By Dave Slonecker
We’ve snorkeled the Big Island Hawaii twice in the last year. Once in May 2023 and once in October 2022. Here are some of the spots we explored.
We had good snorkeling on the left side of Makaiwa Bay (Mauna Lani Beach) seeing quite a few fish and a black tip and a white tip reef shark at the drop-off past the point. There was bad visibility this time on the right.
Puako at end of the road at the keyhole was great one time and rough water another time. Be careful of shallow water out to the right at times.
Lapakahi Park in north Kohala area is nice under water scenery, just be sure to go in at the correct spot at the right not the sacred part to the left.
Two Steps is a great spot and worth paying $5 to park across the road. If you don’t feel the need to enter at the “two steps,” just go out at the boat ramp if there are no boats in the area. If you go out to the left a ways there can be some magical times going with the waves in about two feet of water and just going with the flow.
The beach in front of the Kona Village Resort (Kahuwai Bay) was not that great this time but clarity wasn’t good when we went.
We didn’t see many turtles the last two trips but we were only able to snorkel about half the days both times. As we’ve learned, snorkel when the weather is good because you don’t know what tomorrow will be like.
Thank you Dave for sharing your 2023 Big Island Hawaii snorkeling experiences.
We have linked above to information about some of the spots Dave mentioned. The rest of the spots he mentioned are detailed in our Big Island Snorkeling Guide eBook.