Rent a Boat in Kailua-Kona - Best Kona Attraction! Kona Boat Rentals Review
This will probably be my favorite review I have ever written about anything we have ever done in Hawaii … and we’ve done a lot. We rented a boat from Kona Boat Rentals in the Honokohau Harbor which is between Kona and the airport.
We got there at 8:30 a.m. Our crew, Earl checked us in. He gave us a handheld GPS locater and some instruction, let us pick our fishing poles and snorkels and masks and boogie boards and helped us put our gear in the boat and we were off!
We’ve never owned a boat but my husband has driven one a few times so we were fairly comfortable. We headed out of the harbor and turned left, toward Kona. The boat was fairly easy to drive so we all took turns - even my 5 year old son.
My husband was pretty excited about fishing so he immediately threw out the trolling line. Within 10 minutes we heard the telltale zzzzzzzzzzzz of a fish taking the line. It was an ono - about 40 inches long. That was pretty exciting - my husband managed to get it in the boat by himself. We aren’t big fish eaters so we brought it back for Earl. If we had known what we were doing we probably could have sold it for decent money - but we didn’t. 
After we got that taken care of we kept going. We went past Kailua Bay and found a mooring - a big red globe anchored 5 feet under the water just past Keauhou Bay. We found it using the GPS locator. The boat has a book full of locations of moorings. I jumped out and swam an anchor line down to the mooring and then we were anchored there. We bottom fished for a bit and had some lunch. My husband caught a goat fish and a wrasse. We threw both of them back.
After lunch we headed out to Kealakekua Bay (writeup on another boat tour I took to the bay here) for some snorkeling. Someone had to stay in the boat because you can’t anchor or moor in the bay so my son and I snorkeled while my husband stayed in the boat. We put the throttle in neutral and climbed in and out the back swim step.
We started heading back to Honokohau Harbor, as our full day was almost over. I had been hoping to see some dolphins but we never did on this trip. On the way back we did see a thresher shark - that was crazy. We were way out, probably a mile or more out from shore even with Kailua Bay and I saw two fins in the water. At first I thought maybe it was dolphins but the fins looked off. We watched and it was a big thresher shark doing who-knows-what at the top of the water. H stuck around for about 5 minutes and then took off.
On the way out the weather was sunny and beautiful and the water was clear like glass. On the way in we had overcast skies and the seas got a bit rougher. We came around the last point before Honokohau Harbor and got hit almost sideways by three pretty big waves - but the boat was a match for them and we got past them quickly.
All in all, an awesome day. I mean AWESOME! We really had a good time and it was nice to be able to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted.
When we got back, Earl came out to the dock and got us out and took the boat back to the shop and then helped us get our stuff out. Another couple with their two kids had gone out on another boat and came back about the same time we did. They said they had gone to Kealakekua Bay and then they found a mooring near an isolated beach somewhere between around Keauhou Bay. They moored the boat and snorkeled in and were the only people on the beach for hours.
They asked us how much to tip Earl and that’s when I got to hear what my husband tipped him. Get ready for it … $40! That blew me away - but maybe I am cheap. My husband really liked how patient Earl was and how much he helped us and how professional and kind he was. Plus he cleaned the boat for us We just had all the fun. LOL.
So how much did it cost
Well, on top of our $40 trip we paid $577 dollars. That was for 7 hours - at the rate of something like $450 for the 7 hours plus $11.50 an hour for gas. So, was it worth it? Absolutely! And just imagine that you took a 4 person family on one of my favorite trips - the Fair Winds - at their a.m. prices (only 4.5 hours) when I am checking this 2 adults and 2 kids would cost you $390, only a $187 difference - and with the boat you get to do whatever you want! Good deal I say.
So, have you done this? Or rented a boat with another company? Leave a comment and let us know!
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