Oahu Circle Island Snorkeling Tour: Dole, Pali Lookout & More

Horrible! Be aware 🙌 This was one of the worst tour experiences I’ve had. I paid $118 for a guided sightseeing tour, but what I received was essentially transportation between stops while the guided portion of the experience was severely disrupted. I was the only solo traveler on the tour, while approximately 20 other guests were part of the same large family. They were continuously shouting, talking loudly, and drinking alcohol throughout the tour. The drinking was particularly concerning because it was clearly contributing to the increasingly disruptive behavior, yet the tour company and guide did nothing meaningful to address it. No one appeared to intervene, enforce appropriate behavior, or take responsibility for maintaining a comfortable environment for the other passenger. The noise became so excessive that I could barely hear the tour guide. Eventually, the guide essentially stopped providing commentary because he could not talk over the group. At that point, the experience felt more like being trapped on a party bus than being on a professional guided sightseeing tour. What is even more disappointing is how the company handled my complaint afterward. Rather than acknowledging that having a group openly drinking, becoming increasingly disruptive, and preventing the guide from properly conducting the tour was unacceptable, they took no responsibility for my experience. Instead of investigating the drinking, disruptive behavior, or why the guide was unable to provide the service I paid for, they focused on whether I technically visited certain sightseeing stops. That completely misses the point. I paid for a guided tour—not simply transportation. The guide himself apologized to me during the tour and acknowledged that what was happening was not how the tour was supposed to be conducted. That should have been enough for the company to take my complaint seriously. I also was never informed beforehand that I would be the only individual traveler surrounded by approximately 20 members of one family. It would be a courtesy to do that and yet that failed to provide this “little” detail about the circumstances I would actually be walking into. After the tour, I requested a full refund. Unfortunately, the company has shown very little accountability or concern for what actually happened. There was no meaningful follow-up with the driver at the time I raised my concerns, and instead of taking responsibility, they appeared more interested in finding reasons to deny my refund. The biggest disappointment was not simply the difficult group—it was the company’s failure to manage the situation and their refusal to take responsibility afterward. If a tour company allows excessive drinking and disruptive behavior to ruin the experience for another paying customer, the company should take responsibility and make it right. That did not happen here. I would not recommend this tour. For $118, I expected a professional, informative sightseeing experience. Instead, I got a chaotic party-bus atmosphere, very little guided commentary, and a company that ultimately refused to take responsibility for the poor experience. DO NOT BOOK! They will never respond to you if it goes wrong and they don’t care about your experience.

Its just ok if you want to go around tge island and take pictures on all the scenic spots. The snorkeling area was not really nice. Water is murky so can really see any fish and the park is not that nice. Should just take out the snorkeling in the tour altogether.

Worse experience ever, you don’t have even water, the snorkeling “equipment” was disgusting 🤮 You should have disposable snorkeling gear so you give clean and sanitized gear Not a good tour or time sorry

Very disappointing and unsafe experience — company prioritized the tour over customer safety I booked the Aloha Circle Island Tour and unfortunately came away very disappointed. In my opinion, the company showed that keeping the tour running and making money was more important than the comfort and safety of its customers. First, the company asked me to move my reservation from Friday to Saturday, which I accepted. However, by Thursday, Tropical Storm Lala was becoming a concern for Oahu. I contacted the company and specifically asked whether we should move the tour back to Friday because of the expected weather conditions. Their response was that the expected rainfall would be at 10 PM Saturday and that it would not affect the tour because the tour finished at 6 PM. That turned out to be a very poor assessment of the actual conditions. Saturday was extremely windy, cloudy throughout the day, with strong winds and intermittent rain. These were not conditions I would consider appropriate for an enjoyable island tour. The most concerning part was the snorkeling stop. After heavy rainfall in the mountains and with the storm approaching, the ocean water was brown and very murky. There are clear warnings from the Hawaii Department of Health advising people to avoid entering ocean water when it becomes brown or murky after heavy rainfall because of potential contamination from stormwater runoff. Despite these conditions, the guide left the group at the snorkeling location for approximately 1.5 hours. I decided not to enter the water, because I did not consider it safe or worth taking the risk. What makes this particularly frustrating is that I had specifically contacted the company beforehand about the storm. They knew about the weather situation and still decided to proceed without offering a meaningful alternative. There was another issue as well: the tour description/promises included water, juices, coffee and snacks. I received none of these during the tour. To be fair, the tour guide himself was nice and polite. I don’t blame him personally, and I actually felt that he was simply following the company’s instructions. My criticism is directed at the company and the decisions it made. Overall, I feel that the company had several opportunities to put customer safety and satisfaction first but chose to continue the tour anyway. A tour company operating on an island where weather conditions can change quickly should take these situations seriously. I would not recommend this tour, especially when there are significant weather warnings and heavy rainfall. Based on my experience, I would think twice before trusting this company to make safety-related decisions for its customers.

The trip was excellent and Tim is awesome!!!! Must do!!!

Tim was amazing!!!!!! He was so nice and kept everything under control! Amazing human being deserves everything!

Tim was so fun and kept us entertained the entire time. He is very charismatic and knows his stuff! We thoroughly enjoyed and we even had three little ones who were entertained the whole day;) thanks for going above and beyond and best of luck and health in the future

Very helpful! Fantastic! Best driver! Very entertaining Atmosphere was great, best for family, the crowd was a good size. TIM IS THE BEST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tim our driver was fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tim was a great tour guide. We had a few hiccups with fussy kids and he handled them like a champ. He played music for them and interacted with them with kindness and compassion. He was so knowledgeable and funny we will definitely take another tour with him.