Beaches are pretty much the main event in Hawaii, while you are there you will probably go to the beach a lot. We went to Oahu last year and there are basically beaches everywhere, unless you are in the center of the island. Since most of our travel was around the edge of the island we were basically constantly passing beaches. Rather than write a post on every beach we visited we decided to talk about five kinds of beaches to visit in Hawaii.
#1. A Big Beach
Everyone wants to go to a big beach when they are in Hawaii. These are the main beaches by the big resorts where there is lots of sand and shallow water. There is a lot of room at these beaches and normally services near by.
The big beach we went to was Ala Moana in Honolulu. This beach is quite long and has a lot of sand. It is located not far from Waikiki, but when we were there it was not super crowded.
A big beach is part of the quintessential Hawaii experience, so you should go to at least one while you are there.
#2. A Low Key Beach
In contrast to the big beaches are the low key beaches. These are found all along the roads on the east, west, and north sides of Oahu. The generally have only little pull offs to park in and very few people at them. Often there will only be a small strip of sand that makes up the beach.
Sometimes to reach these beaches you will need to find beach paths that lead between houses down to the water. It can seem a little like you aren’t supposed to be there, but they aren’t private beaches so anyone can go there.
The low key beach that we went to was very close to our rental house so we could just walk there. It was called Kawela Beach.
#3. A Snorkeling Beach
While you are in Hawaii you should definitely visit a beach where you can go snorkeling. These beaches are different because they need to accommodate fish and other sea life or there wouldn’t be anything to see when you were swimming. I have written a whole post about the beach we snorkeled at which was Shark’s Cove.
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#4. A Surfing Beach
Neither of us have ever been surfing, and although I would love to try it someday I did not get to while we were on Oahu. Even if you do not surf yourself though you should still go to a beach where there are lots of waves and surfers gather so that you can watch them.
Surfing is one of the things Hawaii is best known for and watching people surf is a lot of fun. The beach we liked to watch surfers at was Sunset Beach near the Banzai Pipeline. We were there in March so there were still pretty large winter waves in this area. We also watched surfers at Hale’iwa and Waimea Bay.
#5. A Family Friendly Beach
While most of the beaches that we went to in Hawaii were fun for Lucy to play at, some of them had water that was too rough for her swim in. This was especially true of North Shore beaches like Waimea Bay where she was very scared of even going near the water. Some beaches are just calmer and easier for kids to play at.
As I mentioned before while we were on the west side of Oahu, Lucy and I found a really nice beach called Pokai Bay. This was a very calm beach that was perfect for Lucy as an 18 month old. This was one of the few places that she felt comfortable playing in the water on this trip and she had a lot of fun here.
Sum Up
There are tons of beaches on Oahu and the other Hawaiian Islands. Try to visit lots of different kinds of beaches while you are there so that you get to see the variety. If you have favorite beaches in Hawaii please share them with us in the comments on this post.
