We offer two main tours. 

Our main tour and what we believe to be the best value is our 4-hour snorkel adventure tour. This tour visits the most spots down the Nā Pali Coast, includes a deli lunch, all snorkel gear is provided, 20L dry-bags to keep your belongings dry onboard, and cold bottled water and soft drinks. 

The Sight-See Adventure Tour is a 2-hour tour of the Nā Pali Coast that includes all of the above except snorkeling and dry bags. Because it is a shorter tour we only visit the Nā Paliʻs highlights.

We offer private charters for both of our main tour options. We can do our standard tour, just you and your special guests, but we’ve also done weddings, family outings, engagements, photo shoots, even memorial services. We can personalize your tour as conditions allow. 

We recommend booking your private charter as far in advance as possible as we have limited availability as we get closer to the departure date. 

Please call our office so we can best accommodate you.

Please check your booking confirmation email for correct check-in location, time, and procedures to follow. We are happy to answer any questions prior to your trip to assist you!

Kekaha – Check-in will be at Kikiaola small boat harbor. There is ample parking available, so please park at your convenience and walk over to the gazebo by the dock. One of our Captains or Crew will meet you there for check in. Please note you will be boarding from a wooden dock onto the vessel.

We actually are able to choose between two amazing snorkel locations for your snorkel tour, we are the only Nā Pali boat tour company that has this option from Hanalei. We have a mooring on the outside of Makua Reef or commonly known as tunnels. Our second location is Nualolo Kai, a reef on the outside of an ancient Hawaiian fishing village and archaeological site. Because we have two snorkel locations, our captains are better able to provide the best possible snorkeling experience.

You do not have to snorkel on the snorkel tour. After touring all the major spots down the Nā Pali Coast – including sea caves – we spend an hour at one of our amazing snorkel locations to have lunch and provide the opportunity to our guests to snorkel. These snorkel locations are only accessible by boat. 

Every guest is free to take this hour at their own leisure, whether that means using our snorkel gear to see some amazing wildlife, taking photos, having their lunch, sunbathing, hanging out on the vessel with the captain & crew, or just swimming with no snorkel gear. We encourage our guests to spend this hour however they see fit.

Absolutely. If you have a snorkel set you are comfortable with, you are more than welcome to bring your own snorkel gear – especially if you have a prescription lens mask. You are also more than welcome to mix and match your gear with our own to ensure you have the best snorkel experience. 

We do ask that you are mindful of how much gear you bring onboard.

We want to note that our captains will not allow you to use a full frontal face mask. These have a risk of carbon monoxide build-up and we restrict use of these for your safety.

Our tours are family friendly! We can accommodate children above the age of four. We have no upper age limit, but we do want to make sure you meet the following physical requirements:

Absolutely must be able to

• Able to wade through up-to waist high water to board the boat
• Able to climb a step ladder 

If unable to, can still go on tour just cannot snorkel

• Able to pull oneself up a dive ladder after snorkeling

We can accommodate passengers of any age on our private charters.

We have a strict no refund policy for no-shows or late arrivals, you are responsible for getting to the check-in location on time. We have many other guests on the tour, so out of courtesy to the entire group, we have to stick to the schedule as closely as possible. 

However, we understand that situations may arise that could make it difficult to get to your tour on time. We provide a 10 minute grace period after the tour departure time for any no-shows or late arrivals. We will be contacting you throughout the check-in time to make sure you are on your way and can find us, so please check your phones and email.

We are happy to make time accommodations for private tours.

Depending on the time of year, our morning tours usually depart anywhere between 7:00-8:00 a.m., however most usually depart at 7:30 a.m. Our afternoon tours depart anywhere between 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Availability is viewable on our online booking calendar under any of the “book now” buttons on our website. What you see is what we see, so the availability is always accurate. Sometimes we can change availability if we have space to move spots around. See next question for more details on this.

Hereʻs what we’re working with! 

