Visit The Most Beautiful Beach In Hawaii, Lanikai Beach

The most beautiful beach in Oahu

On the east side of Oahu Island, there is Kailua, which is famous for its most beautiful beach, Lanikai Beach. If you are staying in Waikiki, you need to drive a car or get in a bus to get there, but it’s definitely worth your time. It is not a long drive to the east, and the beach there is just breathtaking.

Even if you may not know the beach so well, you probably have come across an image of two islands in the distance, when you see books about Hawaii or surf the internet. These two islands are off the shore of Lanikai Beach, and are popular destinations to canoe. Only one of these two islands, Na Mokulua, can be visited, but canoeing to the island is another adventure you cannot miss if you are traveling there.

Powdery white sand beach

There are many beautiful white sand beaches in Oahu, but somehow the white sand on Lanikai Beach is so fine and powdery. My friend and I were just so surprised how fine the sand particles are here after visiting many other white sand beaches to the south, west, and north of Oahu.

When you walk on Lanikai Beach with your bare feet it feels so soft and comfortable, because of its fine quality. Some beaches have some rough rocks, but this beach has a large space of white sand without tough rocks, which allows many people to simply enjoy their moment of relaxation on the beach comfortably. The beach does not have big waves for surfers, so you do not see surfers here, but instead you see families and tourists who want to relax and enjoy swimming, while practicing standup paddling in shallow water.

Local canoe club in action

Despite the lack of surfers spotted at this beach, there are still active marine activities taking place at Lanikai Beach. At Lanikai Beach, you most likely run into local kids practicing canoeing out in the ocean. Right before the sunset after school, there were three canoes filled with local boys and girls paddling hard to practice canoeing when I visited there. They had their canoes with logos, Lanikai Juice, which is a popular local fresh juice, smoothies, and an acai bowl juice bar in Kailua. I do not know much about canoeing, but this location seems to definitely favor practicing other marine sports, versus surfing.

Hike at Pillbox and jump in the water at Lanikai Beach

A popular half day, or full day, trip to the east side of Oahu is visiting Kailua to hike the Pillbox Hike, and then cooling down at the beautiful Lanikai Beach. As you hike the Pillbox hike, you can see beautiful blue ocean in front of you full of golden white sand. This is Lanikai Beach. When you are on Lanikai Beach, the view looks quite different, but you can see the Pillbox Hike on your back when you are facing the ocean. On a sunny day, you can even see people on pillboxes on the hiking trail, so let’s see if you can spot people there.

Just a few minutes from Lanikai Beach, there is he Kailua Township, so if you get hungry after your hike and want to grab a quick bite, this is the perfect place to do so before heading back to the beach. This is a pretty standard day, or half day, trip to Kailua, but you will understand why it is so popular after just one visit.