Niihau! The “forbidden island” provides some of Hawaii’s best diving. Pristine reefs, stunning lava tubes, abundant life everywhere you look. We never guarantee you’ll encounter a Hawaiian Monk Seal, but there is a good chance you will. Niihau is home to the largest population of Monk Seals in the main Hawaiian Islands.
What’s Included
Our introductory pricing of $zzz.zz includes
- 3 spectacular dives
- Delicious food between and after dives
- Air transport to and from Oahu
- Ground transportation on Kauai
- Rental Gear as needed.
- Nitrox
The first two dives are on Nitrox. The last dive is on air. A Nitrox orientation is given to divers who are not Nitrox Certified to allow them to dive Nitrox on these dives. There is a small additional cost for this and it does not provide Nitrox Certification. Nitrox Certification is available through Oahu Travel Divers.
Traveling to Niihau from Kauai is about a 30 mile boat ride, 17 of which are across the channel between the islands. Diving Ni’ihau is weather dependent as crossing the channel gets difficult when the winds pick up. Conditions are generally good from May into October. During the rest of the year widows occasionally open up. Diving Niihau during the winter when Humpbacks are around is a special treat.
What Type of Diving
Dives at Niihau are considered Advanced Dives as we will be doing some deep diving and some drift diving. Familiarity with Drift and Deep Diving is helpful. All certified divers are welcome to come on the dives but inexperienced divers might find the dives challenging.
One Day Dive Trip
At Oahu Travel Divers we understand that getting away for a whole weekend for a dive trip is hard to manage and a little expensive. We utilize low altitude flying to allow us to do this trip in a single day. For more information about this please visit our page on Flying and Diving. Our trip begins with a 5 am arrival at our private charter, a 45 minute flight to Kauai, followed by a taxi ride to the boat. After our dives we will take taxis back to the airport and board our plane for our early evening return flight to Oahu. The return flight will be between 1,000 – 2,000 ft.
The Plane
Oahu Travel Divers typically charters a Cessna Grand Caravan that seats 10 passengers and a pilot. The Grand Caravan is a turboprop design well known for its safety record and is a popular charter plane in the Hawaiian Islands. Noise canceling head phones are provided for anyone who finds it too loud for comfort.