Big Island help

[TSandM]

I've done a search and come up with a lot of good information about dive ops, but I have a slightly different question.

Next January, we'll be celebrating my husband's birthday on the Big Island. It will be a fairly good-sized group -- 12 to 15 people or more. Some are divers, and some are not. Budgets also differ. We need to figure out where to stay. What I'd ideally like is to find a resort or development where some people could stay in a hotel, some in condos, and perhaps the diving group could rent a house (or large condo with space to wash and hang gear!) I've seen some lovely rental houses but have no idea whether they're anywhere near other accomodations, and of course, I have no idea where anything is with respect to pickup sites for dive ops, etc.

Any advice?

 

[ae3753]

We spent a week in Kona last summer, and stayed south of Kailua-Kona in Keauhou. Kailou-Kona is where the majority of dive shops are located, and boats depart from a harbor north of town.

For shore diving location, Shore Diving.com is a nice resource: http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/Hawaii/TBI/index.htm

We tried a few shops, and found Jack's Diving Locker efficient and easy to deal with regarding tank rentals for shore diving. In addition, they have a lot of DM made maps of local dive sites:
http://www.jacksdivinglocker.com/welcome.htm

For boat dives, we dove with Dive Tek, and had a great time. We travelled with a large group of divers and some dove with the DM for all their dives, while went off exploring on our own.
http://www.konadivingadventures.com/

 

[Kevrumbo]

Great book Big Island Revealed ; I stayed at the Kona Seaside Hotel, which was a good value and within walking distance to many good eateries in town (but very noisy from the surrounding car traffic!). Study the Wizard Pub website above Lynne, and wherever you decide to stay, try and make it so you have an easy early morning commute to Honokohau Harbor to meet up with Keith Keizer and the Diveboat Kahanuola of Divetek Hawaii (same as Kona Diving Adventures --best to arrange charters with Keith directly by phone instead of email). . .

 

[slingshot]

The Kona coast has one main harbor where most scuba charter boats depart, at Honokohau. This is about 20 miles south of the big Kohala resorts (pricey but very nice) and just south of the Kona airport. The harbor is north of Kailua by a couple miles or so. Keep in mind that the traffic on Queen K (main highway) can be quite heavy in the Kailua vicinity, so you have to take the travel time into account when heading out for a boat charter. I did charters with Wanna Dive, Kona Honu, and Dive Tek all in the past week (just got back), all left from Honokohau, with start times for morning charters typically between 7:30 and 9 a.m. If going in January, plan on cooler water temps, we got 73-75 last week, and I could really feel the chill in my old 3mm suit after some of the longer 70-80 minute dives, even though used to diving here in California.

 

[HarveyO]

I second both the Kona Seaside hotel and most definitely DiveTek Hawaii. I stayed and dove with them in October and had a great experience with both.

 

[Teamcasa]

I asked this in the Trips forum and got no response.

Does anybody have any info on these condos?

www.KonaAWESOMEcondo.com

Maybe planing a trip in early June

Dave

 

[tedj01]

Look at this site! Has tons of BI info. http://www.konaweb.com/

Look on bottom of page for B&B's, vacation rental, and real estate.

Look through the forums and can also ask ?'s there.

 

[Kevrumbo]

I would also recommend finishing your full Trimix rating with Keith Keizer/Chuck Mather at Dive Tek while you're over there . . .(they have complete DIR rigs and setups; they fill trimix and deco gases over at Jacks Diving Locker)

 

[Wildcard]

Big Island Divers has a large, new, fast boat big enough for your whole group to go do the manta dive they then can take whoever wants to go in the black water dive. It will blow your mind! They also have the best dive shop on the isle.

 

[tedj01]

Don't forget to consider elevation/altitude after diving BI.