Super Snorkel: Niʻihau + Nāpali Tour - 7hr

Sure, you could do a simple Nāpali Coast tour. Or you could do our award-winning Holoholo Super Tour: the best of the Nāpali Coast with an offshore trip out to Lehua Crater for snorkeling, wildlife spotting, and to see the “Forbidden Island” of Niʻihau. That’s 17 miles across the Kaulakahi Channel and back, all in one shot. Along this adventurous journey, we’ll serve up a delicious breakfast and lunch and plenty of stories to keep you entertained.

It’s a trip you can’t get anywhere else. You’ll be on the Holoholo, our 65-foot power catamaran that was designed and built right here on Kauaʻi for just such an ocean adventure. The Holoholo’s hull design and low center of gravity mean you’ll get a safe, secure ride with less bouncing and rolling than those big, top-heavy, double-decker boats.

Your Tour Includes

• Lehua Crater, Niihau’s North Shore, the Napali Coast, marine life, and more!
• Continental breakfast and gourmet deli lunch
• Free beverages all day — with beer and wine served after we snorkel
• All snorkeling equipment and instruction
• The chance to see humpback whales (peak season Dec-Apr)

Tour Details

• Check in at 6:00 a.m. at our Port Allen location (time varies by season).
• Tour length: 7 hours
• Maximum Passenger count: 49
• For safety, no pregnant women or children under 5 are allowed on this tour.
• Tax not included

Full Tour Description

If you’re looking for the biggest, baddest, longest, strongest, wettest, and wildest of all Kauai boat tours, look no further than Holo Holo Charters’ Niihau + Napali Super Tour. This is the tour that put our company on the map and has for years been recognized as one of the most ambitious and impressive boat tours in all of America. Say yes to adventure and come aboard our sleek, sporty, efficient catamaran for an incredible 7-hour Pacific Ocean experience!

The Holo Holo Super Tour combines Kauai’s iconic Napali Coast boat tour experience with an offshore excursion—traveling 17 miles across the Kaulakahi Channel to Lehua Crater Hawaii State Wildlife Sanctuary and the neighboring “Forbidden Island” of Niihau, then back to Port Allen– all in one epic, awe-inspiring, senses-stimulating day!

It will be dawn when you come aboard Holoholo, our company’s namesake 65-foot power catamaran that was designed and built right here on Kauai, specifically for these daily trips across the channel to Lehua, Niihau, and back. Holoholo is clean, spacious, comfortable, and capable– fitted with powerful twin Cummins QSB diesel engines that make it possible for us to cover more than 60 ocean miles on this tour. Holoholo’s hull design and low center of gravity provide for a safe and secure ride with less bouncing and less rolling than on more top-heavy, double-decker boats.

We’ll enjoy a continental-style breakfast of cheesy scrambled eggs, pastries & muffins, fresh fruit, coffee, tea, and juice as we cruise along Kauai’s arid & beachy westside and towards the world-renowned Napali Coast. Your Captain will narrate the journey with history, legends, stories, and information about the island as we travel further north and get into the heart of Napali where we’ll witness her symphony of 4,000-foot sea cliffs, sea caves, sea arches, deep, rich emerald valleys, distant mountain waterfalls, up-close waterfalls that splash right into the bright blue ocean, serene beaches, glowing rainbows, light, shadows, mists, and all the other amazingness that’s somehow different and somehow magical every single day, without fail.

Of course, we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled all day for ocean wildlife including green sea turtles, Hawaii’s endemic monk seals, playful Hawaiian spinner dolphins, and seasonally (December-April) North Pacific humpback whales that have migrated from their feeding grounds in Alaska, over 3,000+ miles to Hawaii for their winter breeding and calving season.

After sufficiently exploring and basking in all the glory of the Napali Coast, instead of turning around and going back the same way, as most Kauai boat tours do, the Super Tour points it west and lets it rip—17 miles offshore we go!

The destination is Lehua Crater, an uninhabited crescent-shaped crater that’s a designated Hawaii State Wildlife Sanctuary. At Lehua, there are thousands of pelagic sea birds, including several endangered and native species, as well as a really cool “keyhole” rock formation that we’ll check out. Bring the binoculars if you have them.

After some sightseeing, we’ll find the best place to hang out, typically between Lehua Crater and the island of Niihau—Hawaii’s mysterious “Forbidden Island” that’s home to a private colony of Native Hawaiians that live there, off the grid. It’s illegal to go ashore at Niihau, however, it’s a fantastic place to anchor respectfully offshore for snorkeling and lunch!

Because of the unique underwater topography between the islands, the fact that there’s very little human and boat traffic, and due to the much drier climate, the waters off Lehua and Niihau are teeming with life! These are some of the clearest accessible waters in Hawaii and can offer 100+ feet of visibility on the best days. Here, amongst the underwater lava cathedrals, is the opportunity to see more elusive ocean species including fishes, monk seals, and manta rays, than you normally see on Kauai. Bring the GoPro!

We have all the snorkeling gear–masks, fins, snorkels, flotation devices– and our crew members will provide basic snorkeling instructions before jumping in the water with you on paddleboards to be sure everyone has a safe and positive experience. Depending on the day’s conditions, we’ll spend up to an hour snorkeling. Anyone that doesn’t want to swim is more than welcome to stretch out, relax on the boat, and simply enjoy being in nature.

Post-snorkeling, we’ll renourish with a colorful, satisfying, delicious lunch of with all the fixings to make your favorite sandwiches, a noodle salad, crisp veggies with ranch & hummus, freshly baked cookies, sodas, and juices. With lunch, we also offer a nice selection of quality domestic and Hawaii craft beers, hard seltzers, and wine spritzers that you’re welcome to enjoy for the remainder of the trip back to Port Allen.

After the tour, you should be all smiles and ready for an afternoon nap!

Holo Holo Charters has been offering offshore Kauai + Niihau boat tours since 1997, longer than any other Kauai boat tour company. For twenty-five years, our business has been modifying and upgrading our vessel, recruiting the island’s most talented captains and crewmembers, perfecting our routes, discovering the optimal snorkeling locations for every ocean condition, refining our food and drink menu, and dialing in every last detail. We’d love to have you on board and take you out for a most exciting, authentic, beautiful, and delicious Hawaii ocean experience. Let us show you how we do!

Please keep in mind that seven hours of adventuring on the water can be a bit much for some people. We want all our guests to have the best day ever, and we encourage you to consider the stamina of everyone in your party before choosing a Kauai boat tour. Please don’t hesitate to call our staff at 808-335-0815; we are more than happy to answer all your questions and assist you in selecting the most appropriate Kauai boat tour for you and your group.

We pride ourselves on creating fun and memorable ocean adventures for our guests. Your safety is our top priority; therefore, all tour routes, destinations, and snorkeling activities are dependent on ocean and weather conditions. If you are joining us during our winter season November – March, tours can be more often impacted by weather. Conditions around Kauai can change quickly, so our expert captains are constantly analyzing and may wait until check-in time to determine the best route for the day. If that occurs you will have the opportunity to go on the altered tour, reschedule to another day (availability permitting), or cancel your tour at no charge if it is weather-related. If you have any questions or concerns, please call us at 808-335-0815 so we can help create the best experience for you and your family!