Is it worth paying high $$ to have someone take us on a snorkeling tour in Maui? Or should we just buy/rent our own gear and try it ourselves from the beaches? How good is the snorkeling if we do it on our own? We are staying in Hana and in Lahaina in January.

My husband loves snorkeling at Black Rock. He has his own gear.

Is Dec/Jan still good for snorkeling? I heard that the water can be pretty rough.

Spend your money on a whale watching tour and snorkel from dozens of sites with beach access. Some snorkel tours wind up going to the same beaches that can be reached by car. If you're staying in the Lahaina area, try Black Rock, Kahikili Beach Park, Napili Bay, Kapalua Bay and Honoloa Bay.

We also bring our own gear. Maui is a wonderful place to snorkle. In May, we snorkled at Kapalua Bay and it was wonderful.

Go to the south, Wailea area, for snorkeling--there are many wondererful places. The water is too rough in the winter on the north side to snorkel. Rent your own gear for a week (ask at the shop, they will be happy to help you decide the best places), and enjoy. No need to pay, unless you want to take a boat ride to Molokini or wherever. If you have the gear, you can go to several places when you want.

While diving Molokini is first rate the snorkeling is not . The water is very clear and the fish plentiful but the underwater topography is boring.
Save a couple hundred bucks and drive to one of the many shore locations to snorkle.
Unless this will be your only opportunity to take a boat ride while on Maui save your money.
If you do book a boat make sure they are not the ones who dump their sewage at sea. Pacific Whale Foundation are the good guys who have their waste pumped out at the dock.

We did both. We were staying at the Sheraton, and loved being able to walk from our room through the garden to the beach, and snorkelling at Black Rock was very good, especially first thing before the young and studly started jumping off the rocks. (That was in the afternoons, and seemed to come after the consumption of several mai-tais!) Not too safe, IMHO, but I'm veering toward geezerhood, so maybe not the best judge of what makes for vacation fun these days. Wouldn't work for me...Mai tais, definitely, but not combined with climbing up and jumping off volcanic rocks, LOL.

We took our own masks and snorkels, (fins too bulky to pack) and often snorkeled without fins. The water is sooo buoyant that it really was no effort: you could just relax and lie at the surface, looking at the fish below.

We also did the Four Winds trip to Molokini, and enjoyed it very much. It was a beautiful clear early morning, the summit of Haleakala visible as we sailed out. Good lunch, good tour guides, fun snorkeling.

If you search here on Maui, you'll find loads of trip reports. The Revealed guide is also helpful.

http://www.snorkeling-hawaii-insider...com/index.html

http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/snorkel/maps.htm

http://www.maui-vacation.net/snorkelmap.html

www.snorkelbobs.com For locations, click on Map'nTips

Most of the dive or snorkel shops will give you a free map and let you know where to safely snorkel.