On the Water
3 hours
Free cancellation
Not sure? You can cancel this reservation up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund.
Recommended by 93% of travelers
93% of reviewers gave this product a bubble rating of 4 or higher.
from
$136
per adult
Hilo Ocean Adventures
Hilo Ocean Adventures
4.5
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Monday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Tuesday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Wednesday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Friday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Sunday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Full view
About
Hilo Ocean Adventures is a family-friendly, safe, and exciting scuba diving store right in Hilo. With a strong commitment to fun, Hilo Ocean Adventures provides scuba certifications and dive tours in all the favorite shore spots- and more! We also have the only Dive/Snorkel boat in Hilo!! Whether to purchase some new gear, to fill a tank, or check the shore report, we can't wait to meet you!
Hilo, Hawaii
Meets animal welfare guidelines
Awards
Travelers' Choice
2024
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Improve this listingTours and Tickets by Hilo Ocean Adventures
Historical Tours
2 hours
Free cancellation
Not sure? You can cancel this reservation up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund.
from
$101
per adult
On the Water
2 hours
Free cancellation
Not sure? You can cancel this reservation up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund.
from
$185
per adult
Scuba Diving
4–5 hours
Free cancellation
Not sure? You can cancel this reservation up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund.
from
$185
per adult
Scuba Diving
4 hours
Free cancellation
Not sure? You can cancel this reservation up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund.
from
$340
per adult
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
4.5
346 reviews
Excellent
274
Very good
30
Average
8
Poor
22
Terrible
12
Elisabeth B
Yosemite National Park, California, USA29 contributions
Nov 2022 • Family
We had a destination wedding on the Big Island with 14 family members and scheduled a shore based snorkeling adventure on the morning of the wedding through another adventure company. The week before we left, we received an email that the company would be unable to take the trip and we were left scrambling! Seriously totally freaked out as we own our own adventure company in Yosemite and know how hard it would be to find a provider last minute.
Got through to Devin at Hilo Ocean Adventures and everything was solved. They didn’t usually take out large groups, but knew we needed help so they worked things around and figured how to make it work. In fact, they were so freaking amazing at navigating the shores with our large wedding party, I really hope they consider doing these large private trips more often!
Let me give you an example: Our group consisted of 14 people ranging from 13 - 81 of varying swimming aptitudes. Morgan, one of the guides, immediately finds my mom, the eldest of the group, and stays with her the ENTIRE time we are at the first stop. He got her in the water safely, made sure her goggles stayed up, held a floaty around her waist, and helped her locate a turtle. We never talked about it in advance, he just stepped up and made sure that she was included and cared for! Adam, stayed with the two teenage boys, simultaneously making sure they were having fun without getting too adventurous or doing anything that would unintentionally harm wildlife. Before the adventure Devin was scouting the shores to find the best stops and secure parking. Really top notch service! They continued to seamlessly switch roles throughout the adventures, always making sure the group and surrounding environment was safe.
I am so happy that we were cancelled last minute by that other company and were able to find Hilo Ocean Adventures last minute. Thank you Devin, Adam and Morgan for making my wedding day one that the entire group will remember for the rest of our lives. Mahalo
Got through to Devin at Hilo Ocean Adventures and everything was solved. They didn’t usually take out large groups, but knew we needed help so they worked things around and figured how to make it work. In fact, they were so freaking amazing at navigating the shores with our large wedding party, I really hope they consider doing these large private trips more often!
Let me give you an example: Our group consisted of 14 people ranging from 13 - 81 of varying swimming aptitudes. Morgan, one of the guides, immediately finds my mom, the eldest of the group, and stays with her the ENTIRE time we are at the first stop. He got her in the water safely, made sure her goggles stayed up, held a floaty around her waist, and helped her locate a turtle. We never talked about it in advance, he just stepped up and made sure that she was included and cared for! Adam, stayed with the two teenage boys, simultaneously making sure they were having fun without getting too adventurous or doing anything that would unintentionally harm wildlife. Before the adventure Devin was scouting the shores to find the best stops and secure parking. Really top notch service! They continued to seamlessly switch roles throughout the adventures, always making sure the group and surrounding environment was safe.
I am so happy that we were cancelled last minute by that other company and were able to find Hilo Ocean Adventures last minute. Thank you Devin, Adam and Morgan for making my wedding day one that the entire group will remember for the rest of our lives. Mahalo
Written November 15, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Conor1608
Columbia, MD1 contribution
Sep 2021
I had a great time in September on a mid-week dive with Doug and Siobhan from HOA. We did two shore dives from Hilo, warm water, excellent and very friendly dive master Doug, and assistant Siobhan. Doug really went the extra mile to tell us about local history, explain Hawaiian words, and decipher fish types. The cherry on the top came when we saw a host of green sea turtles swimming around on our second dive while returning to shore. Quite magical!
