Best Hawaiian Island/Marriott Property for Diving???

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

I've been living in a Marriott for 5 weeks (among other recent stays) and I will have a good amount of points and free night certificates to use. Since I've never been to Hawaii (husband has) I think I want to use them there. Does anyone have any opininons on which islands have decent diving, which are then nicest Hawaiian Marriott Properties and which are the most convienent to diving? I realize there are probably going to be some tradeoffs to this question. Our last two trips were liveaboards and we like to do 4 dives a day but I will most likely only want to do 2 a/day since there is so much other things to do/see there. Would love to do a pelagic dive. Not sure on time of year or length of stay yet. Any steering in one direction would be great!

 

[DiveMaven]

Check out the Marriott in Wailea on Maui. Good shore diving, easy access to the Kihei boat ramp, and you can boat dive 4 different islands. If you want to do the Manta dive and have good shore diving, there are 2 Marriotts on the Big Island. Not sure which one is better though.

 

[diversteve]

The Marriott on Kauai is in Lihue. I've never been there - drove past a couple times - but the beach in that area is often rocky - more of a sunning beach than for swimming. One of the other resorts nearby has a sandy beach pool because of it. There's only one shore dive near there - Ahukini Landing. Don't touch the unexploded ordinance.

The better diving is off the Poipu area - 15-20 mins. south. It's likely why both Seasport and Fathom Five are based there - also 5mins. to the boat harbor. The signature boat dive - Sheraton Caverns - is just offshore there. And Koloa Landing, the better shore dive - is nearby also. There's big turtles living at Sheraton Caverns but we didn't see a lot of sharks - just a couple at Fast Lanes.

The Marriott in Waikoloa (Big Island) is about 20miles north of Kailua/Kona. Most of the shore diving is south of Kona - although there are a couple of sites north of Waikoloa. A lot of that coastline - except for the beaches - is jagged lava so entries are difficult. Almost all the boat operators leave from Honokohau (sp) harbor - just north of Kona. So you'd have to drive down daily - not far but it gets old.

For big pelagic diving almost nothing beats the Manta Night Dive. Pelagic Magic might be another obvious choice. Jacks Diving Locker has a video on their website about it. My buddy was there last year and in addition to diving with 12 Mantas, they twice dove with big pods of Spinner Dolphins south of Kona at two boat dive locations - once they estimated over 100.

I did find an operator who keeps a boat just north of Waikoloa once on google.

IDK where the other Marriott is either but if it's south of Kailua/Kona - likely near Keahoeu (sp) - that would be closer for most shore diving. There's about 5-6 nearby sites plus Place of Refuge a short drive south. There's one big hotel in that area (maybe it?) where they turn on the over water lights at night to bring the Manta's in for viewing. But the dive is done elsewhere. And I think the entry there is too rough over the lava to get out to it - at least from what I've read.

The most accessible diving is from Wailea on Maui. There's also more sandy beach entries nearby - Kona often tends to be lava up to the waterline. The other thing about Maui is that all the diving is compressed along the west coast - within an hour drive you're all the way up to Honolua - about the farthest north site. Wailea has several good shore sites. The Marriott is between two - Ulua Beach and Wailea Beach. Makena Landing/5 Graves is a few mins. drive south. There's others also.

The Marriott in Honolulu is one of the 20-30? towering hotels next to each other on Waikiki Beach. Diving is elsewhere on the island except for one dive at the end of Ala Moana park. We went to the Waikiki Aquarium instead - it's small. If you're ever in the area, the most amazing thing is how so many people fit on Waikiki Beach.

Shore dive options on all the islands: Scuba Shore Diving Region: Hawaiian Islands

 

[Tunaman68]

diversteve had really good info.....

There is also the Marriott in Maui up on Kaanapali beach. They have several properties in the area, but I believe that some are time share only. Don't know if you can use your points to stay there. The 'original' Marriott on Kaanapali has an OK dive out in front, Black Rock just to the north (nice dive and great night dive), and then Old Airport beach on the other side of Black Rock (this is where the Marriott Villas are located). The beach from the Marriott up to the Sheraton at Black Rock is AMAZING, and the choice of food at the hotels, Whaler's Village, and then 10 minutes away in Lahaina is hard to beat! Also there are several more dive sites to the north including Slaughterhouse and Honolua Bay, and Olawalu a few miles to the south. You can go out to Lanai (I think really great diving esp the Cathedrals) and Molokai (long boat ride, but chance of seeing hammerheads) with Lahaina divers. They have large comfy boats with heads and warm showers, but break the divers into smaller groups to have less of a 'cattle boat' feel. I really enjoyed the shore diving down at Makena, and 5 caves as well, and we always take a day to leave from Kihei to go out to Molokini for a crater dive/back wall. It's about a 45 minute drive and there are also some great beaches and food down between Kihei and Wailea to spend your after dive time. As a family we prefer staying in the Kaanapali area - it just vibes us better than Wailea. Many will disagree.

