Snorkeling in Winter in Maui?

By Susan – (Columbia, SC)
We are going to Maui at the end of January to “meet the whales” from Alaska. Well, I never hear you say much about snorkeling in winter in Maui. Do you think it’s really bad that time of year? We went in March and it wasn’t terrible depending on the place and time. I went in January, 2005 but wasn’t snorkeling at that time. Tell me your thoughts. I’m having some second thoughts about going that early and hope we don’t get snowed in at Dulles airport.

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Galen & Nicole – Nov 28, 2010 – Times of Year for Snorkeling in Maui

We have snorkeled Maui in March and we got a good amount of snorkeling in. Sometimes you can actually have less wind in the winter because of lower temperatures. But you can depend on the afternoon winds in Maui all year round.

In winter Hawaii gets swells from the north, so the snorkel spots in the north will be affected by those, but south Maui snorkeling is not as affected by north swell. There is the possibility of stronger currents if the swell is up. Water temperatures will be five or six degrees cooler than in summer. So all and all you may do just fine, and we would say go for it. Just be aware of what the weather is doing and don’t take any risks.

Check out our when to snorkel Hawaii page for more information.

December, 2010: We have released our Maui Snorkeling Guide eBook that has useful information about water and weather conditions on Maui.

Update: We have released our Maui Snorkeling Guide second edition which can be found at the link above.

Susan – Nov 28, 2010 – Thanks

Thanks. I feel better now. I will tell my husband to hang on to his seasick meds since we’ll be out whale watching too. I remember a trip we took to Molokai that had everyone except for a of few of us seasick thanks to the afternoon winds. It seems to me the Hawaii weather is a lot trickier than the Caribbean.

I also wanted to thank you for doing such a good job with this website. Your knowledge of cameras and the weather and not to mention snorkeling has been a great help to me and others, I’m sure. Also, it allows us to share our experiences. Keep it up. 😎

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