Hawaii travel agent with focus on Scuba

[philmg]

Hi,

we want to marry on Hawaii and combine it with a great diving experience.
Haven't been to HAwaii yet and it's probably gonna be a 3 week trip.

Now I was trying to find a travel agency that offers great trips customized and has some focus on scuba travel. So far havent found one that I like.

Do you have any recommendations?
And what are the dive sites that are a must? We will visit not more than 3 islands I guess since I dont want to spend too much time on travel.

Thanks for any recommendations.

Regards
Phil

 

[smellzlikefish]

I know nothing about travel agencies, but the must-do dives are pretty scattered throughout the islands. The Kona coast has some spectacular dives ranging from pelagic night dives, manta dives, to gorgeous reef life. Maui is known for nice reef dives as well as some incredible offshore sites like Molokini, Lanai, and Molokai. Oahu has some reefs and really nice rock formations, but it is mostly known for its wrecks like the YO-257, Sea Tiger, and Corsair. I am less familiar with Kauai's diving.

Don't be afraid to take a break from the water and spend some time topside on one of our world-class hikes. Your best bet is to figure out where your wedding is going to be, then plan your dives around that. You can spend a lot longer than three weeks here and not see everything, underwater or otherwise.

 

[Damselfish]

You might just plan the trip on your own. Thing about travel agents is, even the best tend to have a certain list of hotels and operations and activities they know best and mostly sell. So they may not give you all the options, or the options you would actually like best. So even if you use a travel agent, you should do a fair amount of research on your own to make sure they are pointing you in the right direction. Once you have done all that research, you may discover it's easier to just book the trip by yourself. For some places in the world a dive travel agent can come in handy, but Hawaii is pretty easy to find information and book things. (Although, coming from China, a good agent might be able to track down better airfare and make some other things easier but I really don't know.)

 

[diversteve]

Caradonna books Hawaii. I have no problem recommending them.

Scuba Diving Vacations in Hawaii - Caradonna Dive Adventures

 

[neonistic]

What island are you going to be on? There are many people here who would be more than happy to help you with the diving part of your honeymoon.

 

[philmg]

Hi, thanks for you advice. We will actually be going to Big Island, MAui and Oahu. Well we will most likely not stay for too long on Oahu and since it's not more than 3 weeks we save KAuai for the next trip.

The reason why I am searching for travel agencies is, that they usually show a large list of hotels. I wasn't able so far to find any comprehensive list of hotels on any of the islands. Now I am waiting for my guidebooks from amazon to arrive. Maybe that'll help.

Plus we usually prefer boutique hotels, but Hawaii seems to have more of the big resort type hotels. Well, I guess that's ok as long as they are not huge high-rise buildings and amusement park feeling.

take care
PHil

 

[lesismore]

I am also looking for dives/lodging on the Big Island. I will have about 5 days there and thought it would be good to start on one coast to dive and then drive to the other to see the volcano park before heading out from Hilo. Looking forward to suggestions.

 

[smellzlikefish]

Be careful when diving on Kona and driving over to Hilo. There have been cases of people diving then ascending up the mountain roads (Saddle Road I think) and finally coming down with bends symptoms at Kilauea. Give yourself time to offgas before driving over.

As for dive shops, I usually recommend Bottom Time because the folks that run that operation really know diving and do everything in their power to please.