No Hawaii Trip Report would complete without a little discussion about the beaches...
Arguably one of the most famous beaches in the world (let alone Hawaii), is Waikiki Beach.
Our hotel (Hilton Hawaiian Village) wasn't technically on the Waikiki Beach, but the several beaches that make up the Waikiki area... did I care, heck no!
In the picture to the left, you can see our beach was quite spacious... and after walking down to the heart of Waikiki I have to say I am glad we stayed where we did. This area by far was the widest beach in the area.
Now, I know part of the beach experience is probably to be elbow to elbow with sweaty and hot bodies... but personally I like a little space, okay more than a little space... be able to see the ocean vs. someone's backside (well, depending on the backside!) or be two feet from a children playing in the sand. But if that's you want you can certainly get it...
The picture to the right shows you the heart of Waikiki... I know it is kind of small, but I think you can get a sense of the number of people. What you might be able to see, is the size of the beach. For the most part, the beaches in the heart of Waikiki had were maybe half the size/width of the Hilton beach.
Many of the hotel, including such schmancy grand dames as the Sheraton Moana Surfrider and Royal Hawaiian, had very small beaches... a small portion of the beach was cordoned off for "hotel guests only." There was at least one hotel that had no beach at all! Also, the hotels are much more packed together than the Hilton's very spacious property.
While we certainly expected crowds and high density in Honolulu, I was still surprised by how packed in things were... especially for some of the more pricey places we passed on... we pretty much went in blind in our hotel decisions... but no regrets at all.
In Maui, our hotel (Embassy Vacation Resort) despite being on the famed Kaanapali Beach, did not have much of a beach at all... even smaller than those that I was just talking about on Waikiki. The one day we spent "on the beach" (and totally got fried) was on lounge chairs (free, no renting here... though you could rent cabanas) on grassy area. Now, that is pretty much beach sacrilege... but after experience sand getting everywhere for awhile it was nice not to have to deal with it this time around.
But before I scare you off... there are very nice, spacious, wide portions of Kaanapali ... just not fronting our hotel property. Just a very short walk south of hotel (north of Whaler's Village) was a very nice stretch of beach.
One of the most stunning beaches we saw in Maui was on the famed road to Hana (a very twisty road to the northeastern part of the island)... and a highly recommended stop at Wai'anapanapa State Park, where you can see (according to the guide book) the only volcanic black sand beach on Maui. There are too many pictures to share of this place to put in this post... but there will plenty to see when I put up the Maui pix on Flickr, so stay tuned (I hope to do that later today).
But my "best beach in Hawaii" award (and granted there was a lot we didn't see!!) goes to Big Beach in South Maui. If you are not staying at one of the very fancy places in the area (Grand Wailea, Four Seasons, Fairmont), it is a bit of a drive (as, to our surprise, nearly everything was in Maui) but it is well worth it.
Besides this gorgeous beach you see to the left, the area has some stunning volcanic remnants scenery (this area had the last lava flow on Maui). We went mid-week, so I imagine it gets much more crowded.
The sand was like walking on wall-to-wall carpeting both in and out of the water... and the water was crystal clear and gorgeous shades of blue. This was the only place where I saw some sizable fish just going waist deep into the water.
However, we didn't spend too much time on Big Beach... after not getting much "color" during our stay, we decided to lay off the sunscreen for a bit... do NOT do that... EVER! Go down on SPF, but do not go sunscreen free... so both myself and Todd were pretty toasty from the day before. I am sure most people know the feeling of your skin "shrieking" when you head back into the sun after getting too much sun... so that cut our stay short...
But the other reason to move beyond Big Beach was a visit to its more infamous sister and just a short climb over a lava flow... Little Beach. Though technically "illegal," this secluded part is the official unofficial official nude beach on Maui (and from what I gather, all of Hawaii).
Given the length of this entry (sorry!) and knowing a good cliffhanger when I see one, I will just say...
... To Be Continued
Would you believe I've lived here all my life and have yet to see Big Beach on Maui? Granted, I live on Oahu, but on all of our trips over to Maui, I've never been there! Oh, well, perhaps when we go island hopping we're not really looking for beaches. Anyway, here are a few more Hawaii beaches on my website, http://www.hawaiibeachcombers.com , for your next trip down here!
Aloha,
Richard
Posted by: Richard | Monday, July 03, 2006 at 07:12 PM