Oʻahu, Maui, Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi Island. Pick the island, then the day.
Which Molokini boat still beats the wind. What a Nā Pali flight costs against the catamaran. Whether the Road to Hāna is worth a whole day of Maui. Reviews of every tour you can book across the islands.
One day on each island, if you only get one.
The four bookings a first trip through Hawaiʻi gets built around. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The Oʻahu loopOahu Grand Circle Island and Haleiwa Tour: 9-Hr Deluxe ExperienceNine hours right round the island, Hanauma lookout to the North Shore, with the driving done for you.
02The night swimBig Island Manta Ray Night SnorkelLights under the boat pull plankton, and the manta rays follow. Kona is the only place this runs nightly.
03The Maui road dayRoad to Hana Adventure Maui Tour with LunchSixty bridges out to Hāna and back, in somebody else’s van, so you can actually look out of the window.
04The Kauaʻi flightKauai Airplane Tour: Na Pali Coast, Waterfalls & Window SeatsNā Pali has no road. A window seat over the ridges is the only way to see the whole seventeen miles.
Most of Hawaiʻi is only visible from a boat.
Five kinds of day afloat, what it costs to get aboard each one and which island it sails from.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Oahu’s Waikiki Coast: Moana’s Sunset Cocktail Sail
Reef daysTurtle Canyon, Kealakekua, Molokini. Gear on board.
Whale seasonHumpbacks calve in the Maui channel, December to April.
Sunset sailsGolden hour off Waikīkī or Kāʻanapali, dinner on deck.
Manta ray nightsFloodlights on the Kona water and rays feeding below you.
Every boat dayNā Pali runs, catamarans, rafts and dinner cruises.
All 242 days on the water →
Oʻahu holds the memorial, the surf and most of the inventory.
Everything on Oʻahu →
Honolulu sits on the south shore and everything else is a loop away: Pearl Harbor first thing, the windward coast by lunch, the North Shore before the light goes. These three carry more travellers than anything else on the island.
Getting out to the USS Arizona
The memorial sits over the wreck and is reached by a Navy shuttle on a timed programme. The free walk-up tickets are released a day ahead and are gone in minutes; a booked tour holds the slot and adds the run from Waikīkī.
Round the island in one day
Hanauma lookout, the Byodo-In temple under the Koʻolau wall, Kualoa, then the shrimp trucks and Waimea Bay. A long day, and nobody has to drive it.
Waimea, Haleʻiwa and the swell
From November the waves on this side stand two storeys high and the beaches turn into a grandstand. By June the same water is flat enough to swim off the rock at Waimea Bay.
Molokini, Pearl Harbor, the circle-island run.
Every Hawaiʻi tour we have reviewed →The tours booked more than anything else across the four islands, and what earns each one its slot.
1
Grand Tour Around Island 16 Locations plus Snorkeling
Start around 7 a.m. with pickup in Honolulu, then circle Oahu by bus with guides such as Aka, Dylan, Kat, or Kathleen. Expect coastal lookouts, North Shore surf beaches, farm and food stops, snorkeling gear, and a long day of sightseeing. The route can change with weather and road conditions.
From · $109
Read our review →
2
Parasailing Experience in Waikiki, HI
from $44
3
Salute to Pearl Harbor Including USS Arizona
from $59
4
Majestic Circle Island Tour with Lunch
from $181
5
Koloa Zipline in Kauai
from $169
6
Big Island in a Day: Volcanoes Waterfalls Sightseeing and History
from $264
7
Oahu’s Ultimate Tour: Dole, Turtle Snorkel, Pali Lookout & More
from $108
8
Oahu Circle Island Tour with Turtle Snorkeling— Small-Groups
from $149
Maui runs on two clocks: the crater at dawn, whales by lunch.
Haleakalā sunrise is a three in the morning alarm and a park reservation you need weeks out. The Road to Hāna is sixty bridges and a whole day. Molokini is a morning, and the wind decides how good it was.
The Big Island is still being built, and you can go and watch.
Kīlauea has redrawn this coastline twice in living memory. Above it, Mauna Kea clears the cloud layer at 13,800 feet. Below it, the Kona water is warm enough at nine at night to float over feeding manta rays.
Every Hawaiʻi Island day out →
Kauaʻi keeps its best seventeen miles off the road network.
Nā Pali has no highway and never will have one. You see it from a boat out of Port Allen, from a doors-off helicopter, or from a small plane with the window open. Inland, Waimea Canyon drops three thousand feet and the rain gauge on Waiʻaleʻale is the wettest in the country.
