TURTLES EVERYWHERE!!!! It was awesome! My husband and I went to Napili Beach for snorkeling while on our honeymoon in Maui and I asked a man and women who came up from snorkeling nearby who I assume were locals, or maybe just a veteran visitor to that part of the island, if they'd seen any turtles and she said not there, but right around the corner is "turtle bay" as she called it. A quick Yelp search brought up Honokeana Bay as being right around the corner, and a quick scan of the reviews told me they're probably the same place just different names.
We drove through the resort that's surrounding the bay, but didn't feel like taking a chance of parking as there were employees around doing yardwork. We parked just down the street on the road (or could easily have walked from Napili Beach too)
There are signs that the grass is private property of the resort. Not the water, the grass. So we just quickly hopped skipped and jumped (not really, though, the "grass" was all mud so we pretty much skidded down) and made our way to the water. The entrance was tricky with the sharp rocks -- water shoes would be helpful -- and the waves kind of crazy around the little cove we were in, but once in the water it was INSANE how many turtle we saw.
A woman getting out told us it's almost easier to spot the turtles from above the water than snorkeling around looking and she was definitely correct. A minute in, my husband said "do you see any?" And I turned to look at him and saw what looked at first like a big rock like, 2 feet from him, then it moved a bit and I mustered out "uhh isn't that one?" through the shock and excitement.
After that, we noticed their heads bobbing up all over and spent amount of time just circling the same area of the water (not even far from where we entered) and saw probably 15 turtles at least.
Some notes: a woman watching outside of the water mentioned that there is an older turtle with tumors they can "barnacle bill" and he will, allegedly, ram into people swimming in his home. We didn't see Bill...I'm okay with that. And she said turtles in general are attracted to shiny items, like our new wedding rings, so that they may have come close to us out of curiosity for the shiny things. Can't blame them there; diamonds are fun for everyone!
Overall -- awesome spot! If you want to swim/snorkel with turtles in west Maui -- go here :) read more