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Scuba Dive at Ni’ihau: Best in Hawai’i
5.0
28 Ratings
Kekaha
Dive Ni’ihau’s crystal-clear waters with expert guides. Encounter rare wildlife, explore Lehua Crater, and enjoy a swift, scenic boat ride. Book now!
Dive Ni’ihau’s crystal-clear waters with expert guides. Encounter rare wildlife, explore Lehua Crater, and enjoy a swift, scenic boat ride. Book now!
Duration:
8 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- 72JX2W52+PJP - Exclusively for certified scuba divers. Experience diving in pristine, remote waters with breathtaking landscapes and abundant marine life. Expect to encounter large sharks, monk seals, rays, and big predatory fish! It is recommended to have completed at least 15 dives before participating in this adventure. Why choose to dive…
- 72JX2W52+PJP - Exclusively for certified scuba divers. Experience diving in pristine, remote waters with breathtaking landscapes and abundant marine life. Expect to encounter large sharks, monk seals, rays, and big predatory fish! It is recommended to have completed at least 15 dives before participating in this adventure. Why choose to dive Ni’ihau with us? We offer the fastest crossing and the nearest harbor! With just a 1-hour crossing, you can significantly reduce your travel time. We accommodate a maximum of 6 customers, ensuring small groups for a truly enjoyable diving experience. Your crew will be Nick and Jessie, both seasoned captains and dive leaders. The tour begins at 6:30 am at Kikiaola small boat harbor. At the dock, gear fitting will take place before departure! The journey to Ni’ihau typically takes 1 hour. At Ni’ihau, we will explore 2 different dive sites, selected based on marine life requests and conditions! Between dives, enjoy a tour of the stunning Lehua crater while having lunch. Lehua is an extinct volcano, now a sanctuary for seabirds. The return trip takes between 60 to 90 minutes, depending on conditions. From October to April, this tour becomes more challenging due to weather. If reaching Ni’ihau is not possible, we will dive off Kaua’i instead. A 45% refund will be provided in such cases.
What's Included
- Use of SCUBA equipment
- Lunch
- Snacks
- Bottled water
- Bathroom
- Use of SCUBA equipment
- Lunch
- Snacks
- Bottled water
- Bathroom
Additional Information
Certified divers only. Ni’ihau is renowned for offering the finest scuba diving experiences in Hawai’i! The dive sites feature vertical walls with seemingly endless depths and crystal-clear visibility. Frequent sightings of large marine life include sandbar sharks, Hawaiian monk seals (unique to this location), schools of butterflyfish, and manta rays….
Certified divers only. Ni’ihau is renowned for offering the finest scuba diving experiences in Hawai’i! The dive sites feature vertical walls with seemingly endless depths and crystal-clear visibility. Frequent sightings of large marine life include sandbar sharks, Hawaiian monk seals (unique to this location), schools of butterflyfish, and manta rays. Two dives are conducted. Jessie will be your underwater dive guide, ensuring your safety and highlighting the wildlife! Between dives, lunch is served, and a tour of Lehua Crater is provided, showcasing favorite seabirds and the stunning “Keyhole.” A mini tour around Lehua Crater often includes dolphin and manta ray sightings. The boat ride to Ni’ihau takes approximately one hour, while the return journey ranges from one to one hour and 45 minutes, depending on weather conditions. The travel time to and from Ni’ihau is nearly half compared to other operators! Book with us for an experienced crew, small groups, and a quicker, more efficient boat ride!
- If there is bad weather this tour may get rerouted to south side local diving. Prices will be adjusted
- October-April this tour becomes harder to get to due to weather. If we cant make it to Ni’ihau we will dive off Kaua’i. A 45% refund will be applied
- You must be certified to dive Ni’ihau
- Kindly provide us arrival date/departure date
Location
Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor
Kekaha Road
Please arrive NO LATER THAN 6:30 am.
When you pull in to the harbor park on the right hand side in the grassy field. Walk over to the dock and look for scuba tanks! We recommend wearing hat, sunglasses, and a sunshirt or jacket to cover your skin.
