Big Island of Hawaii Private Sightseeing Tours

My husband and I booked the 3-hour tour. Justin was our guide. He was very knowledgeable and funny. He took us to see things we otherwise would have missed. It was amazing walking inside a lava tube, viewing the beautiful coast with its sea arches, checking out tree molds, and so much more.Justin even gave us great recommendations for some of the best restaurants we visited on the island!

Chris and Matt were the best!!! We somehow got lucky and it was just me and my husband on their 8am Polynesian culture tour. Chris led my husband on ATVs and I joined Matt in their UTV for the tour. We got to “visit” Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and Hawaii. You can tell how passionate Chris and Matt are about sharing the culture of each island. We had a great time being hands on at each stop. Thanks for having us!

The narrator was excellent, and this really enhanced our driving around the big island. Lots of local color and history

Rebecca picked us up from Port of Hilo. Rebeccas communication prior to our tour was fantastic, she picked us up on time. We started the day at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park - home to Mauna Loa and Kilauea where the goddess Pele lives. After a quick coffee stop, we went to the Thurston Lava Tube, which is surrounded by stunning rainforest. The path takes you right through the tube, and out the other side, in a loop. We then headed to the district of Ku'a, which was severely affected by hurricane Lala last month, we had lunch at a lovely restaurant. Our tour guide Rebecca was keeping an eye on the live Kilauea feed, while we had lunch, as Kilauea was building up for an imminent eruption and the smoke was showing signs of an orange glow! So back to Kilauea we headed. We waited and watched for nearly an hour - the smoke was getting thicker and was coming from lots more vents, we could have stayed there for hours just watching but we had to leave to get back to the ship. Rebecca was very professional and knowledgeable, we had a fantastic day, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and felt like we were touring with a friend, that is how relaxed we felt. Thank you Rebecca for making our day wonderful.

Loved all of the in between educational extras! Fun personality. Wish we would’ve caught on a day earlier to how it worked. The directions were a bit tricky to figure out.

My wife and I enjoyed the ATV tour. Our guides (Dani and Lorenz) were excellent in keeping the ride fun throughout the rainforest mountain side and sharing their knowledge about the Polynesian culture. You won’t be disappointed!

Extremely memorable. Thanks to the volcano's decision to entertain us with lava flow and John our personal guide for great insight on the crater and floura on the hike to the Calderon.

Kelson does a great job and knows his history. Very pleasant personality and most importantly a safe driver!! You can tell he enjoys his job.

Rebecca was amazing! Kind, flexible, and accommodating to any group or limitations you have! She called within minutes of me booking just to go over every detail and reassure me of the itinerary and that she was able to pick me up from our hotel even though the website said it was out of policy. She accommodated a family or two elderly grandparents and a 2 yr old toddler. We were changing our pickup time and whether we wanted to do a day or night tour all the way up until the night before and she was so accomodating and doing research to give us minute by minute suggestions. I will totally book with her again the next time I come back!

Alex was fantastic. He is native to the islands and was extremely knowledgeable. He shared a lot of gems from his native culture to help you understand the islands and the volcanos. He is friendly, funny, engaging and draws you in. He blew a conch shell to draw us back to himself and was always clear in his directions. I would highly recommend any tour where he is the guide.

Kalaninuimehamhea is a fantastic guide briming with local and cultural knowledge. He was full of stories of the local plants and wildlife and how the land at higher elevations came to be viewed as sacred. The tour started with a brief history of the islands peoples and how they came to be here, and progressed through to modern times ad the tour progressed. An absolutely gem of an experience and the highlight of my entire trip. If you have a curious and respectful mind and soul, you can't book a better tour.

Nice relaxing and enjoyable tour. Stefan was so knowlegable and informative of the island. I learned so much and the scenery where we stopped was so beautiful. Well worth paying for a driver so you can enjoy yourself. Also breaking tour up into specialty area is the way to go. Not rushing around trying to see whole island in one day.

We had a great time our driver and guide was a lot of fun and knowledgable of Hawaiian topics. I would recommend this tour. Lots of fun. Weather didn’t cooperate to well so a few of us declined the waterfall swim (rain/muddy).

Outstanding tour! Jodi and Rob are wonderful. Very knowledgeable about the volcano. Showed us the best spots to view the volcano and hidden gems in the park. Rob took family photos of us along the way and sent us a full gallery of wonderful pictures. I highly recommend Rob and Jodi if you are planning a trip to Volcanoes National Park.

Our guide Michael was very informative. Enjoy every minute of our tour. He took great care to be sure we had a good time

20/10 — One of the Most Incredible Ocean Experiences We’ve Ever Had!I honestly don’t know how to give Scott, Kate, and Kona Ocean Adventures enough stars for the experience they gave us tonight. Five stars doesn’t even come close. This was a 20/10 experience from beginning to end.We booked their private sunset snorkeling trip, rustic dinner, and nighttime manta ray experience, and the entire evening was absolutely incredible.A little perspective: we’re from Florida, we’re scuba divers, and we spend a lot of time in and around the ocean—so it takes quite a bit to really blow us away. Scott and Kate absolutely did.The sunset snorkel alone would have made the trip worth it. We saw an unbelievable amount of marine life—puffer fish, purple tangs, yellow tangs, unicorn tangs, blue boxfish, angelfish, foxface, all kinds of wrasses, urchins and so much more.And then there was the monk seal.A HUGE monk seal came right up between the boats and literally used the line between them to brush her teeth! 😂 We just sat there watching her work the rope through her mouth like dental floss. It was one of those completely unexpected wildlife encounters you know you’ll be talking about for years.But somehow the night was just getting started.The nighttime manta ray experience was absolutely unreal.We had at least SIX different manta rays swimming with us, and when I say close, I mean INCHES FROM OUR FACES.They came straight toward us and did barrel roll after barrel roll directly underneath us. At times they were so close you could look straight into their mouths as they rolled beneath you. They actually made physical contact with us multiple times as they passed.We have video of it, and even watching the video doesn’t completely capture what it felt like to actually be there.There were moments when you’re floating on the surface, looking down at these enormous animals coming straight toward you, and your brain is telling you there’s no possible way they can get any closer—then they roll at the last second and pass just inches underneath you.Again. And again. And again.It was spectacular.What really made the evening, though, was Scott and Kate. A private charter is supposed to feel different from being shuffled through a big commercial tour, and this absolutely did. They made the entire evening personal, relaxed, fun and memorable. You never felt rushed or like you were just the next group being moved through an itinerary.The sunset, snorkeling, dinner, wildlife, manta rays and the personal attention from Scott and Kate all came together into one of those rare vacation experiences that completely exceeds what you thought you were booking.We’ve done a lot of ocean activities and diving over the years, and this is easily one of the coolest marine experiences we have ever had.If you’re coming to Kona and considering a manta ray trip, do yourself a favor and book the private experience with Kona Ocean Adventures. Especially if you want something more personal than a large-group excursion.Scott and Kate — thank you for an absolutely unforgettable evening.We came hoping to see some manta rays.We left having watched at least six of them barrel roll inches from our faces, had a monk seal stop by to floss her teeth, saw an incredible variety of Hawaiian marine life, and made a memory we’ll be talking about for the rest of our lives.Five stars isn’t enough. 20/10. Absolutely phenomenal. 🤙🌅🌊🤿