Adventures in Paradise

We were supposed to go on a kayak scuba tour to Captain Cook on 1÷17÷16. Unfortunately the surf was too high and the trip was cancelled when we got there. However, we were impressed by the guide. She took the time to explain her decision. Safety definitely matters and we were grateful she made the choice instead of us. She said last year they only canceled twice. must have been our lucky day. We got a full refund and would book through them again.

Did the 7 am Captain Cook tour with our family. The sun was just getting up and we loved being out there so early before the big boats show up. Mike and Jamal were our guides, and they were awesome. Constantly making sure everyone was doing OK, checking in. Mike is great story teller, and we loved how he shared all his knowledge. The kayak part is fairly easy, you don’t have to really be in shape for it. Snorkeling was fantastic! I wasn’t ready to get out the water yet when we were done! Highly recommend this company.

My family of 4 took this Kayak/​snorkeling tour on Wednesday and had an absolute blast! Our guides Roy and Joy were awesome! Very professional, patient and treated us like family. Thanks!

Mike and Jamaal were awesome! We had so much fun and the snorkeling was fantastic. Mike was great with teaching us so much history of the area. We saw so many spinner Dolphins! Great trip!

Awesome kayak snorkeling tour with Rabbit & Natasha in July. We were a party of 6 — ages 13 – 73 and we had a great time. A big thx to Rabbit & Natasha who helped my unsteady on his feet father in law enjoy this trip. TOTALLY WORTH GETTING UP EARLY for the 7am tour– we left Waikoloa Hilton 70 minutes ahead of time and it was perfect. You’ll have the bay to yourselves for an hour before the masses of motor boats arrive. Lots of dolphins and a spectacular live coral reef. Quite possibly the best reef I have ever snorkeled. Rabbit and Natasha outfitted us all beforehand with gear (good quality) and a brief talk about how it all worked. We were with one other family of 4 so a small party of 12 including instructors.
Great trip, great crew, knowledgeable & we felt very safe. Best experience of our 2week Hawaiian vacation. Did I mention yummy snacks too? The kayak bit was about 20 – 30 min each way and not super intense but you do have to paddle continuously during that time.
We experienced no tip shakedown — simply a heads up at the start that if we wanted to tip they would be around for a bit after we returned back to shore. Cannot express enough how awesome this excursion was. Public bathrooms down the road were adequate — no bathrooms at the far end of the bay. Parking was VERY easy at 6:45 am — if doing the 11am give yourself 15 minutes just to wait for a parking space.

Our family of five took the kayak and snorkel tour and had a great time. Getting up at 6am for a 7am start seemed too early at first, but it turned out to be best as we missed all the crowds that showed up at around 11 in the large tour boats. Most of the time we had the monument practically to ourselves, which was really cool. The snorkeling was excellent, very clear and lots of marine life captured on the GoPro. On the way back we saw a pod of dolphins and a monk seal. The guides were very good and professional. It was one of our top experiences in Hawaii this trip.
The only reason I am not giving these guys a 5 star is their unusual practice of collecting tips IN ADVANCE for a family of 5. I did not appreciate this aggressive shakedown, and I don’t understand why all the other guests with smaller groups and spending less money were allowed to tip AFTER service. It was not like they offered a group discount or anything, just something they bury in the fine print of their contract. I probably would have tipped the same or more since the service was good, but the whole idea of advance mandatory tipping left a bad taste in my mouth for me.

Mike and Rabbit where our guides for the 11:30 kayak to Cook’s monument. I, my wife, and our 17 year old son had an amazing time! They were nurturing, professional, warm, engaging, caring, careful, entertaining, ecological, compassionate. I recommend this outfit for all of the above plus the great exercise from paddling out (not difficult at all), the story telling by Mike, the jokes from Rabbit, an awesome snorkeling experience on a breathtaking reef, and some nice snacks (loved the scones but my wife wanted some real cheese). I highly recommend this tour.