Our main vessel Ikaika has seating for up to 18 passengers. Our permit allows us to take 30 passengers per day. We require a minimum of 10 guests to confirm a tour. 

Therefore, we try to divide the tours based on these strict parameters. Often, that looks like 18 and 12 guests on each tour. However, we can rearrange our passenger counts based on availability and demand, just as long as we stay within these parameters. 

Weʻve built our tours around maximizing the best possible experience for each and every guest. Please call us if you have any questions about availability and passenger counts, we are happy to make adjustments for you and your party so long as we can meet our minimum requirements.

We do! If we do not have availability, our waitlist feature allows you to put down your contact info and party size for the dates and time slots youʻd like to go on. We give preference chronologically, so make sure to sign up ahead of time. If there is any change in availability and we can accommodate your party size, we will reach out to see if youʻd like to make a reservation.

We permit you to bring alcohol on the tours as long as it is not in glass containers. We have a large cooler we fill with ice for every tour that you can store it in. We kindly ask that you drink responsibility and respect the captain, crew, and other guests onboard. The captain reserves the right to limit or restrict consumption of alcohol if they deem it is unsafe or will result in a poor tour experience for everyone.

Our cancellation policy depends on whether you or we have to cancel. 

If you have to cancel:

1-4 passengers: 48 hour advance notice 

5-9 passengers: 72 hour advance notice

10+ passengers: 96 hour advance notice

Private Charters: 1 week advance notice

**Requesting to cancel or reschedule your booking with less than the required advance notice for your party size is non-refundable. In addition, bookings are non-refundable if you arrive after departure time. We do not offer refunds if it is raining, if you experience seasickness, if the captain modifies the tour route and/or water activity (our captains make these decisions for safety), or for no-shows. 

If we have to cancel:

If we have to cancel for any reason, we will give you the option to either rebook or give you a full refund, whichever works best for you. 

Medical Reasons

If a medical emergency keeps you from joining the tour inside our cancellation window, we can offer a full refund with a valid doctorʻs note. Without this documentation, the standard cancellation policy remains in effect.

If you’re prone to seasickness, we recommend taking motion sickness medication 24 hours prior to your trip and an hour before departure. Please note that some motion sickness medication can cause some slight drowsiness.

Ginger chews and wristbands can also help.

Let your captain and crew know if you’re experiencing seasickness while on your trip. They have some remedies that might help.

Our captain and crew will do everything possible to ensure a smooth ride, but ocean conditions vary.

We believe there are a number of reasons you will have the best Nā Pali Coast experience with us:

Reasons that make us unique

1. We are the only Native-Hawaiian owned and operated Nā Pali Coast boat tour company departing from the North Shore of Kauaʻi. We have deep roots here and we are a family run business. We believe in entrepreneurship as self-determination and we believe in protecting our ʻāina (land). This means your support of our business directly supports kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiians) being able to prosper in our own lands. We also believe this translates to how we conduct our tours, in the stories we share with you, in the aloha we give, and the deeply rooted knowledge we have of our sacred spaces, how to conduct oneself in them, and how to best appreciate them. 
2. We are the only North Shore tour company that has two snorkel locations to choose from. Makua Reef and Nualolo Kai. Having two locations to choose from every tour lets us give you the best possible conditions for the day. Other companies have to snorkel at only one designated location, regardless of how the conditions might be.
3. We can depart from either side of the island. We can depart from Hanalei Bay (North) and Kekaha (West), giving you the best option for the time of year and where you are staying. 
4. Custom designed vessels – we designed our vessels to maximize your experience of the Nā Pali. The size of our vessels allows us to provide you a smooth comfortable ride while still allowing entry into our sea-caves. We chose the catamaran hull design to maximize stability. Our open-air design allows you the best possible views, being able to look directly above you at the sheer cliffs and waterfalls as we travel right alongside the Nā Pali coastline.