Snorkel Maui Lanai and Molokai Guide to the Beaches and Snorkeling of Hawaii (Guide to the Beaches and Snorkeling of Hawai'i)

Review

Detailed and accurate maps and charts can put even a hopeless twit in the right spot for a delightful snorkeling adventure, and the text leaves readers with a sense of history, Hawaiian culture, geography, oceanography and aloha...the Malinowskis have achieved a rare balance in presenting essential elementary information to help beginners, and insightful revelations to keep experts interested. With simple prose that is eloquent with aloha, their books are extended love letters to Hawaii's best reefs. --Greg Ambrose, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Product Description

Snorkel Maui, Lanai and Molokai is the one and only guidebook exclusively devoted to snorkeling on these beautiful islands. No other guide comes close to the level of snorkeling detail provided here. Take SMLM, along with a good general guidebook of your choice, and you'll have all the details you need for a great vacation! Now revised and expanded, with full color maps, as well as 75 beach and 80 fish pictures! From a colorful cover to 39 accurate maps and details on 81 snorkeling sites, SMLM draws you into the fascinating underwater world that shouldn't be missed by anyone touring these islands. As Dave Barry says: When you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you've been missing the whole point of the ocean--it's like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent. An award-winning book designer contributed a sophisticated, yet readable style to the cover and interior. It's worth going to the Maui just to swim and snorkel, and Snorkel Maui, Lanai and Molokai is the snorkeling buddy you want to have along.

Customer review;
I have used both the Snorkel Kauai and this book on different trips to Hawaii. On our most recent trip to Maui, I found this book to be quite useful for finding those harder to find access points to the numerous beaches in South Maui. I also have the Maui Revealed book by Dougherty & Friedmann, but I find their discussions on snorkeling spots to be quite limited in all of their books and definitely not as good. Also, with Snorkel Maui and Lanai, the beaches are organized geographically around the island, the maps are closer to the page describing the beach, and the directions to get to the beach and find parking are much better than you will find in the Maui Revealed book. I didn't mean this to be a comparison of these two books, but based on other comments, I think if you want to explore the beaches in detail for where is best to snorkel you should buy this book. It is not expensive and is a good deal.

The most useful section of this book is on pages 40-42, "Maui Snorkeling Sites at a Glance". They list the beaches going from west to south to east around the island and a "snorkel worthy" rating, how easy is the access, facilities, what page you'll find the description on, and then a brief note on each. These pages are well worth the cost of the book and I would use them constantly to plan our next day. I found their ratings (A, B, or C) to be dead on and "easy, intermediate, or advanced" rating to be good, too. The next best aspect of the book is letting you know about the beach access parking, you don't often get that for every beach in Maui Revealed.

A very useful book!

P.S. As they suggest, do NOT miss Honolua Bay, Malu'aka Beach, and the Fishbowl (we followed the instructions from Maui Revealed for that one, though). Ulua Beach was beautiful and good for snorkeling, too.

Like it? Snorkel Hawaii: The Big Island Guide to the Beaches and Snorkeling of Hawaii, 3rd Edition