Maui: Snorkeling at Last

Our hunt for the perfect snorkeling spot didn’t bear fruit until our last day in Hawaii. A lifeguard suggested a place on Maui’s north shore, so we went hunting for it. Eventually, we rounded a corner and saw this perfect, calm, bay with sparkling clear water.


There was no obvious sign or parking lot, but we noticed some cars pulled off the road, so we parked with them. We then had to trek about a quarter of a mile through thick jungle along a poorly marked, unpaved path.


Soon, we came upon this ominous sign.


A little farther along the trail, we crossed a shallow ditch. Someone had made a narrow wooden walkway across the ditch, and painted this sign.


At the end of the trail was Honalua Bay; one of the best snorkeling spots in Hawaii, and one of the absolute worst beaches in the world. Here’s why:



Those rocks are the size of watermelons. Most of them are stable, but some rock when you step on them. Walking even short distances involved serious risk of a fractured skull. But the view was gorgeous. That’s the island of Molokai in the distance.


We donned our snorkels, masks and flippers and headed out into the bay. Almost immediately, I discovered that I had some sort of sinus condition that prevented me from diving further than 2 feet without excruciating ear pain.

So I handed off the camera to my wife, and I climbed back up onto the rocky beach. I reclined there for an hour or so in awkward discomfort with boulders poking at my internal organs. Eventually, my wife returned, ecstatic about the quality of the snorkeling in Honolua Bay. We headed back to the hotel to shower and change for our trip back to Orlando.

Here are some of the pictures my wife took.