- 1Koloa Zipline in Kauaifrom $169
- 2Kauai Deluxe Sightseeing Flightfrom $159
- 3Kauai Eco Adventure Helicopter Tourfrom $449
What a day out in Hawaiʻi actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what you pay. These are not cheap islands to book a day on, and most of the gap between a reef morning and a summit night is transport.
Trolley passes, self-guided audio walks, shore snorkels and the short harbour trips.
The standard full day: circle-island runs, Molokini boats, manta ray nights, lūʻau seats.
Helicopters, private guides, summit-and-stars nights and the Nā Pali flights.
Three things that happen in Hawaiʻi and nowhere else.
Beaches and boat trips exist everywhere. Manta rays feeding under a night boat, a crater rim above the cloud layer and a coastline with no road do not.
The Manta Ray Night Snorkel
Boats moor off Keauhou and Garden Eel Cove and hang floodlights in the water. Plankton comes to the light, and inside twenty minutes manta rays with four-metre wingspans are barrel-rolling a hand-width under the float line. The animals are wild and nobody feeds them; the operators have worked the same two sites for decades, and it runs on most nights of the year.
- 1Big Island Manta Ray Night Snorkel★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 5,656 reviews
- 2Kona Manta Ray Snorkel Tour in Keauhou Harbor★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,465 reviews
- 3KONA Manta Ray Night Snorkel – FREE re-ride if no Sightings★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,212 reviews
The Lūʻau
A lūʻau is a feast first and a show second. The pig comes out of an imu, an underground oven lined with hot stones and banana leaves, after eight hours in the ground. What follows works its way across Polynesia: Hawaiian hula, Tahitian drumming, Samoan fire knife. Seats are sold by row and the front ones go months ahead.
- 1Paradise Cove Luau★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,498 reviews
- 2Toa Luau at Waimea Valley, Oahu★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,350 reviews
- 3Chief’s Luau Admission★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,018 reviews
Kīlauea
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park sits on a volcano that has erupted in most years of the last four decades. Whether there is lava to see depends entirely on what the vent is doing that week, but the steam bluffs, the Kaʻū desert road and the walk across the floor of Kīlauea Iki are there regardless. Rangers close roads at short notice.
- 1Big Island in a Day: Volcanoes Waterfalls Sightseeing and History★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,569 reviews
- 2Hilo Shore Excursion: Volcanoes National Park & Black Sand Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,338 reviews
- 3Small Group Big Island Twilight Volcano and Stargazing Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,619 reviews
Four Hawaiʻi bookings that will not wait.
Most of a trip here can be arranged from a lānai the night before. These four run on reservation systems, park quotas and boat timetables that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Salute to Pearl Harbor Including USS ArizonaThe shuttle out to the USS Arizona runs on timed slots, and the free walk-up tickets are released only a day ahead.
- 02Haleakala Sunrise Spectacular with Local BreakfastSunrise entry to Haleakalā National Park is capped and needs a reservation. A booked tour is the reliable way through the gate.
- 03Hanauma Bay SnorkelingHanauma Bay is closed two days a week and sells a fixed number of entry slots that open forty-eight hours out.
- 04Maui Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini and Turtle TownMolokini boats leave Māʻalaea at first light because the crater goes flat calm early and blows out by lunch.
From November the north-facing water closes out. Go south.
Between November and March the North Pacific throws swell at every north-facing coast, Waimea and Pipeline on Oʻahu, Hanalei on Kauaʻi. Snorkel boats stop running there and the red flags go up. The same months are the calmest on the south and west shores, and they are the only ones with humpbacks in the channel.
The parts of Hawaiʻi with no road: waterfalls, craters, the ridge line.
Helicopters get into the valleys behind Wailua and over the Kīlauea vents. Ziplines and canyon walks do the same job slower and for a lot less. Book the flight for a clear morning and leave the afternoon loose.
By kind of day: reef, crater, road or deck
Oʻahu, then Maui, then whichever of the other two you have days left for.
Oʻahu
Pearl Harbor
North Shore
Haleakalā
Hawaiʻi IslandThe newest Hawaiʻi tour reviews.
The newer ones after these →
Molokini and Turtle Arches Snorkeling Trip from Ma’alaea Harbor
Read our review →
Instant Island Moments: photos and video same day delivery
Read our review →
Maui’s Only Clear Bottom Kayak Rental (priced per tandem kayak)
Read our review →
Maui Jewelry Making Class with Puka Shells and Pearls
Read our review →
Maui Surf Instruction 101 at Kalama Beach in Kihei
Read our review →
Maui & Molokai Spectacular with Exclusive Landing Helicopter Tour
Read our review →
Famous Road to Hana Waterfalls, Black Sand Beach & Lunch
Read our review →
Maui Scuba Diving Introductory Lesson from Lahaina
Read our review →