My husband and I went on this manta ray night snorkel and had a great time. The crew and captain were very helpful and knowledgeable. A once in a lifetime experience we recommend.
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Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/14 |
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This tour was amazing and worth every penny! We decided to do the circle tour on our first island day as an introduction to the Big Island and we couldn’t be more happy about it. Our guide, Jim was so knowledgeable and had such a soothing voice, his storytelling and information were great. I would recommend this tour to anyone.
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Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/31 |
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Captain Tony and his crew were so wonderful! They were funny and so informative. I would definitely do it again! They were so sweet to our two year old who was part of the snorkeling also. Make sure you take cash to tip them well because they definitely deserve it! The whole trip the captain and his trip hangout with everyone and cut up fresh fruit for everyone while serving drinks and making sure everyone is comfortable and has what they need. Definitely one of our top favorite things we did on the Big Island
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Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/30 |
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Dave was very knowledgeable he picked up on time from airport on time and we could cover entire island on one day very nice lunch and breakfast on time amazing tour
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Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/29 |
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So much fun. The location was beautiful, the crew was friendly and the service was great...oh and the plant based menu was delicious. Seeing dolphins made the day. I learned that orcas pass through Hawaiian waters and as a result the dolphins were swimming in and we were lucky enough to see them. Would have been fun to have paddleboards. We all loved it! Thank you.
Thank you for taking the time to let us know about your experience! We hope to see you again in the future. Leah
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Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/28 |
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This was a very interesting adventure. Our tour guide, Don, was fantastic. and helped make it a very enjoyable trip. He was very accommodating and made sure we saw as much as time would allow. Very long day but lots of good information and local lure.
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Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/18 |
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Nice ride in the ocean at night, beautiful skyline and warm ocean.
Rays pass by few inches from you, possibly enjoying themself as well.
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Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/07 |
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Bryce, our driver, was amazing! Made the tour everything it was. We all enjoyed the amazing tour with friendly employees and clean vehicle.
Thank you!
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Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/10 |
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My husband and I took our 15yr old son. We enjoyed the food, good portions and several options were available. The show was fascinating, and the performers were enjoying themselves which made the show even better. Would highly recommend.
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Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/22 |
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Overall, awesome experience! After reading reviews, I was super nervous about the validity of this site, especially considering that this site was able to get me tickets to a Luau that was sold out on all other sites. I called the venue to be reassured that this was a real site, and they confirmed it's validity! We showed up to the luau, had an amazing experience, and had 0 complications! Def. recommended!
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Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2021/07/27 |
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It was an amazing snorkeling adventure. My husband and I have never gone snorkeling the crew was amazing. They were helpful and very funny. I suggest doing this. You get to see many different types of animals and sights
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Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/21 |
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Tour guides were great, nice, and informative. Sadly did not see any manta rays on our cruise. They said this was highly unusual but still disappointing to not see any. They offered for us to go back on a future tour, but we were leaving the island and they do not offer any refunds.
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Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/01 |
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We left late and were, as far as I could tell, the last boat to arrive. The place was pretty packed with people from the other boats. The ocean is pretty big so I'm not sure if we were so clustered because there's one particular spot that is best or because of some other reason. For the safety of the manta rays and possibly for your own safety, you don't actually get to swim in the water but rather your entire group are always holding on to a shared flotation device. It's not a good thing or a bad thing but something you should be aware of before signing up.
We saw one manta ray, which was a nice experience. Right after we saw it, the crew packed us up and headed back to the harbor. These are wild creatures so it's not like you're guaranteed to see them but I was expecting the crew to keep us there a bit longer. Anyway, my kids liked it, but I still wouldn't recommend this experience.
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Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/20 |
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Not quite what I expected as you don’t get to snorkel around but breathtaking and amazing to watch those beautiful creatures at night in the light, it’s like they are dancing for you!
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Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2021/07/30 |
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This experience was unforgettable! Being on top of Mauna Kea above the clouds was the best sunset I’ve ever seen. The photos the crew took were very professional and the star gazing was great!
