Amazing and respectful sea-life experience with this operation on 5/12/12. Opted for the half-day "Best of the West" option, which included 2 "bonus" snorkel dives (I was in it for the dolphins). The first snorkel dip was to a sea turtle cleaning station and we were well rewarded with about 30 minutes of interaction with relatively relaxed sea turtles. Also... More

This week I had the chance to do two Best of the West trips with the team - Tori, Lynne and Downing. Elizabeth gave us great advice before the trip and after around an hours drive from Waikiki, we boarded our catamaran. With a max of 6 people, this really felt friendly and you got to know the other guests... More

My wife and I took the best of the west cruise last month (4/1/12) and were both thoroughly impressed by the whole operation. With such a small group, we were all able to agree that we wanted to concentrate on whales so after a short swim with the dolphins, we spent most of the trip between two pods of whales.... More

This was our second tour with Tori and the gang and it was once again AMAZING. We did the Best of the West Tour last time with six people and a half day and were very impressed so opted for a full day charter this time. Captain D was great and my daughters had an amazing time with the guides... More

Chose this tour over the others because it seemed less commercially driven and more personal than the others, and it was fantatic. Great crew, very friendly and genuine. Clearly had respect for the animals, but also worked to get us the best views and experiences with the wildlife. We saw a couple of turtles swimming but weather was not conducive... More

I am a known italian travel journalist, and I have been all over the world. Let me tell you: is not easy to find such a professional team of people, very knowledgable, sustainable and pleasant. They truly love nature and know how to handle every sort of client. This is everything you want from hawaii. Strongly Recommended! More

I looked at many outfits offering tours to swim with wild dolphins but Wild Side Specialty Tours won out. Their mission statement, type of boat, smaller group size and committed naturalists really seemed to be in line with our approach to nature. We were a family group of six - three experienced and three fairly nervous snorkelers. Lynn, Ashley and... More

Great morning on the ocean, we got a really extensive orientation to equipment use, safety and wildlife observation in the water. We saw dolphins right away, went right in the water to swim along, wow, dolphins can really swim. After a while we went way out on the ocean and saw some whales, one was really close and we went... More

We'd done this back in 2010 and loved it so much we had to come back. We really wanted to do the "Best in the West" tour again, as it's so worth the extra money for a smaller group, but it was Spring Break and it was all booked up so we opted for the regular morning tour. (Advice to... More