Holoholo Charters?
 

Just curious if anyone has take the Holoholo charter snorkeling tour at Kauai to Na Pali and Ni'ihau. Any recommendations or comments?

No experience with the operation, but have experienced the waters. During the summer months, in general, the seas are calmer but still can be challenging if you are not a comfortable sailor. From Kauai`i to Ni`ihau, expect a smooth ride with a following sea in the morning. Later in the morning, the wind should come up and you will heading into the seas. The wind chop might cause some spray over the bow. The Na Pali coast is on the windward side of Kaua`i, so it's unsheltered from the trade winds. Typical Hawaiian summer conditions for the area are coastal seas 2'-4' and 4'-8' in the open ocean. It's not uncommon to see spinner dolphins, turtles, and flying fish along the way.

You might need to be a little flexible on your time; if it's windy or raining one day - you might be more comfortable on a different day.

There's some additional information on the second page of the thread below.

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=284362

Super! Thank you. (sounds like I will need a supply of Bonine :) )

two friends who also live here, and work in the travel biz, went on the niihau snorkel trip (which never touches land on niihau btw), and enjoyed it very much. they said you'd better love the water, since you are on it all day. reported it being a nice and fast boat , good crew, etc. we might try it on a day when the water is glassy smooth. otherwise not.

We did the Na Pali cruise last December and I was overall impressed with the crew and operation. Included in the price was all the Heineken you wanted and a decent dinner buffet. Our deckhands John and Scottie were very accommodating with the beer service. They graciously accept tips at the end of the cruise. We got very lucky for December with water conditions and were able to get right up to the coast. The only downside was this was a sunset cruise and there was no sunset to speak of that we could see (clouds). We did see a whale far off. Another good thing about Holoholo is they donate trips to GenerousAdventures.com. By purchasing our trip through that charity we got two cruises for a total of $75 and all (100%) of the proceeds went to breast cancer research. ^

We were just in Hawaii in June and went on the Napali/ Nihue snorkel tour. Our trip was an 11 out of 10. Seas were releatively calm that day 2 -4 ft. Captain was very knowledgable. Slowed down to go with the dolphins. Snorkeling part was excellent visability to about 80 ft, saw large variety of fish, an octopus, and a 3 ft reef shark, turtles. I also enjoyed watching the captian snorkel dive ( he would go down about 30 ft). We saw rough toothed dolphins, spinner dolphins and bottle nose dolphins, and flying fish. To top the day off as we were heading back to port (already at least 30 minutes over our 7 hour tour time). The boat came to a sudden stop, and the crew started running around getting snorkel gear ( I was sitting in the cabin at this time and thought someone fell overboard), but no it was the last of our marine sightings for the day. A 25 - 30 foot whale shark, the captain allowed anyone that had gear to go in for a visit -- I only wish I would have known that a whale shark was a filter feeder earlier. The people that went in said that it was an awesome sight. I doubt that if we went again it would be the same, but there were several people that had been out with this group more than once. You will get wet, you will get a lot of sun, but it was the trip of a lifetime. We used the entertainment coupon.

On a sideline we went with Captain Andy's last year. I enjoyed the trip, the group as a whole was more a "party group", but the captain, snorkeling, and marine life sightings did not hold a candle to Holoholo (Before Holoholo I would have given Captain Andy's a 8 / 10 (boat trip 10 /10, snorkeling wasn't worth the effort of getting the gear on)