Snorkel Maui and Lana'i: Guide to the Underwater World of Hawaii

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. Hope this helps.

However general guides may be, they are not a substitude for a guide written for snorkelers only. We find this book amust for snorkeling Maui, it is loaded with information targeted for snorkelers. It has invaluable maps and provides information about each site, such as how to get to, what to expect, water currents, weather and very detailed directions. We found the information to be very accurate. Using this guide, my wife and I became adicted to snorkeling and were able to enjoy 1 hour plus snorkels twice a day for a week enjoying the beautiful and diverse underwater life safely. Thanks to the Malinowski's for this great guide!

We bought the Maui/Lanai version of the book and found it was the book we used most once we got to Maui. We spent 6 days snorkeling in the mornings and this book gave us exact information about where to go! Some of the sites were wonderful and off the beaten path.(None of the other books or the dive shops had ALL of this information.) Well worth the small investment!

We bought both this book and their other guide, Snorkel Hawaii The Big Island, and snorkeled both islands.We were impressed by the detailed instructions and very clear maps. My husband gets seasick easily, and the tip on that cured him! The section on Lanai got us to go over there, and it was a lovely excursion. Highly recommended.