s/o Kauai - Catamaran or sunset cruise companies?

MauiBride2008

We are leaving for Kauai October 23rd (SQUEEEEEEE)!!!! 

 We were planning on doing the Catamaran or a sunset cruise off the Napili coast.  For those of you have done either of these, which companies have you used or would you reccommend?  Also, I'm assuming you need to book these in advance.  Am I correct on that assumption?

TIA

Oceangirl22

We went to Kauai for our honeymoon, and absolutely LOVED it. I think it's my favorite island! Are you staying on the North or South shore?

First of all, Yes...definitely book in advance. It might not be as crowded as the summer was for us, but for piece of mind it's a good idea.

 We did an 8hr. catamaran excursion that went along the Napali coast line, and then out to the "Forbidden Island" of Niihau. We chose this one because we are big snorkelers, and I had heard the visibility was better off shore. It was pretty cool, but I think the shorter tour would have been fine, just doing the Napali coast. 

 We went went Holo Holo Charters, mainly because their boats were big, but they don't pack them to capacity. I think we maybe had about 20 people on our boat, but it definitely didn't feel crowded. 

The crew was very knowledgeable and fun, and they had pretty yummy snacks, that included breakfast and lunch.

HTH!

vanilla15

We went with Na Pali Explorers http://www.napali-explorer.com/  We originally were leaving out of the North Shore (Princeville area) but do to weather conditions, our tour was cancelled.  We called them afternoon before & were able to get on with the Na Pali Explorers but I guess better safe than sorry.

Here is also the link to Kauai Revealed's "Ocean Tours"

http://www.wizardpub.com/kauai/kaulinks.html#21

Have fun!!

Married2MrWright

I love Captain Andy's and have done both the longer snorkel trips as well as the sunset "booze" cruise.  We also did Blue Dolphin too.  Both are recommended and you can book online (for a discounted price, I believe).

lola808

We did the speed rafting trip with Kauai Sea Tours.  We selected the beach landing option, which included a stop (and lunch) in an ancient fishing village area.  It ran from the early morning until 1 or 2 in the afternoon.  We also got to snorkel (no extra charge) and zipped in and out of some cool caves.  I totally recommend them -- it was so so fun and amazingly gorgeous!  Even though we live here, we didn't think anything about the adventure was "cheesy" or fake (which many tourist attractions can be)... and our guide was super entertaining and very knowledgeable about the landscape and interesting historical info.  We had Capt. Kurt -- if you go this route, see if you can request to be on his boat!

lola808

Oops, sorry, didn't realize you were doing the catamaran thing!  Kauai Sea Tours does those too, though...

MauiBride2008

lola808:

Oops, sorry, didn't realize you were doing the catamaran thing!  Kauai Sea Tours does those too, though...

Thanks Lola for the suggestion!  Sounds like a great time actually, I'm gonna look into that too  

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.  I'm looking into to all the companies suggested now.  Can't wait to book so I can finally start getting excited about doing stuff when we get there.  We have been so busy that we haven't planned anything yet for our trip   I'm a little far behind   Thanks again!