November Trip to Maui: Help needed in planning trip to another island?

[Codeman00]

Hey John! Good to hear from your and thanks for the info. I'll check them out too. I have a lot of research to do, that's for sure.

 

[Codeman00]

We're now talking about expanding this trip to 2 weeks instead of 8-10 days. Maui is definitely an island we will be staying for a week or so...how do all of the other islands rank in regards to diving. I know you mentioned Kona as being the other, but is the diving better on Kona than on the other islands? Or should I just 100% look at Kona for our other dive island?

It's looking like Kona is the island to be at...and there's so much more to do like BuckBuck noted.

 

[Codeman00]

We've finally decided on where we are staying in Maui. It looks like the Kahana Beach Resort. 4221 Lower Honoapiilani Highway, Lahaina, Maui, HI 96761.

Hopefully there is a good reputable dive operation in that area? If not, I guess we will have a car and be able to drive to one. Can someone help with what our diving options are in that area?

 

[Steve Eady]

Kahana beach resort is great, right on the water. Tons of Great shore dives on the island. Just pick up one of the free dive maps from Maui dive shop. A lot of times I just go early in the morning and meet divers in the parking lot and join them. I go over there a lot by myself. Best dive over there if you ask me is a scooter dive with Maui Scooter Divers - Maui's Scooter Diving Specialists - Come scuba Diving with us! TON of fun, cant wait to get back over and ride those things again. Great people also and they know of all the good spots to dive.

 

[Codeman00]

Kahana beach resort is great, right on the water. Tons of Great shore dives on the island. Just pick up one of the free dive maps from Maui dive shop. A lot of times I just go early in the morning and meet divers in the parking lot and join them. I go over there a lot by myself. Best dive over there if you ask me is a scooter dive with Maui Scooter Divers - Maui's Scooter Diving Specialists - Come scuba Diving with us! TON of fun, cant wait to get back over and ride those things again. Great people also and they know of all the good spots to dive.

This is great news! Thank you!

 

[DiveMaven]

We'll be on island during Thanksgiving week, so if it works out, we could meet up for a shore dive. At this point we aren't sure how much boat diving (if any) we'll do, and it's still a bit far out to coordinate anything, but wanted to mention it as an option if you're interested.

Since our place is in Kihei, we typically shore dive in S. Maui (Makena Landing and Ulua being two of our faves) and know those sites well. They're also shallow (max depth of about 35') so we get 90 minutes out of an AL80, making for long, slow dives to hunt for everything that might be hiding on the reef.

 

[diversteve]

We've finally decided on where we are staying in Maui. It looks like the Kahana Beach Resort. 4221 Lower Honoapiilani Highway, Lahaina, Maui, HI 96761.

Hopefully there is a good reputable dive operation in that area? If not, I guess we will have a car and be able to drive to one. Can someone help with what our diving options are in that area?

For tanks there's a Maui Dive Shop about a block away in Kahana Gateway Mall. Last one on this list: Maui Dive Shop Locations | Dive Shops on Maui | Maui Dive Stores | Surf Stores on Maui One of the resorts there has a dive shack on site for tanks for shore diving there - it might be yours. IIRC it's the old Embassy Suites - IDK what they call it now. That wouldn't be the best dive - too much sand in the water off the beach there. Nice beach though.

I personally wouldn't boat dive with them because they feed all their divers down to their boat in Ma'alea - more than a 1/2 hr. drive early in the morning from Kahana. Big boat and it tends to be crowded with divers of all levels. In all fairness they all provide a DM for every 8 divers but ours seemed more interested in making sure we checked out a cave for sharks than in actually finding stuff for us to look at. Due to the volcanic nature of the strata - it sometimes takes a good eye - and slowing down - to find the good stuff off Hawaii.

So your options for boat diving are Lahaina Divers or Extended Horizons - both in Lahaina. LD runs to Lanai, Molokini and even Molokai once a week for Hammerheads. They also do an advanced drift trip off Lanai once a week. EH has a smaller boat and only goes to Lanai.

Lahaina Divers also has tanks for shore diving - and a site map on their website of all the nearby options in case your business won't allow time for the morning boats. Two other shore options are Kapalua Divers at Kapalua Beach or Tiny Bubbles - they do escorted shore diving in that area also. You may find that prices are almost the same for escorted shore diving vs. boat diving and the boats get you to a lot better, deeper sites. Most of Maui's west coast diving is pretty shallow. In that area try to get to Black Rock, Old Airport and Kapalua Bay. Mala Pier in Lahaina is also a good dive but the legal entry is difficult thru the coral. LD does it by boat at night also once a week.

