Alii Adventures @ Saltwater Soul — Local services in Hawaii

If you’re traveling and don’t know the area too well maybe go to Kona Boyz closer to the water. The lady at this place just gave us vague instructions as if we were locals that knew where we were going. after all the instructions (which were hard to visualize and remember) we were left on our own to find the spot to launch our kayaks. The beach to launch was super rocky and my husband sliced his foot open trying to get into the kayak. Once again, we are traveling and don’t know the area too well to know we needed water shoes. We wished the lady had informed us about that. Once we were on the kayak and almost out to the open water, we again ran into rocks that you couldn’t see from the surface, which tipped us over and gave us a bunch of cuts from landing on the rocks. It was a terrible experience. I’ve been kayaking before and I’ve always had the worker help us into the kayak and show us where to go to avoid any mishaps. It felt like we didn’t have any help or guidance of where to avoid rocks. Thankfully our injuries were minor but it still put a damper on our trip and made us unable to enjoy other activities since my husband’s feet and back were sliced open and bleeding. I wish we had spent the extra money at Kona Boyz who would’ve helped us and visually guided us to show us where to avoid the rocks. I would not recommend Ali’i Adventures to anyone wanting to rent a kayak if they are unfamiliar with the Kona coast. Wish we had...

The owner did credit some of our money back but, if you are new to snorkeling, I do not recommend renting snorkel equipment from here. Our friends, who had never snorkeled before, took our kids here to rent snorkel gear before heading to Two Step Beach (not close to the rental place). The equipment was not fitted to our kids’ face when it was rented. I found this out only after my 6-year-old daughter’s mask filled up with water in the ocean. When I tightened the strap, it broke and was no longer usable. My mask didn’t appear to have been washed before being rented based on the amount of sand in the snorkel mask (I didn’t see the others before being used to know if they were cleaned). Nobody provided or recommended anti-fog so we couldn’t see out of the fogged up masks (the owner did say said she’d make a sign to recommend this for future customers). The girl who was working at the rental place told my kids to stop asking questions, and said they are the reason she doesn’t have children. I think there are other places on the island that take the time to ensure you’re set up for success and feel good...

We decided to rent out some kayaks for our party of 9, although some of the party were a little apprehensive. When we got here, the lady who runs it (I didn’t catch her name), went through all the safety checks and told us about the expected conductions of the waters, this made 5 of the 9 decide against it, which was a wise decision as the waters were choppy as she explained and this would have given a few people motion sickness and have been scary for the smallest member of our party. She prioritised our experience and safety over business sales and this speaks a thousand words about how much she cares about her clients. The safety briefings, the actual kayak itself were all perfect, and we were lucky enough to be joined in the waters by around 15-20 spinner dolphins. Of course you need to stay away from them but seeing them jump in and out of the waters in their natural environment was incredible, a memory I will never forget. She also filled us with local knowledge of the Outrigger races, the history of the queens and kings of the island, which made our transaction even more special. Thank you for...