This was our 4th trip with Tradewinds Charter and I anticipate coming back next time we are in…read moreOahu. The experience was super relaxing and very memorable. The boat is clean, comfortable, and very spacious; the crew has been exceptionally amazing every single time (which is why we keep coming back!). The service truly is top notch, and the crew takes every step to ensure each passenger is comfortable and their experience is the best possible. This time we got Captain Ken himself and he was lovely to meet and converse with. I highly recommend supporting this family owned business.

I highly recommend Tradewind Charters! If you're on the fence about booking a charter, do it with…read morethis company! They kind of have a choose your own adventure approach, so my group and I elected to snorkel for a bit and then sail for the remainder of our 3 hour charter. The wind made the sailing a bit spicy so it was truly a blast! Gehrig and Wes were awesome! Gehrig was super helpful and jumped in the water with us while we snorkeled to point out a few fish and turtles. Captain Wes was great as well--he chatted with us about his time in Oahu and answered our incessant questions about sailing. We will definitely be back!

One Day in "The Real Hawai'i"…read more One of our best experiences during our vacation in Oahu was the private day tour we booked with "The Real Hawai'i." The fee of $149.00 a person for six hours was a great deal, especially considering how most tours lasting more then 3 hours will cost you over $100.00 a person. The difference is that "most" tours are going to pile as many people as possible into a bus and take you on a regimented tour with no thought to the individuals. With "The Real Hawai'i" plan to spend a day with a private tour guide who assists you in coming up with a custom day of places and experiences with your interest in mind. They do all the driving, worry about the parking and even know the best "local" places to get fresh delicious food. Oahu is a beautiful Island with many cultural and scenic gems that easily could be missed. The people from "The Real Hawai'i" know the Island and all the fascinating beautiful locations that are not found in tourist pamphlets. What I loved about our tour is that we wanted to take a path less travelled, so Dan our tour guide took us to check out the beautiful views from Pu'u o Mahuka Heiau State Historic Site. Hiked through Waimea Park up to the falls. Watched in amazement as the huge waves crashed onto the shore at Ehukai Beach (AKA The Bonzai Pipeline). Walked through a magnificent Banyan Tree, that was used in filming Lost and Jumanji: Welcome to The Jungle. And ate delicious farm raised, fresh caught shrimp. Dan the owner paired us with a terrific tour guide who took pictures for us, gave us some great history of the island, and taught us about local traditions. Our day with Real Hawai'i was by far the highlight of our vacation! If your not sure what you want to see then check out their website www.therealhawaiitours.com where you can find a variety of ideas and prices to help you come up with your perfect day in "The Real Hawaii" You can also check out their FB page @therealhawaiitours. Or find them on YouTube @ The Real Hawaii

You will see two other companies with similar names to this one, but they are not the same as this…read moreone. Make sure you are booking with Dan! Dan is the guy who runs The Real Hawaii. I found him through TripAdvisor when I was seaching for a private circle tour. We were a group of two, and I wanted something small, custom and personal, over an impersonal group tour. If you are looking for the same, Dan is your man. Booking through the external sites is easy, but I recommend calling Dan and booking through him directly. He is polite and prompt in his service. He has a fleet of three vehicles: two jeeps and a van. We took a tour in one of his Jeeps. We scheduled a pickup at our Waikiki Beach hotel the day before. He picked us up promptly at 7am for our tour on the scheduled day. He was very professional, fun and a great conversationalist. He took us to some very beautiful spots of places with names I have trouble pronouncing. He will point out the spots of simple beauty, but also take you to places you never knew you needed to visit. Every place he goes, he has a story or experience there. He seems to know everyone, which makes your tour very efficient. He also adjusts your tour's pace to you, and you will never feel rushed. Some of the lookouts and beaches were so breathtaking. The Pipeline Beach area is a must. You would think places like that do not exist, but WOW. Even if you are not a surf fan, you will appreciate a stop there. The restaurants he takes you to are great! We stopped at Fumi's and Aoki's and I was impressed by both. The shopping area we went to on the North Shore was nice. Lots of photo ops, and Dan will even show you some filming locations from movies and tv shows. We got lucky and even saw quite a few whales during our tour! Overall, this is probably one of the best private tours I have been on in all my years of traveling. Dan knows his stuff, and we were super happy with our experience. Customer service, excellent. Driving, excellent. Tour stops, excellent. And Dan, excellent. Thank you, Dan!

Literally the WORST company to book through. I made a reservation directly online through their…read morewebsites and got double charged and could not get anybody to answer the phone or respond to email for multiple weeks to sort anything out. Couldn't get the pickup address either - and it was way further away from our Waikiki hotel than the address on their website. After making the reservation and starting to worry about if I just got scammed, I Kept getting auto email and auto text bots that made me feel like I was for sure scammed. Only the morning of my reservation (weeks later!!) someone finally texted me - then I got redirected via text to another local guy who is actually renting out the slingshots. I guess that company is slingshots Waikiki, and that dude was great, super helpful and responsive, but after weeks of suffering, and now still fighting the duplicate through my credit card with Origami Tours - I can't say anything nice about origami but if you want to rent a slingshot, just go directly to slingshot Waikiki guy and website he was legit.

