6 Best Boat Tours in Majuro & the Marshall Islands

Hang Loose offers some of the most flexible and far-reaching boat tours in the Marshall Islands, whether you're after a full-day fishing charter, a relaxed sunset cruise or a multi-day expedition to a remote atoll.

Larry Boy and his crew take guests on fully customisable island-hopping excursions, stopping wherever you want to go.

With deep local knowledge of which islands are best for snorkelling, fishing or barbecuing, the crew will point you in the right direction, and if access fees are needed to visit certain islands on the Majuro Lagoon, Larry Boy will contact the locals or island owners on your behalf to sort it all out.

Do pack your own snorkelling gear, as it's not provided on island hopping trips.

Hang Loose also offers sunset cruises and fishing charters if you're looking to mix things up.

Raycrew Marine Services is one of the Marshall Islands' most welcoming dive operations, with options for snorkelling and, their speciality, scuba diving.

Your guide, Hiro, and his team offer relaxed, lagoon-based diving across around 10 to 12 carefully selected sites for divers of all experience levels, including complete beginners and snorkellers.

When it comes to dive sites, Raycrew focuses on quality over quantity, showcasing the lagoon's healthier reefs. Highlights include the "Enemanit Wrecks" off Enemanit Island, where a plane, helicopter and shipwreck encrusted with patches of coral sit at recreational depths of 16-50 ft (5 to 15 m). The tide-dependent "Aquarium" site rewards patient visitors with sharks, jackfish and napoleonfish, while "Mountain" and "No. 9" offer a dramatic coral formation from 6 ft (2 m) dropping to around 100 ft (30 m) and "Heaven's Hill" is a sandy area scattered with large and small coral heads.

Snorkelling trips are also available alongside dive boats. Wetsuits are limited in size range, so it's worth bringing your own; water temperatures are warm enough that many divers go without. Otherwise, your divemaster Hiro has all the gear you need for a comfortable, fun and safe dive or snorkel, including a spacious dive boat. There's also at least one divemaster, as well as crew that stays on the boat.

Salty Services is one of Majuro's most versatile boat tour operators, which you'll definitely want to consider.

The boat charter offers everything from fishing trips and snorkelling tours to island-hopping picnics and scuba diving, all led by a local conservationist who happens to be the only Marshallese scuba instructor in Majuro.

The full-day fishing charter runs for up to six passengers with all gear included and a meal on board, whether that's sandwiches or something freshly grilled out on the water. Trolling is the specialty, with targets including skipjack tuna, yellowfin, mahimahi, wahoo, barracuda and the occasional marlin.

Prefer to spend the day on a remote island? The island-hopping and picnic drop-off option leaves at 9 am and picks you back up at 5 pm, with snorkelling stops at spots known for giant clams.

Scuba divers are also well catered for, with occasional dive tours and open water courses available through Salty Services' partnership with dive operator, Raycrew.

For an utterly unique (and affordable) way to get on the water, Aelõñ in Majel (WAAN or "Canoes of the Marshall Islands") offers a peaceful traditional outrigger canoe tour on the Majuro Lagoon.

Step inside the museum to find detailed mock-ups of traditional canoes, along with displays showing how they were crafted using pandanus-woven sails and sennit rope made from coconut fibre. A guide is usually on hand to walk you through the exhibits, though you're equally welcome to explore at your own pace if they're tied up (no pun intended).

Then, take it a step further with a 30-minute traditional canoe sail on the Majuro Lagoon, departing from near the harbour. The sail is peaceful, unhurried and genuinely memorable; up to 12 people can join, though solo visitors are welcome too.

Entry to the museum is completely free. Canoe rides are very affordable. Book ahead by calling to arrange a time, Monday to Friday. Note that rides depend on the tide and wind conditions.

Bokanbotin Island Resort offers a small but well-curated selection of boat tours and ocean experiences, available exclusively to resort guests and running entirely on demand, so you set the schedule.

The fishing charters are the headline act: a full-day trip includes food, drinks and sushi-style snacks (bring your own beer), with any catch filleted and vacuum-packed to take home. A half-day option is available too, departing around 1 pm and returning by 5:30-6 pm with the same inclusions.

Beyond fishing, you can charter a boat to Arno Atoll, with a barbecue fish lunch cooked over an open fire, or head out on a snorkelling tour to a private, uncrowded reef past the channel, a large, shallow reef that takes two to three hours to explore. Masks and some fins are provided.

For experienced night divers, lobstering after dark is also on the cards, offered selectively to guests with prior night diving experience.

Beran Island Resort offers some of the most remote and uncrowded boat-based water activities in the Pacific, set within the untouched lagoons of Ailinglaplap Atoll.

Daily boat transfers to surf breaks are included in every stay, whisking guests to spots like Amnesia (an uncrowded reef break) and The Bowl (a prone foiling downwind destination) via panga, with transfer times of 20 minutes to one hour. Surfing is genuinely accessible to all levels, with mellower waves near the island for beginners and well-overhead sets for the more experienced on bigger swell days.

Snorkelling gear is also included, with world-class snorkelling directly accessible from the resort. For something extra, a jetski with driver can be hired for US$200 per day (plus fuel) to explore the atoll or reach the breaks in style. Fishing, whether casting on the reef flats for permit and triggerfish or heading offshore for wahoo, mahi-mahi and marlin, is a natural part of every stay here too.