Custom Island Tours, LLC

It was a nice tour. Saw a lot of nice scenery and was able to go snorkeling. Although some of the «facts» about the island the tour guide gave us were false we still had a good time. Just don’t believe everything they tell you :) but def worth the money if you plan on seeing different places on the island

Out of my three trips to Oahu, this was by far the best tour I have done in any of my trips. This was my boyfriend’s first trip to Hawaii, so I wanted to introduce him to more than the beaches of Waikiki where we were staying on vacation. Tyco was our tour guide for the day– he was prompt, funny, and very kind. We paid for a eight hour tour, but we were out for close to ten hours. He encouraged us to linger at every stop and take our time to truly experience Oahu.
We chose to go to the preset tour around the island– however, requests are allowed and encouraged. We stopped at many beaches and lookouts, including Hanauma Bay, Makapu’u Lighthouse, Tropical Macadamia Nut Farms, Halona Blowhole, a shrimp truck for lunch, and the Dole Plantation. The highlight of the trip was snorkeling at Turtle Bay and a stop at Laniakea (Turtle Beach). We had the opportunity to not only see many turtles in the water, but were lucky enough to see a turtle coming ashore.
I would highly recommend this tour. It is an excellent value for what you pay, especially compared to many other private tours of the island. I will definitely recommend this tour and Tyco to all of my family and friends!

I’ve taken this tour twice when friends came to town. I love it because they will pick you up right at your place (doesn’t have to be Waikiki like so many other tours) and bring you back, and you can go pretty much wherever you want (customize it), and they know a lot about the island. It’s only a little bit more than the other tours, which are not customizable. Also, they will stop if you want to go to the bathroom, buy a drink, or see something along the way, so it’s great. The first guide we had, Tico (Tyco?) was very nice and knew a lot about geology, lava and rocks. He had just moved back here from the Big Island, so there were some other things that he was wrong about or didn’t know, but by and large, we had a great time, and he was very nice. That was back in July 2014. In February 2015, my friend and I had the owner, Cary, who can be kind of a jerk. There is no nice way to say it. Again, the tour was great, overall, and he knew a lot. He does this AMAZING demonstration with sand on the beach where he explains how the islands formed. He was polite in some ways; like when I bought lunch, he thanked me twice. We had some very nice chats. But he could also be really impatient and rude. He’s clearly not a people person. I’m used to scifi geeks, so he kind of reminded me of one of them. Right when our tour started, he got mad at me and walked off in a huff because I had «interrupted» what he was saying (I really didn’t, I had just interjected something to my friend, adding to what he said). It was a very weird and immature reaction. Other times, when I would ask questions, he would snap, «I just told you that!». Also, he tried to pressure us not to go to the Macadamia Nut Ranch, which I wanted to go to (although I made it easier by giving up some other stuff, so he was better after that). I had asked what time he would pick us up, and he said 8:30, so I asked if he could pick us up at 9, and he said that it was fine, on the phone. Well, he was about 10 minutes late, not that it’s a big deal, but then we couldn’t park in the Hanauma Bay parking lot (to which I really wanted to go), and he said that this is why he likes to leave at 8:30. He said it in an accusatory and rude way. Later, when we went snorkeling at Turtle Beach resort, he got annoyed when I said I can’t go very deep because I’m not a good swimmer, and he got very impatient with my friend who was a bit nervous and scared while she was out there with him. In fact, he had provided a defective mask, so water was leaking in. When he came back in to get one, I asked how it was going, and he replied in an annoyed way that she wasn’t following his directions! So, again, he’s a jerk, but the tour itself is good if you can put up with him. Or ask for Tyco. Or find another private tour instead. I should note that he went out of his way to take a nice underwater video of the turtle in the coral for us, and he also took a photo of us in the water after our batteries ran down in our phones. He also provided a charger in his van; and since I don’t like shrimp, he found a really good Hawaiian stand to stop at that had wonderful food. So he’s kind of Jekyll and Hyde. Jekyll gives a good tour, but Hyde is someone that you want to smack. :) He also gives a night-​time astrology excursion if your’e into that.
RE: his comments below, I was not at all «difficult». And my complaints about the other guy were not about where he could take us, it was that he agreed to it on the phone with my friend and then once we met up, he said he couldn’t go there (should have let us know ahead of time). He told us the Polynesian Cultural Center was closed, which it wasn’t. He didn’t know the island where Gilligan’s Island was filmed (Coconut Island) and said he thought it was not a real place. Both tour guides also mispronounced local names. Also, my friend had wanted to see one of the lighthouses and he just drove by one at a distance, not even slowing down so she could see it or take a photo. BTW I also tipped him very well as well as buying him lunch and bought one of his photos…

The astronomy tour was outstanding!!! The tour is very personal and Carey is extremely knowledgable about astronomy. Highly recommend the tour!!!

I had a great time during my tour with Custom Island Tours. The price was great considering my tour was private and catered just for me and the things that I wanted to do and see! No other tour company out there in Waikiki offers that. Carey my tour guide, was very informative and took me to great places that aren’t even on the map! I was highly impressed with the whole experience! Things that stood out to me are, The tour was private, I didn’t have to squeeze into a bus with 30 other people. It was catered for me, we did what I wanted. He offered complimentary beverages, the van was clean and smelled nice and the service was great. I would recommend Custom Island Tours to anyone!!! A great island experience!