Great service. Very friendly staff. Easy to navigate . Visited with my son and we were having fun.read more

It was a great tour! The tour of Hanauma bay went very smoothly and we had a good time. The…read moresnorkeling gears were nice and easy to use. I could give them almost five stars, but one thing they made us disappeared. It is the pickup location. We were staying at The Grand Islander Hotel and they set pickup location to Ilikai Hotel. According to the meeting instructions, it's 3min walking distance from our hotel. However it took 9 minutes. We were carrying towels and beach stuff and drinks. Anyway no way to get there within 3min. Then, after they picked us up at Ilikai, the next stop was The Grand Islander!!!! What?! That's where we stayed at!! We just simply couldn't understand why they set the location for pickup.

We did the Hanuama Bay Snorkeling. 12.50$ for pick up & drop off from Waikiki is great if you are…read morenot renting a car. The booking process was simple & when you call them they are very responsive. No complains there. The pick up arrived & drop offs were on time. But the only complain is, the rental equipment is too old & wasn't fogged. If you have your own snorkeling gear please carry it. We left our gear at the hotel which was a mistake. But for 12.50$ per person it's worth it.

Don't buy thru Viacom, as it's genuinely free! We toured downtown Honolulu including Iolani palace,…read moreand absolutely loved it. We had Peter as our incredible guide who was knowledgeable of all of our questions as well as witty and hilarious. It was easy to meet up, with a great location to gather. Paid to park. Walked for about 1 hour. Thank you Peter!!

The best deal in Hawai'i! Victor and Ellis were great tour guides. They were knowledgeable,…read morefriendly, attentive, and knew their stuff. They gave a detailed and honest tour about Hawai'i's history and present day Hawai'i, with no typical tour guide BS. Can't recommend enough. Thanks guys!

What a great experience - my first with a charter flight…read more A group of us chartered a plane to Kalaupapa to tour the peninsula. I did not book the flight, so I can't speak to that process, but our experience from airport to airport and back again was excellent. There isn't a big sign for Pacific Air Charters, but the building is clearly marked with the address, so we knew we were in the right place. Lots of parking out front on a Saturday morning, even though the spaces are not all striped. Lucy met us and escorted us up to the office and restrooms. We hung out with complimentary tea/coffee while our pilot finished up his final checks. She was very gracious and welcoming. Lucy then escorted us down to the aircraft, and I was pleasantly surprised - twin-engine Piper Super Chieftain. Some in our group were a little nervous about such a small aircraft but it was a lot nicer than some commercial planes I've been on. No TSA theatre, no lines. Our pilot came out to greet us - his name was Ace and he was a total Captain-Sully type. Very professional and left me feeling like we were in capable hands. He did a quick safety briefing for us, then placed us row by row for weight and balance. Every seat had headphones, which was good for noise reduction, but aviation geeks will enjoy listening to the radio communications with the tower and other aircraft. We had a quick taxi and takeoff, and we had such a smooth ride. Visibility got worse later in the day with vog, which was a bummer, but we even got to chase a couple whales in the morning on our way over to Kalaupapa. Fast flight - 25 minutes, max. Ace hung out at the airport while we did our tour, which was surprising; I figured he'd run back to Honolulu or at least go topside Molokai. But, when we were finished that afternoon, we did a repeat safety briefing, sat back in our assigned seats, trundled down the runway and we were off. We had a lot of sea-breeze convection and lightning over Oahu, but it wasn't a problem, thankfully - we stayed out to sea and came in from over the water instead of a town-side approach. The headsets were a bit static-y on the return, I suspect as a result of the weather, so I couldn't hear as well. An overall great experience. We filled the plane with 9 of us, and I thought the price was very reasonable per person, considering we had charter service to an isolated airstrip. Will definitely consider them again if travels warrant!

The pilots and staff at Pacific air charters are what makes this experience so smooth an enjoyable…read more I regularly use them to travel interisland to avoid waiting around and having to deal with TSA. They are always on time and do everything they can to make my travel plans work and are incredibly flexible to my needs. Thank you Lucy for always looking after me so well.

I had tour with Ilya on Oahu . It was fantastic . Ilya is very knowledgeable and positive person …read more Highly recommend !

Amazing Tours with Russian Speaking Tour guide. Ilya is…read moresuch a warm personality and highly motivated guide (recommendable!). The scenery was pure magic...You'll see all the best sites of the islands !! All respect for Ilya who does a great job there; a true sample of excellent tour guide! Many thanks again!!

Just took this tour today and it was awesome!!! I've lived here for over 20 years and learned so…read moremuch that I had never heard. Carter really gives you the inside stories and then some. Whether you are a local or a tourist you should definitely take this tour!!

Interesting, informative, poignant, thought provoking.... Just some of the words I could use to…read moredescribe today's tour. Our guide, Carter, was friendly, funny, warm and very knowledgeable. She didn't swamp you with her knowledge, but shared it. Her passion for history and in particular Queen Liliukalani was evident. The tour was perfect in length - a touch under 2 hours - with plenty of time for questions all the way through. It required a little walking - but not much - and there were opportunities to sit down, or at least get out of the sun throughout. I would recommend this tour to anyone who has even a passing interest in history, or the history of these islands. Fascinating! And a great way to spend a couple of hours.