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Lanikai Beach

Photo: claralieu / CC BY 2.0 · source

🏖️ Beaches

Lanikai Beach

Kailua, Oahu, HI · Oahu Windward Coast

About

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.

Highlights

Powdery white sand on a calm, reef-sheltered half-mile shorelineIconic view of the twin Mokulua islands (the Mokes) just offshoreSunrise here is a destination in itselfKayak across to the public beach on Moku NuiPair it with the Lanikai Pillbox (Kaiwa Ridge) hike for the overlook

Getting there

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Best Beaches in the US26 places

Best Beaches in the US

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.