Kona Land & Sea Excursion

[lv2bgoofy]

I did a search for this but only found some really old reviews...was wondering if anyone had some recent information on this tour and if they thought it was worth the money.

 

Thanks

[Pokeraddict]

A little hint when wanting to use the search engine is to go back to the main page, in this case it would be Hawaii then put your info into the "search this forum" box.

 

In the meantime click on or copy and paste this link then go down to post #6

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1463228&highlight=kona+land+sea+excursion

[lv2bgoofy]

Thanks that is what I did to get my search results....I am subscribed to that thread as well because I also posted on it....I was hoping for more than one review of the mobility issues that would be encountered...since this tour is $109....I have read the reviews on NCL which were pretty old as well.....

 

Getting a car is an option but if I could get to the same places without having to drive it would be great.....as long as you get enough time to really enjoy those areas and it isn't a rushed tour.

[herdingdogmom]

I'd love to hear a recent review of this excursion too. We have it booked for Dec. 7th. I'll let you know what we thought about it when I get back. Is there anything in particular you want a description of on the tour other than the amount of time at each stop?

[lv2bgoofy]

Oh that would be fantastic since we aren't going until February....I appreciate you offering. Just your overall opinion of this excursion for the money paid....I know that not to expect it to be as wonderful as a helicopter flight over Kauai.....I would also like to know what kind of "motorcoach" you are shuttled around in.

 

thanks again

[lv2bgoofy]

Oops...sorry I hope you have an awesome vacation!

[herdingdogmom]

Oh that would be fantastic since we aren't going until February....I appreciate you offering. Just your overall opinion of this excursion for the money paid....I know that not to expect it to be as wonderful as a helicopter flight over Kauai.....I would also like to know what kind of "motorcoach" you are shuttled around in.

 

thanks again

 

We went on this tour last Wednesday. The land portion is on a large tour bus operated by Poly Adventures. The tour guide is the bus driver and he was informative. The total tour time is 3 1/2 - 4 hours. It is not rushed at the 3 stops, but there is quite a bit of time spent on the bus. We had 1 hour at the Place of Refuge, 20 minutes at the Painted Church and 25 minutes at the commercial kona coffee stop.

 

The bus takes you back to the pier where the catamaran is docked and where the tenders drop off and pick up. The boat is operated by Body Glove and has seating upstairs and downstairs. We sat downstairs in the shade at the tables. The boat slows down for any dolphin, sea turtle or whale sightings. It goes back down the same coast to the Capt. Cook Monument and turns around. It is not rushed. There is a singer and guitar player on board. Lunch is sandwiches, chips and cookies. The boat ride is 1 1/2 hours out and 1 hour back.

 

It is a long day, but much better than driving it yourself. If I was to do it again, I'd probably skip the bus portion and just do the boat and maybe one that stops for snorkeling. That way you would have some time to spend in the town after the excursion. We had to go get in line for the tenders - it took awhile.

 

Have a great trip!

[lv2bgoofy]

Thanks so much for the information....I hope you had a wonderful trip and it sounds like we might just to this tour....we have never snorkeled and not sure that it would be something that we would enjoy. DH doesn't swim and I really don't want to do something that he will be bored with so even though the bus portion is kind of long it does go to the two places on land that I am interested in seeing.

[JannyLyn]

We did this same tour, but on our own, so we might have had a little more time at each stop. I would definitely recommend going. The painted church is very memorable and the place of refuge is just beautiful. I'm not sure if it's because we went in August, but we saw a lot of sea turtles near the beach. It's definitely a great way to explore that part of the island.