Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures is a small diving and whale watching outfit that runs tours off in North Hawaii. This is a family-owned and operated diving company, making it a good choice for those looking for a more intimate experience out on the water.
Headquartered in the Waikoloa Resort Area, you will want to ignore Google Maps’ listed location for Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures. They do have an accessible storefront that doubles as a small dive shop and launching point for their dive tours. This brick-and-mortar location is located within the Queens’ Marketplace, a resort-style outdoor shopping mall with beautiful landscaping and a myriad of great shops to browse. You can reach their location easily by parking in the parking lot south of Queens’ Marketplace and entering by way of the middle pedestrian walking path. Their store will be just a few doors in, on the right. Most of their general tours and diving excursions will launch from the nearby Puako Boat Ramp with some select tours launching from Kawaihae Boat Ramp.
Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures has been offering tours and excursions since 2005. Yet, then as now, they like to keep things simple and small with 8-passenger boats that are ideal for small groups. When you book a tour or dive lesson and excursion with them, you can rest assured you and any other party members are going to get a more personalized experience.
Which, yes, in addition to their general whale watching tours and dive excursions, Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures also offers a number of certification classes for those interested in learning how to dive in Hawaii, or who want to take a more expert-level class to expand their knowledge of the sport.
The most popular diving experiences with Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures are the following two tours:
Two Tank Morning Dive in Hawaii
This morning charter departs on select days from the Puako boat ramp at 7:45 and returns around noon. Experienced divers take the lead, showing guests some of the most beautiful underwater landscapes of the Big Island. You’ll get to dive along and around lava tubes and pristine reefs teeming with wildlife.
Hawaii Manta Ray Night Dive & Snorkel
This night dive happens every weekday night and is certainly the group’s most popular diving tour. Of course, Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures is not the only diving outfit to offer manta ray night dives. This unique type of dive is considered one of the top ten dives to experience in the world due to the magic of being able to peacefully swim up close and personal with these gentle giants (manta rays can weight well over 1,000 pounds with 12-foot wingspans). But while not inherently unique, a smaller outfit like Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures is a preferred way of completing this experience as you don’t have to battle a crowd such as with the big boat charters.
Note that the listed prices for dive adventures with Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures include dive gear. If you need to rent gear from the outfit, you can do with their full scuba gear package that is available for an additional $45. Alternatively, those wanting to dive elsewhere or otherwise outside this group’s listed tours can likewise rent gear through their dive shop in the Queens’ Marketplace. This dive shop also features snorkel gear for rent and sale, branded apparel, and other swim and dive accessories.
Insider Tip:
If you have party members who want to join you on any of the dives Blue Wilderness Dive Adventures offers but who don’t want to actually dive, they can come along as a Snorkel Ride-along. There is an add-on fee for this, but it includes snorkel gear. This is a good way to enjoy the smaller boat experience at a lower rate.