Written October 7, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
zsobel
United States3 contributions
May 2021
Doug was a fantastic dive instructor. I have never been scuba diving before, and he spent the time to ensure I knew what I was doing and confident. We started in a pool to gain confidence then had an amazing couple of dives that lasted in total 90 minutes. We saw multiple sea turtles, innumerable fish, beautiful coral, and went down to 50 feet. I couldn't recommend this experience enough. Also, the tour groups are small (under five usually), so you get all the personal instruction you need to feel good jumping into the water.
Written May 26, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Rabbity1
Auckland Central, New Zealand78 contributions
Apr 2020
I am writing this review as I have had a bad experience with this company. We booked two snorkelling tours way back in March, and when our cruise was cancelled, we cancelled the tour giving this company a whole month's notice. (The tour was sold as fully cancel-able with 24 hours notice & full refunds given). Since then I've been given nothing but the run around, with excuses, promises, but no refund. It's been almost 6 months now. My polite emails now go unanswered. I appreciate Covid19 is hard for everyone, especially businesses,but given the amount of notice I gave and the fact they advertised that it was fully refundable but won't even answer messages now really makes me angry. I don't normally write bad reviews, and $350 is not a lot of money in the scheme of things, but some honesty art the start would have made a difference too, instead of promising refunds that never come & then just ignoring me.
I travel to Hilo about once every year by ship and have toured with this company before, but never again now.
They are still marketing to me, by email, trying to sell me new tours, so clearly still operating.
I'm very sorry to say that I find them untrustworthy and would not pre-pay a tour with them again & cannot recommend them.
I travel to Hilo about once every year by ship and have toured with this company before, but never again now.
They are still marketing to me, by email, trying to sell me new tours, so clearly still operating.
I'm very sorry to say that I find them untrustworthy and would not pre-pay a tour with them again & cannot recommend them.
Written August 20, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Aloha,
Thank you for you review. I sympathize with your frustration and the lack of communication is unacceptable. We are currently processing refunds from March, as funds are available. This is a long process for us as we have experienced 10's of thousands of dollars in losses from tour companies who have permanently closed. We never received monies from these 3rd party operators who collected for our tours pre COVID-19. Per contract, they are to pay 60 days post tours. This means all crew were paid and guests received tours, and Hilo Ocean Adventures was never paid. This entire situation is a domino effect, we are doing our best to keep the doors open to ensure we can refund every person's money. I am not sure if you are aware, the governor of Hawaii has extended quarantine restrictions month after month, leaving the entire tourism industry crippled. We are processing refunds in partial payments over a course of a few weeks/months. I would be willing to put you to the top of the list however, I can not guarantee how soon that refund will take place. If you would be willing to work with me on this, I will do what I can as soon as I can. Again, with no tourism and no more financial breaks for permits, rent, utilities and all other business expenses this will be a longer process. A gift card is still an option for future tours with Hilo Ocean Adventures, and would help tremendously in supporting our local business. Again, I sympathize with your frustration and I am willing to work through it. Please contact me personally at natalie@hilooceanadventures.com
Written August 21, 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Emily V
Los Angeles, CA151 contributions
Jun 2022
I wish I knew this BEFORE I got taken in and ended up booking with this company but mantas aren't on the Hilo side of the island, they are on the Kona side, which was sold out. Despite the description on this site, the story line they pitched when we actually showed up (with only 3 other people to be taken out on a small dinghy because their larger boat was "broken" - a woman even refused to go out when she saw the boat) was that we should remember this was a manta "discovery" tour and the group wouldn't necessarily see any mantas they were going to go out to try and see if they could "discover" any. This was supposed to be funny at $150?
We were asked to show up at 5, fitted for a wet suit and left sit boiling on the dock for 90 mins, then taken out on a rickety fishing boat, told to hold on to a small surfboard/raft with a light on it to look at literally nothing in the water for an hour. Maybe a few fish. There was never going to be any mantas, which is disappointing. Do yourself a favor and stick to the Kona side for this.
Seems from other reviews that there are experiences this company offers that are great - like snorkeling, seeing dolphins or seeing the shoreline. But they should sell what they've actually got to offer and be honest about what that is. In this instance, they didn't do that. Beware of the manta "discovery" tour. You won't discover anything but an empty wallet and empty water.
We were asked to show up at 5, fitted for a wet suit and left sit boiling on the dock for 90 mins, then taken out on a rickety fishing boat, told to hold on to a small surfboard/raft with a light on it to look at literally nothing in the water for an hour. Maybe a few fish. There was never going to be any mantas, which is disappointing. Do yourself a favor and stick to the Kona side for this.
Seems from other reviews that there are experiences this company offers that are great - like snorkeling, seeing dolphins or seeing the shoreline. But they should sell what they've actually got to offer and be honest about what that is. In this instance, they didn't do that. Beware of the manta "discovery" tour. You won't discover anything but an empty wallet and empty water.
