Springs, beaches, parks and gardens worth the drive. Save the ones you want to visit and tick off the ones you’ve been to.
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8 places
Hanalei Bay is a two mile crescent of golden sand on Kauai's north shore, framed by emerald mountains laced with waterfalls and anchored by the historic Hanalei Pier. Calm, swimmable water in summer gives way to powerful surf in winter, drawing surfers, paddleboarders and sunset watchers year round. It is widely considered one of the most beautiful beaches in Hawaii, and the easy stroll out onto the pier delivers the postcard view that makes the trip worth it.
Haleakala National Park crowns Maui with a 10,023-foot summit whose name means house of the sun, and watching dawn break over its vast, cinder-cone-studded crater is the park's signature ritual (a reservation is required to enter before 7 a.m.). Hike the otherworldly Sliding Sands Trail down into the basin, or drop to the Kipahulu coast for waterfalls and bamboo forest. Pack warm layers; the summit is far colder than the beach below.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island puts you on the slopes of two of the world's most active volcanoes, Kilauea and the massive Mauna Loa. Walk through the lush Nahuku lava tube, peer into the steaming Halemaumau crater, and follow Chain of Craters Road nearly 4,000 feet down to where old lava flows meet the sea. When Kilauea is erupting, the caldera glows red after dark.
Lanikai means heavenly sea, and the half-mile of powder-soft sand here earns the name, fronting water so clear you can count your toes in the shallows. The twin Mokulua islands sit just offshore, close enough to paddle a kayak out to the public beach on the larger one, and the sunrise over them is the reason people set their alarms. There is no parking lot, no snack bar, and no lifeguard tower, just a string of quiet residential lanes and the kind of beach that keeps landing on best-in-the-country lists.
Hapuna is the Big Island's biggest stretch of white sand, half a mile of it sloping into water that turns from turquoise in the shallows to deep blue where the bottom drops away. Dr. Beach has twice crowned it the best beach in America, and on a calm summer morning it is easy to see why: the sand is broad and soft, the swimming is open and clear, and the rocky points at either end are good for a snorkel. Winter swell can stack up shorebreak that humbles bodysurfers, so it pays to read the water, but the sunsets over the Kohala Coast are a sure thing year round.
Three miles of soft golden sand runs the length of West Maui's old resort row, where the swimming stays calm behind the reef and the snorkeling turns serious the moment you reach Pu'u Keka'a, the lava headland everyone calls Black Rock. Green sea turtles graze the shallows there, and most evenings a cliff diver lights the torches and leaps from the rock at sunset, a nod to the spot Hawaiians once believed was a leaping-off point for souls. A flat oceanfront path links the hotels and Whalers Village, so you can swim at dawn, snorkel the rock by midday, and still catch the sky going pink over the West Maui Mountains.
In summer the bay goes glassy and turquoise, calm enough to snorkel the rocks for green sea turtles or climb the big jump rock on the left side and leap into deep blue water. Come winter the swell flips a switch and the same cove throws 30-foot faces, drawing the world's best to the surf that gave big-wave riding its start and to the rare days the Eddie Aikau contest actually runs. It is two beaches in one bay, and both are worth the drive up the North Shore.
Public stargazing on Mauna Kea happens at the Visitor Information Station, 9,200 feet up the access road, not at the 13,803 foot summit. That distinction matters: the summit is open to the public only from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset, and the unpaved road above the VIS requires 4WD. The station sits above the inversion layer, so the marine clouds usually hang below the parking lot. On a clear moonless night the sky reads Bortle 1 to 2 and the Milky Way shows structure. After twilight, staff step outside for a laser guided tour of Greek constellations and Hawaiian starlines. The nightly telescope program ended in 2019, though a free telescope night runs once a month by reservation, so bring binoculars. Admission is free, doors 9am to 9pm daily, and winter snow can close the road. Target a new moon, arrive before dark to acclimate and let your eyes adapt, and bring a red flashlight.
