hotel on Big Island w/good onsite op?

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fishyangel

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My fiance and I are planning to honeymoon on Oahu and Hawaii in May 2010. So far, we have had several trips in the Caribbean, always choosing hotels based on the quality of the onsite dive op. We like not having to go far first thing in the morning. But the reviews I've read in Hawaii Revealed (which has been great in previous non-diving trips to Hawaii) don't mention any onsite ops. Any suggestions?

Our likes: largeish boats with heads and cover, friendly guides who don't make the whole group go up with the first low tank, people who know the wildlife and play nice with the reef.
 
FYI-The Big Island is the island of Hawaii; Oahu is further up the chain.

I don't think Oahu has any on-site dive ops at the hotels, but many do van pickups from them. There's not much as far as shore diving immediately off from the hotels to take advantage of an on-site dive op, anyway. I've been out with Island Divers and Dive Oahu, both do pickups and I've had decent experiences with both. Dive Oahu will probably take you to wrecks off Waikiki while Island Divers will probably do more reefs down toward Hawaii Kai. I know they like to do Sea Cave and Spitting Caves. I'm sure the guys/gals on this site will have more to say.
 
I know they're two different islands, we will be visiting both. I am not sure if we are diving on Oahu vs. seeing the Arizona, hiking Diamondhead, etc., so I am only really asking about the Big Island, but thanks for the tips if we do sneak in a dive there.
 
Hawaii isn't just like the Caribbean in many ways. One of them is that the bulk of the dive operators are independent of the hotels. I'm thinking on the Big Island, the Hilton has Ocean Sports, don't know if the Mauna Lani still has Mauna Lani Sea Adventures or not. You rarely hear about these particular operators on the message boards or Undercurrent, don't know why. The bulk of the diving on the island is out of Kailua, with several operators, none located in hotels, with two additional companies going out of Kawaihae harbor in Kohala.
 
We stayed at the Keauhou Beach Resort which has an onsite dive op, Bottom Time, but we dove with Jack,s Diving Locker. Resort was nice, Jack's is awesome, don't know anything about Bottom Time. Aloha!
 
yeah, Hawaii is not the sort of place where there are dive ops at lots of hotels with onsite diving, docks, and dive facilities. Even if you can find one I wouldn't necessarily go with it. Good chance it won't really be the resort you'd prefer, or one of the better ops, or both. Just a theory, but I'd guess you don't hear about whatever few hotel ops there may be on the dive boards or Undercurrent because if they exist they cater to casual divers who might do a couple dives on vacation, vs. more serious divers.

As far as the Big Island, there are a few areas where resorts are concentrated, and a few harbors where the dive boats leave from. And well, it's a big island, and traffic into town can suck in the morning. So if you don't like going far in the am you probably don't want to stay in one of the nice resort complexes further north and try to leave from Kailua harbor in downtown Kailua-Kona. You could stay downtown someplace close to the harbor and stroll to a dive boat there in the morning, but I don't think there's anyplace in walking distance I'd want to stay on my honeymoon. The King Kam is right there and I've stayed once, but it seems to have gotten dumpier and more depressing over the years. Or stay someplace around town and have a relatively short commute and maybe get picked up by the op, but I don't know where is nice to stay around town. I'd look at the ops that leave from the other harbors, then look at resorts in the closer resort clusters. I've stayed in Waikaloa which is nice but I think the Mauna Lani area and resorts are even nicer. The Four Seasons is more off by itself and certainly nice, and maybe the closest to Honokohau harbor, I thought some ops left from there.

Personally, I'd stay at the Mauna Lani Bay hotel, or maybe the Orchid, if there's a good op leaving from Kawaihae. Or maybe the Four Seasons and find an op leaving from Honokohau. Sort of depends how much money you want to blow.
 
A note re: morning traffic.... It's practically fixed! There'll always be some traffic, but they've made major improvements. It used to take me 45-60 minutes to drive to Honokohau Harbor from Captain Cook in the morning, now it's 30-35 max. They've really changed the highway between Henry street and the Harbor, it makes for much much better traffic flow in both directions... the trip in from the resorts up north no longer bogs down just south of the airport now that the new highway's open either.

Another note: The Keauhou Beach Resort doesn't have an onsite dive shop any more.
 
good to hear about the traffic improvements. They were still working on the road widening last time I was there but all the locals who talked about it seemed to think it would just become a wider parking lot. Though I'd still probably look into the further north options.
 
FWIW I was wandering around the Mauna Lani about 6 weeks ago and their dive op seemed to be still in business. I had no idea they even existed unil then.

I agree with Damselfish that the resorts up north (pardon my kohala bias) are nicer than the ones in busy kona. Especially Mauna Kea and Hapuna Prince since they're the only resorts around that are on white sandy beaches. (I have no affiliation with the prince resorts... just a fan of a nice beach) In fact Mauna Kea has maybe the best beach around with calm water and excellent snorkeling. Expedia and Hawaiian Air Lines websites have pretty good package deals for both. However since they offer public access to their beaches you can always stay somewhere cheaper and day trip to either beach.

There are a couple dive ops up north this way. PM me if you want to know more about them.

Or just dive in Kona with friscuba/Steve on Wanna Dive... who I've heard nothing but good things about.

-Eric
 

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