Kona: Small Group Ocean Safari & Marine Wildlife Search

4.92

(257 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

Someone hands me a mask and I’m still wriggling my feet into the fins when our guide, Keahi, is already scanning the horizon — he points out a dark line in the water, says it might be spinner dolphins. There’s only six of us on this little boat (I can actually hear everyone breathing over the engine), and the air smells like sunscreen and salt. I keep thinking how much quieter it is than those big tourist boats you see docked at Honokohau Harbor. We’re moving fast along the Kona coastline, chasing whatever shows up — “it’s always a bit of a gamble,” Keahi grins. He seems to know every ripple out here.

We drift for a while near some lava cliffs, just floating, hoping something appears. The sun’s already high but there’s still that cool bite in the wind. Someone spots a turtle — or maybe it’s just a rock? Turns out it really is a turtle, bobbing up like it’s as curious about us as we are about it. I try to say ‘honu’ (turtle) in Hawaiian and pretty much butcher it; Keahi laughs but helps me get it right. Snacks come out somewhere between dolphin rumors and manta ray stories — dried fruit, nothing fancy, but honestly after swimming I’d eat anything.

I didn’t expect how much of this ocean safari would be about waiting and watching, scanning for shadows or splashes way off in the blue. It makes every sighting feel kind of electric. At one point we’re all silent except for the slap of water against the hull — then suddenly someone shouts “there!” and we all lean over at once (probably not what you’re supposed to do on a small boat). Sometimes you see everything: dolphins leaping, rays gliding under your feet; sometimes just endless water. That unpredictability is weirdly addictive though — I still think about that feeling of not knowing what might pop up next.