We did the Fair Winds evening Kealakekua Bay Snorkel Cruise. The drive from our hotel in the Kailua-kona to Fair wind Keauhou Bay is 15 min. It is bit difficult to locate parking lot entrance. It is small badly damaged road before bottom of Kamehameha III Road near trawler boats parking area, you'll see the "Fair Wind" parking sign ( Not so prominent). Better to see street view on Google map to know exactly where to go. From there it's an easy 5 minute walk to the dock. Head in to the check in/gift shop office, sign in, and you'll receive your boarding pass.
Our boat was the Fair Wind II. It's a short, sturdy boat with 2 levels of mostly covered seating, 2 high dive platforms, and 2 water slides. There's a bar, grill, and 2 restroom on the first level. Up top is where the captain navigates, along with the rest of the at-sea water facilities. They had freshwater showers. Two washrooms. There is plenty of shade on both levels of the boat so no need to worry about baking. Fresh fruit, snacks and drinks/juices before and after cruise. There is an open cash bar on the way home.
The boat has plenty of flotation devices -- vests, waist bands, inner tubes, and also fins if you want them. Kids and their parents were going off the high jump platforms and water slides! Seen, kids and their parents were going off the high jump platforms and water slides! We were very pleased with the snorkel locations. The water was stunning and warm. We didn’t bring our own gear and used the equipment on the boat. I had snorkelling mask which was leaking a bit and needed to remove to get rid of water from mask.
There was a thing called SNUBA available, which was similar to scuba except the air tank was floated on a small inflatable and the participants had about 30 feet of tube available connecting the breathing apparatus to the tank enabling them to virtually free dive. seen 4 persons ( first timer) joining the group. Seen 4 persons ( first timer) taking SNUBA dive and found, it was comfortable to participants ( could see that while snorkelling)
My wife never snorkelled before, and she doesn't swim. Crew assured that nothing will happen. They gave two layers of floatation (swim float foam belt and floated tube) and underwater view box instead of snorkelling mask. She could go for a while but scared by seeing some one's foot nearby. However, she was happy with what she could accomplish i.e. swimming with some tropical fish, enjoy crystal clear water and see corals. I am sure with this experience she will explore more next time.
The bay is very calm, with crystal clear water, and pretty shallow reefs. Jump in, float, lounge, swim, snorkel, dive off the platform, or go down the water slide. There was only 1 other boat there so it wasn't crowded at all.
In general, we enjoyed 4-1/2 hour cruise departs daily from Keauhou Bay including 1-1/2 hours of snorkeling at pristine Kealakekua Bay. It is best snorkelling destination in Hawaii. Recommend the Fair Wind II for all people who are new to snorkelling would do this again in a heartbeat.
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