Little Known Dolphin Excursion
Easily the Best in Hawaii

I recently ventured out to the islands of Hawaii for a fun-filled vacation. It involved three different islands and several expensive excursions. My total vacation time in Hawaii is measured in the months, and therefore my experience there is fairly broad.

Of every activity I've ever done in Hawaii, swimming with a pod of wild dolphins is the best. It was so incredible that the next I go out there, I will book at least two days in a row.

There's a wild pod of dolphins that lives just off the Kona shores of West Hawaii. Every morning they swim in close and head south on their way to "lunch". Hundreds of dolphins within the bigger pod will swim in the shallower waters where you can get in with them and observe.

Because of weather and the dolphin's predictable behavior, this excursion is possible 360 days out of the year!

There's more than one excursion company in Kona offering these wild swims. I'm not aware of any other service on any other island offering such an excursion. If you're not visiting Kona, then this review won't apply to you.

The best excursion leader is Dolphin Essence (dot com) put on by John Float. You meet him early in the morning (maybe 6:30 or 7) and prepare to make your way up the Kona coast. Once he gets the boat far enough north, you will begin to see dolphins. Some will just hang out by the boat, some will swim behind the boat, and others will jump and twirl and put on a show!

If you are a non-swimmer, it's entertaining just to observe the dolphins in their natural habitat playing and having a good time.

If you are a swimmer, Mr. Float will stop the boat and allow you get into the water. He then points where he sees the dolphins and you can observe them for yourself. You can also hear them using their sonar which allows them to actually see you in the water well before they've caught up with you.

Depending on their mood (and yours) and what they're doing, they may just swim around/below you or they may actually interact with you.

The day I went, the dolphin pod was pretty much on a mission, and to get them to play required effort on my part. The picture below was taken at a point where the bottom was about 30 to 35 feet down. Not to be discouraged, if you have skill, you can go down there and swim with them, or Mr. Float will catch up with the pod further south where the depth isn't so deep.

I realize not everyone can do that, but everyone, regardless of skill, will have close encounters. Here's one taken at the surface.

This dolphin turned to look at me. It wanted to play but also had to keep up with the rest of the pod. On a different day, this one may have stayed some to play around.

I don't have a picture, but one youngling actually swam up on the side of me and wanted to show off in a playful way. It came up under me and broke the surface for a jump, it did a huge twirl and slapped the water when it landed. It was pure joy. When I lifted my head to see, the few on the boat were going crazy having witnessed the acrobatics.

The group size for the dolphin essence excursion is no more than 8 people total. They just don't want to put too many in the water because it takes away the intamacy and because the swimmers need to get back on the boat quickly to catch up with the pod after they swim by.

If you look at the photo above, you will see two snorklers from our group on the other side of the dolphins. Dolphin Essence just puts you directly into their path and they swim all around you!

You may see some amazing things. Just look at this photo I took of a mom and her baby dolphin.

I know the mother dolphin looks big in the picture, but just try to imagine that she's actually the same size as all the other dolphins. The baby is actually really tiny!

Within a short time, I became one of the "pod". I actually swam with the group. Here are two photos I took when I was in the middle of the group. You will see in front of me and to my right. There were more on my left as well...

There's no need to worry about snacks or water. Mr. Float will provide them for you. Also, you do not need to worry about masks, snorkles, or fins. He has all those things.

I highly recommend bringing a video camera because you will see some amazing acrobatics when the dolphins play with the boat. I did not have an SLR camera to capture those (it's not like they tell you when they're going to jump).

The underwater photos were taken with a SeaLife DC500 that I purchased on eBay. I have written a review of it SeaLife Camera Review. Someone said you can't change modes while in the water, that's false. I did have problems switching to video mode, but it was my own error.

This only happens maybe once a month or so, but the day I went on the dolphin excursion, Mr. Float got a call on his CB radio that told him there was a wild pod of pilot whales! We had already finished swimming with the dolphins (they went out to sea) and Mr. Float ran the boat out about a few miles to where the whales were.

When we arrived, two pilot whales came on either side of the boat and they both breached simultaneously in front of us. My jaw dropped. I have no pictures because it happened so quick!

Several came up close to the boat, and we even took a photo of a whale's blow hole when it came against the side of the boat.

I'm not sure how many pilot whales we saw, but it was at least 10 different ones.

I did manage to get some underwater shots. The depth of water is around a mile deep at this point (according to John Float). These were done in video mode.

This chance encounter was a lesson for me. When booking any excursion, make sure you get a company or guide who is very passionate about what they do. If we had some money hungry coporate company only interested in the bottom line, there would have been no reason to take the extra time (and fuel) in going out to see the pilot whales.

Even without the pilot whales, the swim with the dolphins was so exhilarating that I wanted to go again the next day. We had to leave the following day though. As I said above, next time I will book multiple days.

If you want to know how I was able to swim so quickly and keep up with dolphins, I used a finis standard training-sized monofin, compression swim shorts, and sport goggles (no snorkle). All can be purchased on eBay. If you go on this excursion, write me through eBay and let me know how you liked it. If you enjoyed reading this guide or at least the pictures, then please vote this guide as helpful. Thank you!