Want to dive with the Tigers? There's a small one in the Maui Ocean Center tank. About $200 IIRC. Or dive with it's parents at Olawalu. Try not to look like a turtle...

My other choice would still be Kona. The Manta Dive is epic, there's the Blackwater dive and it's also very good diving. Down south my buddy dove with about 500 spinner dolphins once. We liked/used Kona Diving Company also. Obviously you'll need a car so there's a lot of shore diving up and down the coast that's accessible also. Plus the volcanoes is a good all day trip your last non-dive day. Be aware that once you move inland off the Kona/Kohala Coasts that everything is to elevation also. Either main road gets to at least 4000 feet IIRC. The observatory road is considerably higher.

Kauai has less diving. In November the whole north side is shut down so Tunnels Beach and nearby Ni'ihau are also. In summer Ni'ihau may be one of the best Hawaii wall dives so if you ever get back there it's worth the all day boat ride. So then all the diving is south around Poipu. Sheraton Caverns is a good dive there, I liked Fastlanes also. In a full week of diving, there just aren't that many sites to go to. Especially shore diving - there's really only Koloa Landing, maybe Ahukini and one other. None are epic although Koloa is nice. The two primary operators are Seasports or Fathom Five. May as well stay near there also since staying up near Kapaa means a 20min. drive daily. Seasports has a shop in Kapaa but their boat leaves from a Poipu marina.

Compare sites on shorediving.com and it's pretty obvious that Maui and Kona are your best options. One thing about Kauai is that it's greener than Maui if that's even possible. One of the canyons out west is the wettest point on Earth. Kona is much more stark just about everywhere - erupting volcanoes tend to do that.

I don't like Oahu, it's too crowded. Esp. Waikiki. We were caught in traffic jams there twice in one day. It's really eerie also, the huge hotels all reflect the light strangely. Each built to block the view of the ones behind it. And there must be 500 tour buses loading every morning. Stake out your 6' on Waikiki Beach early also. The boat operators mostly pick you up and take you elsewhere. Shore dives are all over the island but none near Waikiki. I haven't been there since about 2004 I can only imagine how it is now. I guess Pearl Harbor etc. would be the reason to go there if that's of interest. There is an old aquarium/Sea World type place on the east side. The Waikiki aquarium is tiny.

 

[Codeman00]

We'll be on island during Thanksgiving week, so if it works out, we could meet up for a shore dive. At this point we aren't sure how much boat diving (if any) we'll do, and it's still a bit far out to coordinate anything, but wanted to mention it as an option if you're interested.

Since our place is in Kihei, we typically shore dive in S. Maui (Makena Landing and Ulua being two of our faves) and know those sites well. They're also shallow (max depth of about 35') so we get 90 minutes out of an AL80, making for long, slow dives to hunt for everything that might be hiding on the reef.

We'd love to get together with you and explore the south side of the island. We'll have a rental car too so we can meet you. I think our diving days will be later in the week, Thursday through Saturday based on having other things going on early in the week. We'll talk closer to then. My wife is paranoid of shore diving without a guide or someone to show us around...hopefully this will make her feel better!

---------- Post added April 23rd, 2014 at 07:39 PM ----------

Diversteve, thank you for the information! Very VERY helpful! We are definitely doing the first week in Maui and the 2nd week on the big island...and really looking forward to it!

 

[DiveMaven]

We'd love to get together with you and explore the south side of the island. We'll have a rental car too so we can meet you. I think our diving days will be later in the week, Thursday through Saturday based on having other things going on early in the week. We'll talk closer to then. My wife is paranoid of shore diving without a guide or someone to show us around...hopefully this will make her feel better!

If it works out, you can assure her that we are very experienced shore divers and spend about 6 weeks each year on Maui and always shore dive when we're there. I don't know if anyone mentioned that diving in Hawaii in always early because of the trade winds that pick up at around noon each day. The nice thing is that you can be done diving by noon and have the rest of the day to do other things.

We'll touch base as we get closer and see if we can meet up....our days will likely be very flexible.

 

[Codeman00]

If it works out, you can assure her that we are very experienced shore divers and spend about 6 weeks each year on Maui and always shore dive when we're there. I don't know if anyone mentioned that diving in Hawaii in always early because of the trade winds that pick up at around noon each day. The nice thing is that you can be done diving by noon and have the rest of the day to do other things.

We'll touch base as we get closer and see if we can meet up....our days will likely be very flexible.

I'm not sure why I didn't get this message but I just read it now. Thank you and I will let her know! Looking forward to it.

It looks like we're booked for Kona for the week of November 30 to December 6th....and that's after our week in Maui. Now its time to book our flights.