearl Harbor Including USS Arizona
from $59
5
Majestic Circle Island Tour with Lunch
from $181
6
Koloa Zipline in Kauai
from $169
7
Big Island in a Day: Volcanoes Waterfalls Sightseeing and History
from $264
8
Big Island Manta Ray Night Snorkel
from $84
Maui asks for two early starts and gives back the best of both.
The crater rim at sunrise and the Molokini crossing both leave in the dark, and both are worth it. Between December and April the humpbacks fill the channel, close enough that boats have to cut the engines and wait.
Every Maui day out →
What a day out in Hawaii actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Hawaii is not a cheap place to play, but a good share of the best water here still comes in under a hundred dollars.
Beach lessons, trolley passes, memorial entries and the short reef hops off Waikiki.
The standards: Molokini and back, the Hana road, a circle-island day, the manta night swim.
Doors-off flights, private charters and the once-a-trip splurges that earn it.
The Big Island is still being built, and you can go and watch.
Black sand that was lava last decade, a summit at fourteen thousand feet where the telescopes live, and a bay south of Kona where the mantas come in every night of the year. Bring a fleece. Nowhere else in the islands gets cold.
- 1Big Island in a Day: Volcanoes Waterfalls Sightseeing and Historyfrom $264
- 2Big Island Manta Ray Night Snorkelfrom $84
- 3Kona Manta Ray Snorkel Tour in Keauhou Harborfrom $25
Kauai keeps its best coast behind a wall, on purpose.
No road reaches the Na Pali cliffs. You get there by raft out of Hanalei, by catamaran up from Port Allen, or through the door of a helicopter, and the fifteen miles between the last two roads is the reason people come back.
The volcano road, the crater rim and everything with a rotor.
Half of what makes these islands strange is inland or overhead: lava fields still steaming, a canyon Mark Twain oversold and nobody minded, waterfalls you only meet from a hover.
Three things that happen in Hawaii and nowhere else.
Warm reefs and good sunsets are everywhere in the tropics. A nightly gathering of eight-foot rays, a summit road above the weather and a cliff coast with no road at all are not.
The Manta Ray Night Swim
Boats anchor off Keauhou and Garden Eel Cove, drop lights into the water and wait. The lights pull plankton, the plankton pull mantas, and the animals come up underneath the floats and barrel-roll through the cloud a foot below your mask. They are wild, unfed and back most nights of the year, which is why the operators can sell a re-ride if nothing shows.
- 1Big Island Manta Ray Night Snorkel★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 5,656 reviews
- 2Kona Manta Ray Snorkel Tour in Keauhou Harbor★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,465 reviews
- 3KONA Manta Ray Night Snorkel – FREE re-ride if no Sightings★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,212 reviews
The Na Pali Coast
Fifteen miles of fluted cliff between Kee Beach and Polihale, cut so steeply that the trail gives up after eleven. Rafts run out of Hanalei in summer when the north swell drops, catamarans come up the drier west side most of the year, and helicopters go whenever the cloud lifts off Waialeale behind it.
- 1Kauai Airplane Tour: Na Pali Coast, Waterfalls & Window Seats★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,964 reviews
- 2Na Pali Coast Half-Day Raft and Snorkel Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,609 reviews
- 3Na Pali Coast Super Raft Snorkel Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,530 reviews
Sunrise on Haleakala
The summit road climbs ten thousand feet in thirty-eight miles, which is the steepest paved ascent anywhere, and it puts you above the cloud layer in the dark. The park caps sunrise entry with a reservation released sixty days out; tour operators hold their own permits, which is the usual reason people book one rather than drive.
- 1Haleakala Sunrise Spectacular with Local Breakfast★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,155 reviews
- 2Haleakala 6 Line Zipline Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 913 reviews
- 3Haleakala Sunrise Best Self-Guided Bike Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 745 reviews
Four island bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of a Hawaii trip can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on permits, reservation windows and a whale calendar that takes no interest in when you land.
- 01Haleakala Sunrise Spectacular with Local BreakfastThe park caps sunrise entry and releases reservations sixty days ahead. Operators hold permits; walk-ups do not exist.
- 02Pearl Harbor USS Arizona MemorialThe memorial runs on timed launch tickets with a hard daily cap, and the free allocation is taken weeks out.
- 03Big Island Manta Ray Night SnorkelOne bay, a handful of permitted boats and a single slot each evening. High season sells the whole week out.
- 04Maui Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini and Turtle TownThe crater is a marine reserve with a capped mooring list, and the calm window is the first crossing of the morning.
North shore winter, and the mornings a boat will not sail.
From November the north swell arrives and the windward reefs that were glass in July turn unswimmable. The trade wind does the same thing to the afternoons all year round. Both have one answer: book the water early, and keep the inland half of the island for the day it closes.
- 1Oahu’s Ultimate Tour: Dole, Turtle Snorkel, Pali Lookout & Morefrom $108
- 2Paradise Cove Luaufrom $150
- 3Toa Luau at Waimea Valley, Oahufrom $133
By island, and the coasts inside them
Oahu then Maui: the run almost everybody does first.
Maui
Molokini
The Hana RoadThe newest island tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Kona: Big Island Morning Snorkeling Tour with Lunch
Read our review →
Kona: Hualalai Volcano Doors On/Off Helicopter Tour
Read our review →
Big Island Hawaii: Craft Chocolate Tasting and Farm Tour
Read our review →
Big Island Hawaii Volcano Day tour from Oahu and Hotel PU
Read our review →
Full Day Adventure Tour of the Kohala Waterfalls
Read our review →
Full-Day Kohala Zipline and Waterfall Adventure
Read our review →
Kona: Captain Cook Reef Catamaran Day Trip with Lunch
Read our review →
Waikoloa Catamaran Snorkel & Sail Adventure with Lunch
Read our review →