Though it was 4 mos. ago, my memory of this EXCELLENT trip is still vivid. My wife and I have snorkeled all over the islands, but no where better than by the Captain Cook monument which we did in March 2015. What a great variety of sea life in both shallow and deeper areas and amongst diverse coral formations. My wife and I aren’t in the greatest shape, but the kayaking was smooth and fairly easy. Kayaking very near dolphins was really exciting. And Mike, the main guide (from Chicago … or, at least, a Blackhawks fan), was utterly fantastic (despite being a Blackhawks fan (wink)). His voice was clear, knowledge deep, and energy/​enthusiasm contagious. The way he told the story of Captain Cook’s demise — Wow!, what a story teller. The only negatives are that getting into (and, even more, out of) the kayaks was tough. At the monument, you get out onto somewhat slippery rocks. Back at the pier, the exit up onto a high concrete ledge was daunting and difficult. However, the guides both prepped us mentally and assisted us physically for those transitions. I’m so glad we did this wonderful experience, and I’d HIGHLY recommend it to anyone, especially those for whom the exiting from the kayak would be relatively little issue.

No aloha by the guide. We were at Kealakekua Bay with several dads and our daughters. We were having fun and jumping off the boat ramp into the water as is so often done. Then… out of the blue we were this yelling telling our pre-​teen and younger daughters to clear the way, move it, etc. Then this guide came paddling in hard and in a bit of a reckless move got his kayak frantically out of the water. He continued to yell to the girls to get out of the way. It turns out he had some tourists paddling in as well and they were maybe 50 – 100 yards behind him. (BTW…shouldn’t the guide be closer to his novice paddling guests in rough ocean?). Anyway… they lumbered in and he helped them get up/​out of their kayak… all the while being loud, rude and obnoxious. When we asked him to be sensitive to our daughters he became even more animated, yelled more, jumped in his van and peeled out. We took photos of him shaking his fist at us. Ugh. No aloha and a poor representation of how to be a host in Hawaii.

Great trip if you are looking for kayaking and snorkeling!

My first time snorkeling and on a kayake. Mike and Rabbit were so patient with me when i was eager to get on land as fast as possible on the way back.
Other than my lack of sea legs the adventure was truly an adventure. They were fun and happy and showed us a lot of cool spots that i feel others wouldn’t have taken the time to do. They even recommended good places to eat on the island (see Shimaichi Sushi).
I also liked the fact that they obviously cared about the habitat and wanted everyone to see the beauty in it and be careful around the BABY DOLPHINS!!!

What a great time! It was so nice to get up early and we enjoyed the sun coming up over the bay. The kayak over to the monument is completely «do-​able». Moderate activity. The snorkeling was amazing and the water was so clear. There were a couple of humpbacks in the bay, but the dolphins were not.
Mike was our main guide and he is awesome. He is/​was a school teacher and it really shows. He has such great enthusiasm and is full of knowledge. We felt Mike and Adventures in Paradise really took care of us and the other customers.
We did the 7AM tour and I am SO GLAD we did. Any other time, or any other outfit, you will be there with hoards of other people.
We had fun and highly recommend Adventures in Paradise.
Just a side note: Our first attempt was cancelled due to high surf. Mike re-​scheduled us for two days later. While walking to our car a guy from another outfit said Mike was too cautious, or had some other reason to cancel. He offered to take us out later that afternoon. I’m SO glad we didn’t. Mike is the «real deal» and I feel this other guy was just out for a buck.
Funny note: When we were finished and pulling the kayaks out of the water we noticed a turtle and a manta ray directly beneath us in the water. We all «ooohed» and «ahhhed» for 5 minutes until Mike noted that it was NOT a manta ray, but a mata ray. One of the mats used on the pier and fallen in the water and was rolling around in the surf. We all felt like a bunch of morons, but had a good laugh.

We did a kayak and snorkel at Kealakekua Bay and the Captain Cook Monument.
There was a surf advisory, but was calm at the snorkelling location, so we paddled across the bay to snorkel at the State Marine life preserve.
Our guide, Mike, was awesome. He was great at getting us in and out of the water, despite the swells and tipping of kayaks. Would definitely do the the same trip with them again.