We were at the Marriott Waikoloa last year and the property was very nice and there was some really great shore diving up the road in Puako. As has been stated, the drive down to the harbor for boat diving as well as to go to Kona town for food and activities got really old really fast. There just isn't much up in the Waikoloa area to keep you busy unless you're content to lay by the pool and eat at the few places either on property or at the shopping center nearby. The Kona diving is great and the manta dive is off the chart, but the Marriott's location in Waikoloa wasn't anything we'd return to.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

There is also a Marriott on Maui at Kaanapali. There or Wailea are both in the middle of a lot of great shore diving, and each has dive boat take off locations within a few minutes drive.
DivemasterDennis

 

[freewillie]

I've had the pleasure of diving both Maui and Kona.

My preference is Kona, the Manta Ray night dive is just spectacular. They day dives on Kona were loaded with small nubranchs, the usual endemic fish, tons of eels in the crevasses, as well as larger pelagics like spotted eagle rays. In Kona we dove with Kona Dive Company and they were great. The Marriott Waikoloa is a bit of a drive but not too bad. In the grand scheme it took me about 20 minutes to drive from south of Kona from Keahou bay to the harbor anyways. Once we checked in with the dive company and signed our paperwork we just had to meet them at the dock.

We did have some great dives in Maui as well. One day was done at Molokini crater. That was a really fun dive with different things to see. I wasn't as impressed with a shore dive near Ka'anapali. The night dive was the highlight dive. We went with Lahaina Divers. They also were very good and I would recommend them as well. Their night dive was at the Mala Pier right in Lahaina. I absolutely love night dives and their was so much to see on the sunken pier. From the Marriott at Ka'anapali its only 15-20 minutes to Lahaina and Lahaina divers, but closer to 30 minutes driving if going out of Kihei.

In any event, you couldn't go wrong. If you have never been to any of the Hawaiian Islands I would recommend Maui. I like the mix of small town feel and hotels. There are plenty of restaurants and shopping areas that are close and nearby all the hotels. Kona was similar as well, but if you're farther north at the Marriott Waikoloa there are two shopping centers there but not much else unless you like golf.

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

Thanks for all the great info! I think I'm leaning towards Maui - sounds like a good combination of land activities/diving and less city.

 

[lonebrave]

Not sure about Marriott options, but there are a lot of diving options on Oahu, along with a recently started Palagic night dive by Kaimana Divers (Scuba Diving in Hawaii with Kaimana Divers | Dive Oahu with the pros). I haven't done that dive with them, but Gabe (scottitheduck on scubaboard) and his crew are great, fun, professional folks.

 

[diversteve]

Of the two, Wailea is going to be less "city". While The Shops at Wailea are near the Marriott - in that area it's just a couple of big resorts, three golf courses and some low rise condos. We stay in condos nearby - at night it's pretty quiet. Most of the Molokini boats leave from the Kihei boat ramp 5mins. north of there.

Ka'anapali has many more of the bigger hotels, condo towers, more shopping etc. It can actually get congested between there and the airport at times. When we have stayed in that area we like it better up near Kapalua. Of course there's no Marriott there afaik.

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

Need to resurrect this thread since I'm looking to finally book my first trip to Maui for June. I have 5 Free nights at a Marriott but only Category 4 so I HAVE to stay at the Courtyard near the airport. That being said, who should I dive with and how feasible/easy of a drive will it be to get to the dive boat considering we aren't staying in maybe the best location for them? Guessing we are going to be hopping on a highway?

I would love to do a Manta Dive if they have one. I've also seen people talking about Molokini Crater and it looks interesting, is it worth it? Any other great dive spots not to miss? I'm in severe dive withdrawal, it has been awhile and Hawaii has always seemed kinda overwhelming to me for some reason. Any great tips for things to see on land and great restaurants? I pretty much need someone to just plan my trip for me!

I guess I could also go to Kona and stay at the Courtyard there too. I want to dive but also see land attractions so not sure which one is best?