Aloha, Spencer
Thank you for participating in our tour. I am very happy that the weather was nice and everybody enjoyed the spectacular view from the summit of Mauna Kea.
Please join us on our tour next time again !!
Mahalo,
Hawaiian Eyes Tours
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Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2021/07/24 |
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Super fun boat ride with great boat crew. Mata rays were fun adventure
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Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2021/07/24 |
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Nice people running the boat, but there were SO many boats out there, and other boats had bigger/brighter lights - so they were all "oo-ing" over manta at their sites, and we were on the outskirts, only saw a handful flying by. No barrel rolls under us.
The worst part is you have to take such a long boatride to get out there, and we had to then get into the water and line up on a raft thing waiting at least 10 minutes in the cold water just waiting for sunset to get dark. We could've at least waited until closer to when out it was dark and the rays would come.
Plus my son and I also got seasick, since the waves were so bad - and it wasn't even the ocean that caused it, it was the motion of all the boats coming in. At least 10 other boats out there, figthing to see the manta.
Would definitely not do it again, for the torture in the process.
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Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/11 |
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Staff was very helpful especially with one in our party who just rode along and needed assistance getting on and off boat. Boat was a little crowded but staff very efficient at getting everyone into water. Manta rays swam just beneath us and seemed close enough to touch!
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Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/05 |
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Beautiful setting facing ocean, Show was entertaining, staff was attentive, Food was plentiful and good but not outstanding. Mai tais were tasty but seemed watered down.
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Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/06 |
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Lovely evening and views with informative narration and entertainment and great food.
Thank you so much for joining us! We appreciate the time you took to leave us a five star review! Mahalo! We hope to see you again some day!
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Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/07 |
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My husband and I got to experience this activity five years ago for the first time and we knew we had to bring our kids this time. Our kids liked the food and the family enjoyed the entertainment. It was great seeing Derek again (the musician/singer). He sang pearly shell again per our request :)
Aloha V&M N, Thanks for joining us again! We appreciate that you took the time to share your experience and rated us five stars! We wish you all the best!
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Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/08 |
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From the time we were picked up to when we were dropped off at our resort, we had a fantastic time on our tour with a awesome tour guide Shoyo. He was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot, and not just about Mauna Kea, the Observatories and stargazing but also about the Big Island and the area we drove through. This was a bucket list item for me and it did not disappoint in any way.
We went up to the visitors center for a half hour to acclimatize, then up summit (13,800 feet) and got our first taste of elevation. It is definitely a different experience! And it was surprisingly cold but they have cozy warm jackets to keep you comfy. The sunset is amazing as you are above the cloud line, which also makes for awesome photos!
Speaking of photos, our guide took some great ones of us, both on the summit during the sunset and of the stars, as well as amazing photos of the stars themselves. We were super lucky and got perfect weather and viewing conditions, not even any moon light to deal with.
The only thing that might surprise some is the amount of time you spend in the van driving back and forth and especially up to the summit. Totally worth it of course, and there was great commentary to make the time fly.
Aloha, Jenn,
Thank you for participating in our tour. I am very happy that the weather was nice and everybody enjoyed the spectacular view from the summit of Mauna Kea.
Please join us on our tour next time again !!
Mahalo,
Hawaiian Eyes Tours
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Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/06 |
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This was an event booking for my family. My 4 year old and 14 year old both equally enjoyed it. My for year old loved learning the hula. Food was plentiful and the story told was wonderful. All of the staff were efficient and super sweet.
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Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Activity Date: | 2021/07/13 |
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Bryce was awesome, very knowledgable. We had a big scare about the fire on the way back to the hotel and he was super professional about letting us know what was going on and even offered to stop at a grocery store in case no food options were open in the evening. Highly recommend!