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
5.0
(28 Ratings)
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Hoover67
Sep 7, 2025
Fantastic Time :-] - We had a fantastic time with Jess and Nick. They make a really good team and are a lot of fun. If diving with Monk Seals is on your wish list then this dive is for you. The trip over to the Forbidden Island is done in just an hour and the surface intervals were fun with dolphins and fishing. As for the diving.....everything was setup up for us and the equipment was in great shape. I can highly recommend Explore Kauai Scuba!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Hank
Aug 7, 2025
Unparalleled Experience!! - Jessie and Nick offer a great experience for everyone they take out. I had a great time going solo with them… never felt like the odd man out. Very professional team that offered a great day of diving. Saw lots of fish, sharks, seals, and really interesting bottom conditions. Best diving experience I’ve ever had. Cheers!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
C5968mgryanb
Jul 21, 2025
One of my favorite dive days ever! - Such a great trip! Nick and Jessie are the best - made everything fun and took care of everything. Ni’ihau was incredible, but would happily do any dive trip with them. It was an incredibly intimate trip and felt like I was on a private trip despite being with a group of strangers. Couldn’t recommend highly enough!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jbwood1966
Jul 16, 2025
Dive Ni’ihau with Explore Kauai Scuba! - We dove Vertical Awareness and The Arches. Both sites were amazing. Nick and Jessie are outstanding operators and fun to be out with. Safe diving with good equipment.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Informeddecision
Jul 16, 2025
The best choice - for Ni’ihau and other - Explore Kaua'i is simply the best choice for Ni'ihau. From the West side harbor they leave from, Ni'ihau takes just about an hour, which is half the time dive boats from the Poipu area take.
Jesse and Nick are both fantastic - great at skippering the boat and guiding underwater. They also are in no hurry and don't rush you. You get to dive your tank, which few dive boats allow. Jesse is great at spotting and pointing out interesting critters, which elevates every dive.
The boat is very comfortable with a cabin area for the times that there is rain, waves, and spray. It's really nice to have that for wet, cold days!
If you want a fabulous time diving, go with Explore Kauai!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Billcg8440gq
Jul 7, 2025
This was a great choice! - I chose Explore Kauai for this trip for two reasons. 1) is how helpful they were when I tried to book a trip in 2024, but there were not enough divers (they made suggestions of reputable competitors and were prompt with the refund. 2) the long boat trip to Niihau is shorter from their harbor than most dive companies on island. THIS WAS A GREAT CHOICE! You will not find two crewmembers with better care for their divers, the ocean and the wildlife. True Masters. True Aloha. Seals, Manta and on and on.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Culture17335727105
May 29, 2025
Incredible day diving - Best diving crew we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Can’t recommend Nick and Jessie enough! They are friendly, thorough, and so knowledgeable. Just book it :)
Review provided by Tripadvisor
T3191gwpaula
May 19, 2025
Ni'ihau a must for experienced divers! - Epic day of diving in Ni'ihau! Our captains/dive masters Jessie and Nick were awesome and took care of all our needs. Throughout the day, they showed us what was special about the area, including the bird sanctuary with hundreds of red-footed booby birds nesting, pods of spinner dolphins, and a beautiful landscape. Beneath the water, there were monk seals, including a very curious one who was with us for 30 minutes, an eagle ray, large sandbar sharks, a small gray shark, tuna, barracuda, eels hiding in the coral, and thousands of incredible tropical fish, some endemic to this area. Long dive times with highly attentive dive masters for our safety, and ensuring that we are experiencing all this special place has to offer. Highly recommend the experience.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Morganw267
Jan 3, 2025
Excellent experience with Explore Kauai Scuba - Jessie and Nick run a fantastic small dive operation! We have been to Kauai several times and Ni'ihau is one of the most magical places to dive- diving with Explore Kauai Scuba was an awesome experience. Jessie did an amazing job picking beautiful dive sights for us and Nick made the crossing as smooth as possible. Between dives, they provided lots of tasty snacks and talked about all the cool critters on the reef. They even gave excellent recommendations for things to do with the rest of our time on Kauai. We can't wait to go back and dive with Jessie and Nick again!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Alison
Dec 17, 2024
Great Diving Day! - We dove with Explore Kauai Scuba last week and loved everything about it. They were responsive, fun, and communicative prior to the dive via text, and when weather didn’t allow us to get to Ni’ihau (it is winter) they took us out locally and took the time to find the best dive sites despite the wind and rain. During the dives, Jesse wrote out names of the fish and critters on her slate, while pointing out cool things. Her navigation was perfect. Between dives there were sample snacks, juices, and string cheese. As advanced divers, it was a perfect day of hour or more bottom time for each dive and an hour of swapping stories and laughs.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
