Kailua & Lanikai: The Honest Guide

Kailua sits on the windward side of Oʻahu, over the Koʻolau range from Honolulu — about thirty minutes by car via the Pali Highway or the H-3, traffic permitting. It is not a resort town. It is a residential community of about 40,000 people that happens to have one of the best beaches in the United States at the end of its main road. That distinction explains almost everything else about visiting here: the good parts, and the friction.

Kailua Beach Park is the one to aim for. Two and a half miles of fine sand, water that runs turquoise in a way photos genuinely do not exaggerate, and — critically — a parking lot, restrooms, showers, and lifeguards. Lanikai, just around the point, is the beach you have seen on a screensaver. It is smaller, calmer, framed by the two Mokulua islands offshore, and it has none of those facilities. Parking in Lanikai is street parking in a residential neighborhood with enforced restrictions, and the relationship between that neighborhood and its daily visitors is a real, ongoing tension. Park at Kailua Beach Park and walk or bike the ten minutes over. This is the single most useful thing anyone can tell you about Lanikai.

What is worth doing: kayaking out to the Mokulua islands, which is the signature Kailua activity and better than it sounds — you can land on Moku Nui, the larger of the two. Moku Iki, the smaller one, is a seabird sanctuary and landing there is prohibited. The Lanikai Pillbox hike, properly the Kaʻiwa Ridge Trail, is a short, steep, mostly unshaded climb to two derelict World War II observation posts with a view down the whole windward coast; go at sunrise, bring water, and wear something other than flip-flops. And Kalapawai Market, near the beach entrance, is the correct answer to the question of where to assemble a picnic.

What to expect that the photos leave out: it is windier here than in Waikīkī, most days, by a lot — this is the windward side, which is what windward means. It rains more, usually in short bursts that pass. There are no hotels in Kailua; short-term vacation rentals on Oʻahu are tightly regulated and much of what you may find advertised is not legal to rent, so if you are booking a stay rather than a day trip, check carefully. And the town itself, along Kailua Road, is a genuinely pleasant place to spend an hour — a bookstore, a farmers market on Sundays, restaurants that are not aimed at visitors — which is more than most beach destinations can say.