Hawaii Shore Excursions

[Arlenedow]

We will be sailing on the Island Oct 6th to Hawaii. Does anyone have any suggestions for shore excursions particularly on the big island and Maui?

 

Is it possible to wait until the ship arrives at each island and book a local for an excursion as we do in the Caribbean?

 

Has anyone had experience with Fishbowl Tours?

 

Thanks for any suggestions and help.

 

Arlene

[LIVERBALLS]

Arlene, I have never cruised the Hawaiian Islands, but have land vacationed in Kauai.. Beautiful Island....You should take one of the helicopter tours to see this magnificant island............we used Safari Helicopter tour.. You will love it!!!!!!!!!!! Aloha..............

[dobie]

We'll be on the Island in March!! We've cruised to Hawaii twice, and both times we rented cars on all of the islands. On the big island we did a thing called Flumin Da Ditch--a kayak trip through canals in the sugar fields. Saw it on the Discovery channel. It was about an hour's drive if I remember right. In Lahaina we did a whale watching, dolphin watching, snorkeling trip right from the Lahaina pier, we just walked to the right. The boat had breakfast and lunch, and provided snorkeling equipment and noodles. One other time we were in Maui we rented a car and drove to the winery, they do free tours and sampling. Pineapple wine sounds weird, but it was good-we brought some home. We also drove to the Iao Needle park (or is it Iao Valley?), very pretty, little walking traiils. We reserved the cars ahead of time and used coupons in the Entertainment book. On Kauai, we booked an excursion to the river where the fern grotto is. We did it independently, they picked us up at the ship (had a sign with our name on it). We kayaked down the river, had a picnic, went to a place with a rope swing over the water, and to the fern grotto. Our guide was a young Hawaii boy and he was great. There were 4 of us in the group, 2 kayaks. The ship's tour was much more expensive than ours and had many many kayaks. Hope this helps, I'll see if I can remember more (I can get out my albums!).