Reviews for Makana Charters

DON’T MISS THIS TRIP!!! My husband and I have done almost every excursion available on Kauai and this was hands down the best. We did a whale watching tour and saw more whales on this Napali tour than we did on the whale watching tour. Captain Sean was amazing!!! He and Kai are both natives of Napali and you can feel their love for the island. They were very knowledgeable on the history of the island as well as the animals who call it home and were very informative—that’s when Sean wasn’t cracking jokes. They were great and helped us the entire trip. They also gave us suggestions on other places on the island to visit. Taking us inside caves and under waterfalls was the icing on the cake. I really want to rebook this trip so we can spend the day with them and do it all over again. The Seiko small boat was perfect and was able to get into places the big boats can’t go. We were worried because we were on a bigger boat for our whale watching tour and the ride was very rough. This small boat was much smoother. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime. I wish I could upload the amazing videos of the whales breaching and tale slapping not to mention the beautiful scenery that I took.

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Wonderful experience! Captain and 2 crew members we were fun and knowledgeable. We had a beautiful afternoon on the water, with incredible views of the coast and even some great watching.

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We had a great experience 😀👍

Product: Makana Charters

Such a wonderful day. The crew were fantastic. Professional, knowledgeable, and such fun.

Product: Makana Charters

It was the most amazing tour!! We went in sea caves, watched whales, went swimming and was given geology and cultural information. The team was great and the captain was very skilled!

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Really friendly crew and awesome experience. Saw whales dolphins turtles.

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Awesome crew. Felt like an all in one experience

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Makana and Elijah got us up the coast on January 17 with some rougher sea conditions. They were excellent guides and incredible handlers of the boat. Was a great experience to see the Na Pali coast from the sea. Highly recommend Makana charters and tours.

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We had a fantastic tour aboard the Seiko with Makana and Elijah. They were friendly, knowledgeable, and laid-back— we couldn’t have asked for better. The tour company was easy to work with and provided clear instructions, the vessel itself was impeccably clean and well-maintained. The water was too rough for the snorkel portion of our tour, but we made up for it by spending extra time seeing hundreds of dolphins and multiple whales! We would definitely book with Makana Charters again.

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We had a great day with Makana Charters on the Amelia K. Captain was amazing as were the two others on the deck. We saw and heard many whales, had dolphins up to the boat, and we were able to snorkel if anyone wanted at the end of the 5 hour trip. The coastline was beautiful and the boat was able to go right up to the caves and waterfalls. And even with the surf being high today the boat and captain maneuvered us for a fun and safe trip. Highly recommend this as a day trip. — at Makana Charters - Tour Kauai's Napali Coast.

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So much fun!!!! Love captain Makana and Elijah! Highlight of our trip! Saw dolphins, whales, the beautiful cliffs and got to swim in January!

Product: Makana Charters

This was an excellent tour! we knew that the swell was really rough, but we got to do so much more than I anticipated! The thrill of going even part way into the caves was exhilarating! We saw whales and a ton of dolphins! Lunch was so yummy and we even got to swim… perfect day! Thank you for taking such good care of us!

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Our tour guides were excellent. They shared interesting knowledge of the Na Pali coast and sea creatures we encountered. Very enjoyable morning!!

Product: Makana Charters

Captain Mike, Mates Tony and Charley were awesome!! Very knowledgeable about the sites and sea!! Accommodating and helpful!! It was a wonderful trip!! Saw lots of whales and dolphins!! A flying fish and an albatross! Snorkeling was great, saw a turtle there!

