Explore some of Hawaii's best beaches

Sunset Beach on Oahu

By Lena Katz

Whether the Hawaii headline of the minute is a fancy food festival, a football game or a visit from The Bachelor, the real story is always the same: Beaches, beaches and more beaches. Hidden coves where you can cuddle inprivate with your sweetheart; epic scenescapes with 10-foot waves and world-class surfers; calm sunny hangouts where families picnic and splash around in lapping 2-footers… If you’re planning a beach vacation, here’s a few of Hawaii’s best, from legendary to the little-known.

When you’re on Oahu and you’ve got wheels, it’s practically a rule you’ve got to get out of Honolulu at least one day. A lot of people head to the North Shore to gawk at the surfers on Sunset Beach and Waimea. Impossibly buffed and bold in the face of walls of water twice a man’s height, the North Shore pros are quite a sight. And if you want to spend a few days of your Hawaii vacation exploring that side of the island, note that its most famous hotel, Turtle Bay Resort in Kahuku, just added eco-friendly kayak tours to its daily schedule. Eco-tourism outfit Shaka Kayaks will run the tours, which feature plexiglass-bottomed PeekabooTM kayaks.

Hapuna Prince Hotel (Courtesy: Prince Resorts)

While tourists descend upon the oil-slicked waters of Waikiki Beach, locals take their barbecue supplies and beach towels over to Ala Moana Beach Park. This public park is particularly child-friendly because it’s a) right in town, b) reef-protected and c) got grass and sand beaches. Ala Moana Hotel, Ala Moana Shopping Center and Ala Wai Harbor are within a couple blocks.
Oahu is the most developed island, and beaches are often bordered by hotels, harbors and shopping centers. On other Hawaiian islands, however, many state beaches are set back from the main road, buffered by acres of undeveloped land , and preserved as carefully as possible in spite of pressure from entrepreneurs looking to develop the land. On the Big Island’s Kohala Coast, the Hapuna Prince Hotel sits on one corner of magnificent Hapuna Beach. The hotel is one of the island’s most exclusive, but the magnificent sand beach is state parkland, and accessible to one and all.

Four Seasons Maui

On Maui, locals are in an uproar about discussions to develop a Makena Resort on the south side of the island. Legendary Makena State Beach draws hundreds of visitors a week in spite of being a 30-minute drive from town. On summer days, parking lots fill up by mid-day, and cars—an amusing mix of “Maui cruisers,” surfer jeeps and tourist’s rentals—are parked all the way up the dirt access road onto the main highway. Inside, Big Beach is a happy moving tapestry of colorful beach towels, sunburned European vacationers and local teens in surf attire. Over a rocky niche on the right side is Little Beach, known both for its great bodysurfing and its unofficial status as a nude beach. Though parcels of beachfront land adjacent to the state park have been zoned for luxury condo development, locals avidly contend that Makena’s appeal is its pristine terrain. If you want luxury lodgings, they say, stay at the venerable Maui Prince, or take your pick of the Four Seasons, the Wailea Beach Marriott Resort, or the Fairmont Kea Lani up in Wailea.
Speaking of pristine…if you’re one of those people who prefer undiscovered places for a beach vacation over the comfortably trafficked, you should make a beeline for Molokai. This little island is part of Maui County, but it gets maybe 1% as many tourists as Maui does (unscientific estimate). Even Molokai’s most popular attractions—like Papohaku Beach Park with its beautiful three-mile swathe of white sand—are peaceful and uncrowded. Hotels like Castle Molokai Shores are inexpensive and cheerful, mostly located in the folksy town of Kaunakakai.