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Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/01 |
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We had a great time viewing the sunset with our amazing guides Kekoa and Travis. There are a lot of companies that run these tours, but our guides made this one the best of them all. They were both very knowledgeable with a great sense of humor. Most of all, however, Kekoa and Travis have big smiles and even bigger hearts. They brought the spirit of Mauna Kea and o'hana into this experience. The sunset from the summit was miraculous, the lasagna and brownie absolutely delicious and the star gazing was out of this world!
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Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/04 |
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Pros: It was worthwhile to do this tour to see the entire Big Island all in one day, without having to do any driving. Adam was very informative and shared many Hawaiian mythical stories along the way. Enjoyed the extra stops at the bakery for Malasadas, the driver got us all plain ones, and the fruit stand we stopped at, at the end.
Cons: many errors due to the fact that Veltra books the tour, through the Hawaii Activities, but they don’t run the tour. So the lunch options were not the options listed when we booked. They called to clarify the meals for our group and still got the lunches completely wrong. No chicken on the salads, not enough sandwiches and too many plain veggie salads. Also, we booked a private tour. We booked a private tour. The website said private tour up to 10, we had 9, so we were under the impression we would be the only group on the tour. This was not the case! There was a group of three in the van when it arrived to pick us up. And the other group had much better looking lunches than ours for some reason. Another disappointing thing was that it was rainy and cold for the volcano portion of the tour. Our tour guide informed us that rainy weather is very very common at the volcano park and near Hilo. We were all dressed for warm weather and we were all freezing for a large part of the tour. Our van had 6 rain jackets, but 12 passengers. It would have been very helpful if the person that called to confirm the tour would have told us there is a chance it might be rainy. One last thing, we accidentally left some candy purchases on the tour bus, we called the company, but have not heard back about retrieving these purchases.
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Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2021/08/04 |
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We loved all the cultural dances and the food was amazing! Great experience on our honeymoon.
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Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2021/06/22 |
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This experience is one of a kind - having manta rays come right up to you as they feed on plankton in the bay! We were provided with a wet suit (top only for adults, body suit for children), snorkel, and mask.
Once anchored, you will slip into the water at the back of the boat, swim over to the lighted surfboards with handles, grip the handles and let your body float flat on the surface. They will give you a pool noodle to help with this. The manta rays will come right up to the surfboard and gently roll over as they feed on plankton that the light illuminates. I will add that it may seem like a short amount of time (about 30 minutes), but by the time they brought us in, I had started to get cold and my arms started aching from holding the handles the whole time. It was worth it for the experience.
If you are not a strong swimmer, they will offer to help you.
All the members of the crew on my boat were great! Very friendly and helpful. Thank you so much!
My one concern is regarding the number of other boats and people also participating in the same activity. There were quite a few and my concern was for the safety and protection of the manta rays. However, it does seem that the manta rays are not in danger and gain something out of the experience themselves because it provides a better opportunity for feeding that they would not have otherwise. The crew also show a great respect and love for them as well.
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Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2021/07/31 |
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The whole experience was well done. Captain Danielle and her crew mate were knowledgeable, kind and helpful. We saw tons of mantas doing endless barrel rolls inches from our masks!!! The boat ride is brief and we spent plenty of time in the water on the light-board. FYI- You need to be able to climb up a 3-rung boat ladder to get out of the water, it went fine with our tour but I could imagine that might be tough for some. Well worth the time and money!!
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Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2021/07/30 |
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We had the best time, the crew was fantastic, nice boat, brand new wetsuits, we enjoyed this trip so much. And the hot chocolate after the swim was a perfect touch! We saw I think 5-7 mantas and they were with us the entire dive.
Thank you for joining with us.
We are glad you felt warmth with Hot chocolate, too ;)
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Attended as: | Friends |
Activity Date: | 2021/07/11 |
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Reply from activity provider
An unexpected error has occurred. Please go back to the previous page and try again, or wait a few minutes and try once again.
Aloha Leslie,
Mahalo for taking the time to review us and sharing your wonderful pictures! We hope to have the pleasure of you joining us on your next visit to the islands :)