Big island manta ray snorkel plus#

This tour is suitable for the whole family. Join Kona’s top-rated and most reviewed snorkel company, Kona Snorkel Trips, for the manta ray snorkel experience of a lifetime! They are our sister company and focus on snorkel tours in Kona, Hawaii. Do not chase, grab, or try to take a ride on the mantas.ONE of THE MOST POPULAR BIG ISLAND SNORKELING TOURS! This will rub off their protective mucus coating. If you do a tour, please observe the rules that make this incredible experience possible by ensuring the safety of the manta rays: Manta rays in Hawaiian waters are protected by law.

Big island manta ray snorkel plus#

Make sure to take a towel to dry yourself off and a jacket to keep warm, plus underwear and a wetbag for swimsuits. To me it looks like an underwater ballet as they gracefully swim and somersault through the light beams.īack on the boat, we were given hot cocoa and light snacks while we head back to the harbour. The bright lights brought by the tour operators attract the plankton, and the plankton attracts the manta rays. In the water, the manta rays swoop through the water in circles, coming right up to the swimmers and often brushing up against them with their massive wings as they open their mouths and catch plankton.

Keep in mind the tour is at night and even with a wetsuit on it can get cold in the water.

The time in the water is about 30 minutes. It’s pretty stunning watching the sun set over the ocean as we make our way out to the manta ray site.Īt the site, after donning our wetsuits, we slid into the water and hung on to their custom-made light board to watch the huge, acrobatic, gentle giants feed on tiny pieces of plankton.

The Honokohau Manta ray night snorkel tour departs from Honokohau Harbor in the evening, with a 20-30 minute boat ride to the manta ray site. We were provided with mask, snorkel and wetsuit. Snorkeling with the mantas on this tour is either at the Northern site near the Kona Airport (Manta Heaven) or down South at Keauhou Bay (Manta Village) depending on which area is having the better sightings. This makes for a much more personal experience with the manta rays. The tour goes for two hours, with only six passengers on board. I cannot recommend either company highly enough for their help in booking us in at extremely short notice and for the amazing tour. The tour we ended up taking was booked through Hawaiian Island Ocean Tours – the actual tour was run through their sister company Snorkel Big Island. The moral of this story for me is don’t stress the decision because any tour will be a good tour at the end of the day if you swim with manta rays! While initially I had done my research and chose the tour with the shortest distance travelled due to my propensity for seasickness, at the end of the day we just had to take whatever we could and it was absolutely fine. As we were desperate to still do the tour and at short notice our options were limited, we called around every tour operator until we found one with vacancies. While we were on our trip however we were struck down with a virus and unable to do our booked tour. We had booked our tour many months out (and highly suggest doing the same as the tours book up). You can get further info on the pros and cons of visiting each site on this excellent website: /big-island-manta-ray-night-dive. A third, less reliable but also less crowded location, is off the Waikoloa coast near the Kohala Coast Resorts. The two most popular and consistent for the manta ray sightings are nicknamed “Manta Village” and “Manta Heaven”. There are three main locations on the Big island that are recommended for swimming with manta rays. If you get seasick like I do, I suggest choosing a company that has a short distance to travel from where their boats launch and the manta ray site they visit. There are several tour operators and locations where you can enjoy manta ray snorkelling. With life spans of up to 50 years, each manta ray is well known and all of the Kona manta rays have been named. The Manta rays live in the waters off the Hawaiian islands their entire lives, filtering plankton out of the water with their giant mouths. They can grow up to a wingspan of 5.5m (18 ft), with the rays around Kona around 12ft. The Mobula alfredi species of manta rays that live in the Hawaiian waters are the second largest species of manta rays. Watch giant mantas up close on a manta ray night snorkel in Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. Manta Ray Night Snorkel on the Big Island of Hawaii Septem/ Hawaii, Travel, USA / 0 comment Manta Ray Night Snorkel on the Big Island of Hawaii