Product: Makana Charters

I would not recommend Makana Charters. From my experience, they’re unprofessional and the kind of business/people who cannot take responsibility of their own wrongdoing. Which is quite scary for a boat tour company when wrongdoing could lead to injury or death. Read the negative reviews they have and save your time/money. The TLDR: they don’t seem to have standard business practices of what to do if a tour is canceled or to even communicate updates that a tour is cancelled. Then they couldn’t care enough to make things right with me by choosing to ignore me when they realized they were in the wrong. I made several attempts to contact them to get this resolved via phone with voicemails and email but they chose to ignore me. What happened: We booked the Na Pali Coast Tour on the Seiko I & Seiko II Catamaran that was ultimately cancelled on Sunday, December 14th, and then again on Monday, December 15th, after being rescheduled. On Saturday (12/13), we received a phone call informing us that our Sunday (12/14) tour was cancelled and that we were being rescheduled to Monday (12/15). During that call, the representative assured us that we would receive another phone call if Monday’s tour was also cancelled. We subsequently received an email confirmation and reminder stating that our tour was scheduled for Monday, so we rearranged our entire schedule and other bookings for the remainder of our trip to accommodate this change. Unfortunately, even on Monday, we received no phone call and no email notifying us that the tour had been cancelled. Based on the confirmation we had received and no communication about any cancellations, we drove over 1.5 hours to the boat dock and paid for parking at 12:30 PM for a 1 PM check-in. Upon arrival, we saw other guests disembarking from other tours at the harbor so we didn’t question paying and waiting. After waiting approximately 30 minutes with still no communication and no one in sight, we contacted their office & was only then informed that our tour had, in fact, been cancelled. The employee we spoke said that the other representative should not have been supposed to reschedule us in the first place, which added to the confusion and frustration. She hastily ended the conversation and hung up after that realization that someone messed up. That was the last time I have been able to get in contact with the company. This experience was extremely inconvenient &, frankly, negligent. Had we been properly notified of the cancellation, we would never have made the drive or paid for parking. I tried multiple times by phone and email to contact them again to get a reimbursement for the $21 parking fee. Which is the least they could do after the lost time, gas, and avoidable inconvenience that we incurred. We would not have incurred the parking expense if not for the lack of communication from their team. They did refund us the tour amount, which from other reviews it sounds like they might not always do. I understand that cancellations can happen due to conditions outside of their control, but timely and accurate communication is essential, especially when guests are rearranging travel plans and driving long distances. In this case, I think they lied about the weather causing the cancellation due to the fact that we SAW other tours running & I read reviews of people who were able to rebook on to other companies’ boat tours. If they can’t even do the bare minimum of communication and accountability, it would make me question what other bare minimums they aren’t doing & the kind of business practices they maintain. I hope no one gets into an accident or anything where physical injury is done because it’s clear by their actions in this smaller wrongdoing that they don’t even care enough to do the right thing to take accountability. __ UPDATE ON 2/23/26 They replied to my above review & claim to take my concerns seriously/would love to make it right. This reply seems performative. If they truly meant it, they would've taken the initiative to return the calls/emails I already left. They haven't.

Product: Makana Charters

I highly recommend Makana Charter for tours of the coast. We had planned to visit the NāPali Coast on Monday, but the surf and wind didn’t cooperate and the trip had to be canceled. Makana offered to give us a refund, to reschedule us, or take us on a tour of the southern coast. Our family of five opted for the south tour and could not have been happier. The crew, Capt Mike, Kana, and Lili were fantastic. All very friendly and knowledgeable about the ocean, the coast, the culture, the history, the local fishing and the even the coastal real estate. They were all very personable and made our family feel like welcomed guests. We got to see monk seals (on the beach and even one swimming next to us), goats on the coastal cliffs, humpback whales, sea turtles, and more fish than I can count. There were some interesting rock formations and lava tubes that we got close to, and plenty of cool photo shots. The crew even took time to make sure every group had a photo with an epic backdrop. Oh, and the snorkeling was amazing! 🤿 I could have stayed in that water for hours, pure joy. Not even the little moon jelly 🪼 I met could scare me off. 😅 We stopped at a second spot to see turtles and they swam up right past the boat. The water was a little choppier in that 2nd spot, but it was worth it to see the turtles dive down to the caves beneath. We will definitely tour with Makana again on our next trip. And if the seas don’t cooperate for NāPali, I think we’d all be happy to tour the south side again. 🌊 🐋 ☀️ 🦭 🐠

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Well-organized and unforgettable

Product: Makana Charters

The captain and crew were top notch! The equipment was first rate. 47’ boat with four Yamaha 300 horsepower engines. The tour stopped for whale watching and we saw a mother and baby whale. The tour of the Napali coast and caves was exhileratung, the promissed to take us out of our comfort zone and they did. Awesome, complete, organized and safe! You should go.

Product: Makana Charters

(Translated by Google) The tour was incredible! The crew was always willing to give us the full experience 🤩🤩 (Original) Increíble el recorrido! Los tripulantes todo el tiempo predispuestos a darnos la experiencia completa 🤩🤩

Product: Makana Charters

10/10 highly recommend. Great people. Great experience. Would do it again in a heartbeat!

Product: Makana Charters