Best shore diving/snorkeling close to Hawaii

Hi everyone,

My girlfriend and I have about 9 days of vacation time coming up this January/February. We're both ocean fanatics but I'm a dive and underwater photo nut and she prefers snorkeling due to the extreme sinus pain she gets every time when diving. Rather than do a live aboard, which is all about diving, we decided to compromise on a land based place that offers both great snorkeling and diving close or preferable right in front of the accommodations. I know there are many ideal places for this (surrounding areas near Bali, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands...) but given the short vacation time we'd like to minimize fly time to less than 10 hours. We both live in Honolulu and have been to several places in Fiji, which had amazing fish and coral life, viz/weather and friendly people. We've considered Tahiti but heard it's expensive and overrun and may not have the exotic reefs of Fiji close to shore. The Marshals have beautiful reefs but somewhat poor accommodations. I was hoping someone here could recommend a place near those areas. Nothing fancy just clean housing, decent food and something different than Hawaii's reefs have to offer. Thanks in advance for any tips!!

Frank

Hi Frank, the only place I can think of that fits your description above (close to Hawaii, nothing fancy just clean housing, decent food and something different than Hawaii's reefs) is Majuro (Marshall Islands).

I've been there a few months ago and stayed at Robert Reimers Hotel. The hotel is decent (not fancy, but not poor either, the bungalows are great), the diving is awesome and you can snorkel at all dive spots where I went to. The dive operation is next door to the hotel, they have a friendly staff and will certainly accomodate your needs. And it is only 4 hours from Honolulu.

Aloha,

Luiz

How about shore diving right in Hawaii. Lot's of great places.

I thought this site gave useful descriptions of the shore diving sites. We enjoyed the shore diving better than the boat diving (less crowed, go at your own pace, just as good as the boat sites)