Quick answer: If you are on the Big Island for a week and plan to get in the water more than twice, buy a mask and snorkel once you land and leave the fins at home. Renting in Kailua-Kona or Kealakekua is the better call for a stay of two or three days. Gear is always included on the manta ray night snorkel and on boat trips out to Kealakekua Bay, so you are really only buying for the shore mornings.
We live about ten minutes up the hill from Kealakekua Bay, and after coffee this is the question we get asked most. Pack the gear, or sort it out when you arrive? It is a fair thing to wonder about. A pair of full size fins eats half a carry on, there are rental counters all over Kailua-Kona, and nobody wants to spend the first morning of a trip in a shop.
Rent, buy or bring: the short version
Two or three days in the water, rent. You will pay a daily rate, you will hand it back, and you will not have carried anything across the Pacific for the sake of two mornings.
A week or more, buy. A week of rentals for two people tends to land close to what a basic mask and snorkel costs outright, and at the end of it you own something that fits you. Do the arithmetic at the counter, because rates change and most shops price a week well below seven days.
Traveling with children, buy. This is the one we feel strongly about. Rental bins are stocked for adult faces, a child in a mask that leaks will ask to get out after four minutes, and that is the end of snorkeling for your whole trip. A cheap mask that actually fits a seven year old is the best money you will spend on the Big Island.
Bring your own if you already own a mask you like. Not the whole kit. Just the mask, and the snorkel if it screws onto it. That is the piece that is worth the suitcase space.
The mask is the only piece that really matters
Everything else on this list is a convenience. The mask is the difference between an hour of watching yellow tangs over the reef and an hour of standing up every ninety seconds to empty salt water out of your face.
There is a two second test and it works. Hold the mask against your face without the strap, breathe in gently through your nose, and let go. If it stays put on its own, it seals on you. If it slides off, it will leak in the water no matter how hard you tighten the strap. Do this in the shop. Do it with every mask on the rack until one of them sticks.
Two other things worth knowing. A silicone skirt seals better and lasts longer than a hard plastic one and costs very little more. And if you wear glasses, the usual answer is contacts, or a prescription mask ordered before you travel.
A word about full face snorkel masks. We would steer you away from them. Breathing in and out into one enclosed space can let carbon dioxide build up, the cheap ones are the worst offenders, and you cannot dive down even a few feet without the thing clamping onto your face.
Whatever you end up with, it will fog. Rub a drop of baby shampoo inside the lens and rinse it, or spit in it and smear it around like everybody on the beach is quietly doing. A brand new mask fogs worse until the factory film wears off, so scrub it with toothpaste before its first swim.
Fins, and whether you actually need them
Less often than you would think, on this coast.
At Kahaluu, the easy snorkel just south of Kailua-Kona, you do not need fins at all. The water is shallow and protected and the whole point of it is that you can stand up. At Two Step in Honaunau, in South Kona, fins help, but what you really want is something on your feet for the entry, because you climb in off a lava shelf.
If you are kayaking across to the monument at Kealakekua Bay, or swimming any real distance, or going out on a boat, then yes, fins. Short travel fins pack into a suitcase and are perfectly adequate for everything described here. Full size fins are for people who are diving down, and they are also the single most annoying thing to pack.
For most visitors, reef shoes or an old pair of sneakers are worth more than fins. A lot of the entries on this coast are over rock, and the beaches near Kona that have sand are the exception rather than the rule.
What to wear instead of sunscreen
A long sleeved rash guard is the best piece of snorkel gear nobody counts as snorkel gear. You float face down for an hour with your back to a tropical sun, and the back of your neck, your shoulders and the backs of your knees are where every visitor burns. A rash guard solves three of those four and does not wash off onto the reef.
For the rest, buy your sunscreen here rather than bringing it. Hawaii banned the sale of sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate, so the bottle in your cabinet at home may well be one you should not be swimming in here. A mineral zinc sunscreen bought locally sorts it out, on the same run as your first grocery shop. Our notes on where to buy groceries in Kona cover which store to use for that.
Where to rent in Kailua-Kona and Kealakekua
Kona Boys, on the highway in Kealakekua, is the obvious one if you are staying down our way. They are minutes from the turning down to the bay, they rent kayaks as well, and they are the people to talk to about getting across to the monument legally.
Snorkel Bob’s in Kailua-Kona is the one everybody has heard of. Standard gear, weekly rates, and you can hand the set back on another island if your trip is doing more than one.
Jack’s Diving Locker and the other dive shops in town rent better quality gear than the tourist counters do, and the staff will actually fit a mask to your face rather than handing you a bag. If you are going to rent for a week, rent from a dive shop.
