The sea is the wide blue focus for the 6th Annual Waimea Ocean Film Festival on Hawai’i Island. The theme is See Sea, Feel Sea, with more than 60 Hawai’ian and international films screening through Jan 8. Venues include the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel; Fairmont Orchid, Hawaii; and Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Kaupulehuon on the Kohala and Kona coasts. While you’re there, experience the ocean yourself at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel with an evening Glow Stand Up Paddling adventure in Kaunaoa Bay. During the one-hour starlight excursion, LED lights are used to illuminate the water in a 15-foot arc around the paddleboard, and five feet deep beneath it.

Prefer boats? Cruises are offered by a number of area outfitters. Go whale watching with Kohala Sail & Sea cruises departing from the island’s newest harbor in Kawaihae South near the Kohala Coast resorts. Fair Wind Cruises also offers award-winning snorkeling excursions aboard their fleet of recently upgraded vessels. And complimentary snorkeling equipment is provided at Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Kaupulehu, where options to explore include slipping across the water aboard scooter snorkels or aboard a six-person outrigger canoe. Private charters on ribcraft to secluded snorkeling spots are also available to view spinner dolphins, breaching humpback whales and graceful manta rays.