My family, which includes two children ages 11 and 13, will be staying in Wailea in June. What are the best snorkel trips and why? What are the costs? How early do we need to book? Thanks.

Hey Spencer IMHO you don't need a snorkel trip.When you arrive look for the nearest "Snorkel Bobs"(a place to rent snorkels)stop by and get a free Maui snorkel map.The map is very detailed as to all the islands best snorkeling spots and I think that these locations are better than the boat trips.Have fun---- Aloha.

Some of the best snorkelling we did this May was at Kapalua Bay and Honolua Bay, both of which you can drive to and snorkel right off the beach. Honolua Bay is a conservation district. We saw huge schools of fish, a sea turtle, a tiger moray eel, and of course thousands of colorful fish. Have a good time.

I have to agree with the others our best snorkeling was on our own at Kapalua and north of there at Honolua Bay Marine Reserve(take the stair case down to the Beach). We rented from Snorkel Bob's too, they'll give you a map of the best places to go. Any of the snorkeling outfitters should be fine. We got a discount at Snorkel Bob's with our Triple A card. The snorkel trip we took to Molokini wasn't as good as the snorkeling we did on our own. We also stopped at "Turtle Town" with the snorkel trip and saw 5 sea turtles, but we saw sea turtles on our own as well. If you decide to take a snorkel trip, book early in the week or call the week before you go.

We did a snorkel trip to Molokini using Maui Dive Shop. The price was reasonable, snorkeling was great and they were extremely well organized and professional. They are located near you in Kihei. You don't have to book more than a day or two ahead. You will find their advertisements in the various Maui Discount Coupon Books that are at the airport (and many other places). There are numerous choices for snorkel trips and I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. But Maui Dive Shop did a good job for us.

Ditto all of the above. Also, Black Rock at the north end of Kaanapali is great - easy beach entry, you snorkel along the rock that the Sheraton sits on. Water real calm and clear unless you go past the point, where it can get rough. Another good spot is on the road somewhere south of Lahaina. Look for cars and trees and a small beach. There are "keyholes" of sandy areas out into the reef, very shallow. You don't need to pay anything for the best spots, just park and hit the beach! Just look for rocks and calm water, and you will see lots of creatures!

Hi
Went to Maui last week and did the Lani trip with Trilogy. Best thing we did on Maiu! Great sailboat ride to secluded beautiful beach on Lani in a Marine Conservation District. Better snorkling than anything we did on Maui - everything there has been overused and damaged if ya ask me. Great beach, very good BKfst and lunch on the island. We saw lots of dolphins from the boat too. I highly reccomend this outfit!
Jason

Jason I guess you were lucky or I unlucky. I also took Trilogy to Lanai for the promised great snorkeling and was very disappointed.The day that we were there the surf made it difficult to get into the water for lots of folks and the snorkeling visibility was minimal at best.Speaking with others around our hotel after the trip I was told that the surf and visibilty problems are not uncommon on Lanai.You are correct that the overall trip was nice but not if snorkeling is a prime consideration and IMHO the trip is over priced.I guess that I'll hear some flack over this but that's my opinion.

My wife and I went to Molokini Crater which was terrific. Eels, octopus, grouper the works. We used Frogman which was fun. But this was a few years ago.

Regarding the Trilogy trip to Lanai, we didn't have very good snorkelling conditions when we went there either. The bottom was all stirred up and it was difficult to enter and exit the water because of the crashing waves.

The trip was expensive and I doubt we'd do it again, but we loved the island tour and would love to visit Lanai again for a longer stay, just not with Trilogy.

Drive south of Wailea until you've passed all houses and are surounded on both sides by lava field.(Don't worry, It's only 5 or 10 minutes out of Wailea) You'll see a small parking lot on your right. Walk down to the small black sand/rock beach and snorkel! We saw huge schools of Yellow Tang, a 2 foot long parrot fish (biggest I've ever seen) and lot's more. I think Molokini is a beautiful snorkel spot also. Try Dive & Sea in Kihei, next to the Phillips 66 Gas Station. They have a '6 passenger minimum, so it's very personable, as opposed to the huge boats that take 20 or more, and they also stop at 'Turtle Town.' Have a great trip!

we took a tour to Molokini crater that stopped at a few other places at the southern end of Maui that was great.