Call ahead rather than turning up, especially in winter and over the holidays, and ask about the weekly rate even if you only want two days.
Where to buy once you are here
Costco on the way in from the airport is the cheapest place to buy a set and it is directly on your route, which is the argument for it. Walmart and Target in Kailua-Kona both carry basic gear. The dive shops cost more and the gear is better, and for a mask that is a trade worth making.
What we would spend money on: the mask. What we would not: a boxed set with a mesh bag, a plastic mask, a dry snorkel with a lot of moving parts, or anything sold at an airport.
One more thing before you buy anything at all. Casa Grateful and Casa Aloha both come with snorkel gear, beach chairs, a cooler and an umbrella already there, so a swim on your first afternoon costs you nothing and needs no errand. Ask us what is at the house you have booked before you spend anything, because we would rather you did not pay twice for something sitting in a cupboard ten feet from your bed.
Where to actually use it
Kahaluu Beach Park, a few minutes south of Kailua-Kona, is where to start. Shallow, protected, lifeguarded and full of reef fish and turtles. It is the one we send families to first, and it is covered in our guide to the best beaches for kids on the Big Island.
Two Step at Honaunau, in South Kona, is the clearest water you can reach from shore. Park at Puuhonua o Honaunau next door, walk over, and go early because the parking fills. The place of refuge is worth the hour it takes to see properly while you are there.
Kealakekua Bay is the famous one, and the good reef is on the far side of it with no road leading there. Boat, permitted kayak or a very serious hike, and we talk most guests out of the hike. The full honest version is in our guide to snorkeling Kealakekua Bay.
The manta ray night snorkel is the one thing we tell everybody to book, and you need no gear for it at all. The operator provides everything, and you hold a lit board rather than swimming. More on that in our guide to the manta ray snorkel in Kona.
The Ocean Activities page has the rest of what there is to do in the water along this coast. One seasonal note worth having: between about December and March you can often hear humpbacks singing underwater while you snorkel, which has nothing to do with your gear and is the best thing that will happen to you all week. Our guide to whale watching season says when they are here, and our piece on the best time to visit the Big Island covers how the water changes through the year.
Where to stay if the water is the point
If snorkeling is the reason you are coming, where you sleep decides how early you get in. Kealakekua and Captain Cook put you ten to fifteen minutes from Kealakekua Bay and twenty from Two Step, so you are in the water before the parking fills. Kailua-Kona puts you ten minutes from Kahaluu and close to the boat harbors.
Casa Grateful is our one bedroom in Kealakekua and the one couples take, with a covered lanai and an ocean view down the slope. Casa Gratitude is in Kealakekua too, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms and a third bedroom for children on request, which makes it the one for families and groups. Casa Aloha is our one bedroom in Kailua-Kona, walkable to town, with a pool that sits right on the ocean.
If you are weighing one part of the coast against another, our guides to the best area to stay in Kona and where to stay near Kealakekua Bay lay out both sides, and the South Kona and Kona Town pages cover what is near each of them.
Questions we get asked
Do you need to bring snorkel gear to Hawaii?
No. You can rent or buy everything on the Big Island within twenty minutes of the airport. The only piece worth packing is a mask you already own and know fits you, because that is the one thing a rental counter cannot guarantee.
Is it cheaper to rent or buy snorkel gear in Kona?
For one to three days, renting. For a week or more, buying usually wins, especially for two or more people, and you keep the gear. Ask any rental shop for its weekly rate before deciding, because that number is often much lower than seven times the daily one.
Do you need fins to snorkel at Kahaluu or Two Step?
Not at Kahaluu, which is shallow and protected. At Two Step they help, and footwear for the lava shelf entry matters more than the fins do. For kayaking or boat trips to Kealakekua Bay, bring or rent fins.
Can you use your own gear on a manta ray tour?
The operators include everything, so there is no need. Some will let you use your own mask if you prefer it, which is worth asking when you book.
What sunscreen is allowed in Hawaii?
Sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate cannot be sold here, so buy a mineral zinc sunscreen locally rather than bringing one from home. A long sleeved rash guard does more than any bottle does and is what most people here wear in the water.
Come and get in the water
Snorkeling on this coast needs very little. A mask that seals, something on your feet, a rash guard and a calm morning. The rest is being close enough to the water to go before the wind comes up, which is most of what we are for.
Have a look at all three of our homes, or ask us which one suits the week you are describing. House rules, check in times and parking are on our FAQ page, and booking direct on the website is always the best rate with no extra booking fees.