Where To Go Snorkeling On The Big Island With Kids

For nature loving families, there are so many reasons to visit the Big Island of Hawai‘i. There’s beautiful white sand beaches, striking volcanic landscapes and lots of amazing hiking. But one of the best ways to enjoy nature as a family is to go snorkeling on the Big Island with kids.

During our 2-week family trip, we traveled all over and found that there are very few safe, family-friendly snorkeling locations on the Big Island, but we did find a few winners. Based on our travels all over the island, here are the best places to go snorkeling on the Big Island with kids:

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1. Snorkeling at Captain Cook Memorial

The best place to go snorkeling on the Big Island with kids is the Captain Cook Memorial. When we first arrived at the snorkeling area, we were impressed that we could see large schools of colorful fish in the water from shore. The water was so clear and the fish were so plentiful – we knew this was going to be a special snorkeling experience in Hawaii.

The crystal-clear water in the calm waters made for exceptional snorkeling. From the moment we entered the water, we were dazzled by large schools of colorful, tropical fish, with large coral formations below.

We saw many varieties of tropical fish while snorkeling near the Captain Cook Memorial, including parrotfish, angel fish, yellow tang, Moorish Idol fish, butterflyfish and even an eel!

Note, due to its popularity, the Captain Cook Memorial is under a lot of stress. Please help protect the sea life here by wearing reef safe sunscreen. And, please do not touch the coral, as you will kill it. For added incentive, there are lots of large sea urchins on the sea floor here, so you don’t want to touch the ground anyways!

The magic happens when the bright lights on the bottom of the floating platforms come on. These bright lights attract plankton, which are the primary food source for manta rays. You attract plankton and you also attract manta rays!!

This is a rare activity where the more people, the better. If you have lots of groups, there will be lots of light, resulting in lots of plankton. You don’t even notice how many people are with you – watching the manta rays below is simply too exciting!

It only took a few minutes for us to attract our first manta ray. I can’t easily describe the excitement we all felt at seeing our first manta ray. The first one was about 30 feet below us, but with a 15-20 foot wingspan, we could see how enormous these gentle creatures really are!

Our experience snorkeling with manta rays just got better and better. The manta rays just kept on coming – one after the other. Many passed by so closely that you could touch them (but please don’t – it’s not allowed and is very bad for them).

We were so excited when the manta rays began to barrel roll! You may have seen videos of this amazing behavior – the manta rays swim to the surface feeding on plankton and are upside-down by the time they are at the top of their roll. Getting a belly full of plankton, they start descending back down again. Incredibly, we had three massive, beautiful manta rays doing barrel rolls right below us at the same time!

3. Carlsmith Beach Park

The only other noteworthy family-friendly place to go snorkeling on the Big Island was Carlsmith Beach Park near Hilo.

Carlsmith Beach Park is a beautiful oceanfront park just a few minutes outside of Hilo. The water in the lagoon in front of the park is very shallow, and calm thanks to a lava rock enclosure. It’s an interesting tactile sensation swimming in the clear waters of the lagoon, thanks to natural spring waters which feed cold water into the otherwise warm ocean water.

We were attracted to Carlsmith Beach Park for the snorkeling, but also by the fact it’s a great place to spot sea turtles. We were lucky enough to see a momma sea turtle and her little one swim right past us as we were getting our snorkeling gear on!

The snorkeling at Carlsmith Beach Park was pretty good. The mixture of the natural and sea water sometimes makes the water a little murky, but for the most part it was very clear. There’s no coral, but there’s plenty of rocks in the shallow lagoon, providing a good habitat for plenty of colorful tropical fish.

To be honest, snorkeling at Kahalu’u Beach Park was a pretty unpleasant experience. What they don’t tell you about the “snorkeling school” is that there are strong currents just offshore. This keeps the snorkelers from venturing very far, which in turn, causes all the snorkelers to be jam-packed into one tiny little area.

Given the mass of humanity in one little area of the ocean, I’m really surprised that we actually saw some fish! Like real colorful, interesting tropical fish!

So… yes, it wasn’t the world’s best snorkeling experience, but if you or your kids are truly new to snorkeling, this may be a good spot to try snorkeling for the first time. I’d recommend coming early in the day to avoid the crowds though.