Big Island Beach Map & Adventure Activities Guide

Unique is the best word to describe each beach of the Big Island of Hawaii. Where else can be found black sand, white sand and green sand beaches all on one island?

Scuba Diving Beaches of Hawaii

A beach map and adventure activities guide of the Big Island of Hawaii should include:

Spencer Beach Park
A large flat pocket of white sand with a very gentle underwater slope. It's popular for families with little children. Tourists can snorkel and swim there under favorable conditions.

Mauna Kea Beach
This beach is a long crescent of white sand, with a few beach resorts in surroundings. It offers excellent swimming and snorkeling amenities. Green sea turtles are common visitors there.

Hapuna Beach State Recreation Area
It's a 62 acre beach park with swimming, surfing and boogie boarding amenities. There are rip currents and pounding shore breaks during the periods of high surf.
Amenities: pavilion, parking, restrooms, showers, picnic tables, lifeguards, food concessions, camping.

Holoholokai Beach Park
It's a crescent beach comprised mainly of pebbles and cobblestones with several sandy pockets, settled far away by the well developed all inclusive resorts of the island. It offers good waves for surfing and it's a great place for snorkeling and scuba diving. Allow access to the Puako Petroglyph Preserve.
Amenities: parking, restrooms, showers.

Lapakahi Marine Life Conservation District
On this beach tourists find a remarkable diversity of fish species but there are strong shore currents.
Amenities: parking, restrooms.

Waialea Bay Marine Life Conservation District
It's one of the island's most beautiful white sand beaches. There are conditions for excellent swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving and windsurfing.

Mauna Lani Beach
There tourists can swim and snorkel in the placid waters of Nanuko Inlet. It's also site for productive fishponds, active examples of ancient Hawaiian aquaculture.
Amenities: parking, restrooms, showers.

Kukio Beach
A mix of white sand and volcanic rocks. Still, this beach allow good surfing during winter. It has paved trails and walkways.
Amenities: parking, restrooms, showers, picnic tables.

Makalawena Beach
It's a shoreline consisting of several coves and inlets unified by a magnificent long sand beach. In surroundings can be found a few good all inclusive beach resorts. It's a popular swimming, snorkeling, boogie boarding, and scuba place, noted also for octopus and shells. It's home for Opaeula Pond, a water bird sanctuary.

Mahaiula Beach
This beach is an idyllic crescent of white sand. Offers excellent swimming, boogie boarding and snorkeling during summer. It's site of underwater tunnels, caves and a sunken ship. Also, it is a great surfing place during winter.
Amenities: picnic tables.

Honokohau Beach
A long stretch of sand along Honokohau Bay. Allow good snorkeling and swimming and it's site of the Queen's Bath, a cool, spring-fed pool.
Amenities: parking.

Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park
It's a 1160 acre park with a high cultural significance because it's site of an ancient settlement. There can be found fishponds, house platforms, petroglyphs, stone slide, and an ancient temple. It's a good place for hiking, picnicking, fishing, snorkeling, swimming, bird watching, and surfing.

White Sands Beach Park
It's the most popular surfing and body boarding beach in North Kona and it's also site of a Bodysurfing Championship. Not at very long distance are settled a few all inclusive beach resorts. Also, this beach offers good snorkeling.
Amenities: restrooms, showers, parking, picnic tables, lifeguards.

Kahaluu Beach Park
It's a large white sand beach and it's a popular swimming and snorkeling site. From this beach can be observed sea turtles and dolphins.
Amenities: parking, restrooms, showers, picnic tables, lifeguards.

Keauhou Bay Beach Park
It's a small beach park, site of a boat harbor. It offers excellent swimming and snorkeling. High surf causes closures of bay entrances during winter months.
Amenities: parking, restrooms, showers, picnic tables.

Napoopoo Beach Park
There is located the Hikiau Heiau State Monument of Captain James Cook. It's a small rocky 6-acre park that attracts many sunbathers and swimmers.
Amenities: parking, restrooms, showers, picnic pavilion, basketball court.

Puuhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park
It's one of the best snorkeling and shore scuba diving areas on the island, noticed on any beach map of the Big Island. Also, this beach allow excellent whale watching in the winter.
Amenities: parking, restrooms, showers, picnic tables.

Mahana (Green Sand) Beach
It's the most famous green sand beach of the Kau district and it's frequented during the calm periods by swimmers, surfers, and divers.

Punaluu Beach Park
This beach is one of the most famous black sand beaches of Hawaii and it's situated at the head of a small bay. The beach is home to many endangered green sea turtles.
Amenities: parking, restrooms, showers, picnic tables, pavilion, camping.

Kehena Beach
It's a long black sand beach. Although nudism is illegal in Hawaii, its seclusion attracts many nudism fans...

Isaac Hale Beach Park
It's a small two-acre park with a boat ramp. Popular adventure activities in the bay include fishing and surfing. It's site of Pohoiki warm springs.
Amenities: pavilion, restrooms, showers, picnic tables, camping.

Mackenzie State Recreation Area
This area is a 13-acre beach park well known as a place of weird creatures which appear after dark known as the "night marchers" - processions of the spirits of ancient Hawaiians!
Amenities: pavilion, restrooms, showers, picnic tables, camping.

Ahalanui County Park
It's site of a spring and a pool volcanically heated up to 90 degrees Celsius!
Amenities: lifeguards.

Waiopae Tide pools Marine Life Conservation District
It's home for abundant coral and many fish species; the tide pools are easily accessible to snorkel.
Amenities: parking.

Richardson Ocean Park
It's a small pocket of black sand and is the most popular snorkeling area from Hilo. It offers good shore scuba diving & snorkeling and sometimes the dolphins frequent the area. It's site for the Richardson Ocean Center, an outdoor recreation and interpretive center.
Amenities: parking, restrooms, showers, picnic tables, lifeguards.

Onekahakaha Beach Park
It's a sandy cove of white sand. It allows safe swimming for little children.
Amenities: parking, picnic pavilions, restrooms, showers, lifeguards.

Reed's Bay Park
It's a picturesque inlet. The swimmers frequent the Ice Pond, where icy-cold spring waters constantly rise into the salt water.
Amenities: parking.

Honolii Beach Park
It's the premier surfing and boogie boarding area on this side of the island, not far away by a few all inclusive beach resorts. The surfing breaks provide some of the most consistently ride able waves. It's not recommended for recreational swimming.
Amenities: restrooms, showers, picnic tables, lifeguards.

Select from below some of the most exciting adventure activities on the
Big Island of Hawaii