We select TWO unique snorkel sites on each tour and the sites are selected the day of the tour based on weather and ocean conditions.  We want to insure you have the best possible marine life encounters. On extremely rare occasions in the summer, there maybe days due to surf where we can only snorkel one location.

We have several locations on the south shore to choose from and below are a couple of our favorites.

Z TOURZ FAVORITE SNORKEL SITES

Sheraton Caverns

This is one of our favorite snorkel locations and a popular dive site.  This area has extensive underwater caves and caverns.  Jacques Cousteau and his team spent time here studying the Honu (Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle) in 1970.  This area is almost always calm, clear, abundant with turtles and tropical fish.

PK's

This reef is teeming with Hawaiian fish life.  The name is a bit odd but it does have some meaning. Adjacent to the reef is a monument for Prince Kuhio.  Therefore, the beach and reef received a shortened version of just PK.  The area we snorkel is not accessible from the beach, as we go to an area on the outer part of the reef.

OTHER AREA'S YOU WILL SEE AND/OR VISIT

Lawa'i Kai (Allerton Garden) - http://ntbg.org/gardens/allerton.php

The entire valley of Lawai Kai was once owned by one of Hawaii’s most beloved Monarchs, Queen Emma, wife of Kamehameha IV (the Monarch who sold Ni’ihau to the Robinson’s).  She first visited the area as a new bride in 1856, and moved to Lawa’i following the death of her husband and young son in 1870 where she lived for several years.  Much of Queen Emma’s handiwork as a gardener survives today.

Lawa’i was later purchased by Alexander McBryde (McBryde Sugar fame).  McBryde moved Queen Emma’s cottage from the top of the cliff to the beach area.  Following McBrydes death, the famous fishpond was bequeathed to the Palama family and Lawa'i was purchased from the McBryde Estate in 1937 by Robert Allerton, (a Chicago Millionaire, founder of the Chicago National Bank and son of a decendant from the Mayflower).  Allerton, along with his adopted son, John Gregg Allerton, replaced the McBryde residence with a home their own, restored Queen Emma’s cottage and turned the lower valley into a tropical garden know as Allerton’s Gardens.

The Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden is dedicated to tropical botany, new sources of medicines from tropical plants, new hybrids and the preservation of rare plants is the dream made reality by the Allerton Family. On our tour we visit the remote bay area of Allerton Garden.  This is one of the favorite areas for the Spinner Dolphins. 

Movies Filmed at Allertons:

- Jurassic Park
- Fantasy Island Pilot
- Thorn Birds (Richard Chamberlin)
- Father Goose (Cary Grant)

Spouting Horn - Spouting Horn Park

This is a very famous tour destination on Kauai.  Most visitors only see this blow hole from the land and behind a fence.  On our tour you will be able to see this spectacular site from the ocean without any obstructions!

Most blowholes are narrow chimneys through the roof of a sea cave or lava tube beneath the bench that are directly exposed to high surf. Hawaiian legend attributes the noise of Spouting Horn blowhole to a legendary lizard (mo'o) who was caught inside the chimney. The rno'o was returning to Kauai from Ni'ihau where he had learned of the death of his two sisters. Blinded by his tears of sorrow he missed his landing nearby and got caught in the blowhole. There his voice can still be heard whenever high surf strikes the rocks.

'Olelo No'eau =JAIL. "One who falls into a blowhole rarely escapes"

Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings, Pukui, 1983

Only one person has ever been dragged through the Spouting Horn and lived to tell - about it. In 1985 an l8 year old visitor from Palo Alto California, Chris Parr, was knocked down by the force of whitewater and dragged into the mouth by the wave's backwash. Parr found himself at the bottom of a chimney looking 10 feet up at the opening. He quickly noted that the blowhole was L-shaped with a horizontal tube 3 feet in diameter and half-filled with water leading out to the ocean. He immediately scrambled and swam his way out to the open ocean.

AMAZING COAST LINES AND SITES YOU MAY SEE

Palama's

Nomilu Fishpond,(Palama's) is a natural salt water lake,approximately 20 acres in size.  The pond is fed by springs so the water is actually brackish. Once a part of the vast Estate owned by Queen Emma, Nomilu Fishpond was later purchased by Alexander Mcbryde. Following Mcbryde's death, the famous fishpond was bequeathed to the Palama family in who's care it remains to this day. Famous throughout Hawaii, in former times every chief who visited the island went to see it.  The mullet raised in the pond were noted for their delicacy.

Kauai Coffee - http://www.kauaicoffee.com/

Kauai Coffee (established in 1995),the formerly McBrydeSugar, is the largest Coffee Plantation in North America, extending from Port Allen to Kalaheo, and is one of the most mechanized in the world.