Written July 9, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We are so sorry you didn't enjoy your tour. Although we didn't see mantas on your trip we do appreciate you being a part of the Manta Discovery tour. Kona side has been doing manta tours over 20 years as we are still building a relationship with these gentle giants in Hilo. There are indeed mantas on all sides of the island; there is no guarantee we will find them every night, they are wild animals. Again we apologize that our tour and ribbed inflatable boat did not meet your standards.
I will add, the fitting of wetsuits takes place at our shop. We have NEVER let our guest stand at the boat dock in the dark for an hour and a half, this is a false statement.
Overall we explained the circumstances with you and your party, we even offered an opportunity to cancel and get a full refund. You chose otherwise.
Written August 26, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Jessica B
1 contribution
May 2021 • Couples
We were so excited to find a Stand Up Paddle Board rental walking distance from the water (Reeds Bay). The rental was a reasonable price ($45 for 3 hrs). The transaction went off without a hitch. When we picked up our boards we noticed that the boards did not have fins. I asked the employee about the missing fin and she assured us it was okay and all we had to do was shift our weight on the board. I believed her. Needless to say, she was wrong! The fin is super important to stay straight in still water. I have my own smaller board and felt that if she said it was ok (this is a much bigger board than what I own) I would follow her advice. We had just SUP’d to Cook Monument 2 days before, so we know how to paddle! Today we were spinning with every stroke having to continually correct our course. It was beyond frustrating! We never made it to the mouth of the bay, we turned back and immediately called the store telling them about our frustrations. They initially wanted us to come back and pick up the fins. After we had already lugged our boards 2 blocks to the water?!?! Really?!?! So we asked for a refund. They changed their tone and said they could bring us the fins. By that point we were too frustrated to continue. It ruined our day! To top it all off, they would not give us a refund, saying that we were offered a remedy. It was too late! Do NOT rent paddle boards from this place! Unless you like being frustrated, use poorly maintained SUP boards, and spending most of your time correcting your course!!!
Written May 7, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
mtman3075
1 contribution
Oct 2022 • Family
Came in on the cruise ship and all excursions were booked. I looked up different places that had guides. I called the day before we got to Hilo and left a message and was called back right away. I told them my situation, I had 6 hours to be back on the ship. At first they told me about there normal tour times and I let them know that it just couldn’t work. He asked if he could call me back and said yes. He called me back and said they would get us our own private guide as soon as we got there. It was fantastic. Snorkeling at the black sand beach. We saw sea turtles and he was very encouraging. My daughter was scared the whole time but had a blast. He was professional, knowledgeable and kind. We saw some crew members from the ship we had bonded with and they went across the street to catch a bus. He immediately said they would be waiting for a long time and asked us if we wanted to give them a ride to the restaurant they were going to as it was on the way. We accepted of course. No extra charge or fee. Great price. Overall the best part of our cruise.
Written November 2, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Jennifer K
Carlsbad, CA8 contributions
Nov 2022 • Couples
We booked the coconut island SUP and while the staff where very nice, I would not recommend this activity to anybody. This is why…we were met by the young instructor, who promptly told us she hadn’t done the specific tour before. She also informed us that we would have to carry our ~20 pound paddle boards to the bay, which is around a quarter mile+ on an uneven grassy side area on the side of the road. Super inconvenient especially to people who have injuries, are old or little kids. Their van was sitting right in front of the shop the whole time. We refused to carry the boards back given it had rained the entire time and the boards were slippery…. The poor instructor had to bring one back on her own and upon returning said “oh my gosh, I didn’t realize your board didn’t have a handle…that was almost impossible to carry..”. We would have been better off finding a SUP rental close off a bay and going out on our own.
Written November 29, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
85kat364
1 contribution
Mar 2023
I had planned my trip to Hawaii for quite some time, and pre-visit got into contact with staff at Hilo Ocean Adventures to clarify what is needed after my about 5 years of pause in diving. We got a reactivate session booked, and then two fun dives. It was great all around. Staff is very friendly, knowledgeable and super helpful. The dive equipment I rented was top, and the dives themselves very enjoyable. Would highly recommend booking with them.
Written April 7, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Jigsaw
Greenwood, IN12 contributions
Dec 2022
Morgan our instructor was fantastic . He was patient and very knowledgeable, helpful and attentive. Our group was all beginners in snorkeling. Kids ranged from 14-10. He explained everything step by step and even taught us multiple times as needed to alleviate our anxiety. Later he had snacks, refreshments and first aid kit readily available. Our only feedback would be allow us to use water shoes until the very end to avoid walking on hard sharp rocks. Maybe giving mesh sling back packs to carry the shoes when switching to fins would be helpful. We highly recommend Morgan and Hilo ocean adventures for future adventures and water based adventures. Thank you!
Written December 26, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Greetings to you. My family of 4 are certified and would like to explore probably 1 tank dive opportunities between the 23 and 25th. The 'wrinkle' is that my son's new wife is NOT (yet) certified and it would be really cool to have here to be able to do a shallow dive with us. For you guys, does that meanthe beginner class/dive...and how would that work with possibly going with our family of 4?
Written November 28, 2019
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