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Hapuna Beach

Photo: Ekrem Canli / CC BY-SA 4.0

🏖️ Beaches

Hapuna Beach

Waimea, HI · Big Island Kohala Coast

About

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.

Highlights

The Big Island's largest white-sand beach, a half-mile long and broadTwice named Best Beach in America by Dr. Beach (1993 and 2021)Clear, open swimming with snorkeling around the rocky points at each endPowerful winter shorebreak: gentle summer, serious surf in the high seasonPaved parking, pavilions, restrooms, and showers right behind the sand

Getting there

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Best Beaches in the US26 places

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From Pacific cliffs and Hawaiian bays to Outer Banks dunes, Great Lakes sand, and Gulf sugar, these are the beaches across the country worth the drive, the flight, or the ferry. Some you walk a mile to reach, some you take a boat or a ferry, and a few you just pull off the highway and gasp. The best beaches in America, coast to coast to coast.