I'm traveling to Maui over Christmas and am looking for some experiences with Lanai snorkling trips? Looking for a smaller boat (less people the better) and a full day trip. I've been given the name of Paragon tours. Anyone out there have any experiences with their tours (good or bad)? Any other suggestions would be appreciated (ie other tour operators, which days of the week are best, etc, etc)

Thanks to all.

Recently spent 5 nights Maui, 4 nights Lanai and then 5 nights Maui. There is plenty of great snorkling on Maui. I would take the ferry to Lanai for the day, cab to Manele Bay, bring your snorkle gear, that you're using on Maui, and visit the sister resort via hotel shuttles, then ferry back....just a thought.........also if you do go for a tourist snorkle thing - check the weather. We left Lanai on the ferry to gale force winds. I can't imagine crossing on a cat full of tourists under such conditions.....Im sure it only happens now and then...but always check the weather before spending time and money to seasickness! GL

We've done the Molokini snorkel with Paragon and can highly recommend them. We especially liked that they take fewer passengers and actually sail rather than motor like some of the other "cats".

We sailed with Paragon to Lanai about a year and a half ago. Not that it's their fault, but the weather was bad the first day we tried to go...so the trip was cancelled. The next day, we took the boat out, a girl slipped and broke her ankle...so we had to turn around before arriving to Lanai. The last day, we finally made it to the island. It was a nice, relaxing trip, but you don't get to stay on the island very long (maybe an hour 1/2 at most). If you took the ferry, you would have a little more flexability time-wise. If it's snorkeling your interested in....it was very good in Lanai..lots of beautiful fish. The crew was wonderful. Have fun.

My 2 cents on Lanai> I fretted over this for months deciding between Trilogy, Paragon, or others suggested by friends who recently returned. Took Trilogy, and enjoyed it, but Paragon looked very good too. My conclusions based on my experience were: If you are going for snorkeling, you stand a good chance of being disappointed if the weather doesn't cooperate. Due to island runnoff, if it has been raining, it clouds the water and visibility is almost zero. If you are looking for a nice boat ride to a nice island, Trilogy or Paragon should be about the same. If you want to sail, go with Paragon. Trilogy put its sails up for 3 minutes just because they have to, in order to call themselves a sailing trip, but we soon realized why they didn't sail more. For those 3 minutes it got so hot from lack of breeze that the sailing whiners soon were yelling, "put the motor on!" So pay careful attention to weather because it can really affect the trip. Last note on Trilogy, they did take us elsewhere to snorkel for 45minutes since Lanai snorkeling was so bad. I give them props for trying their best.