Poipu Beach Park, it is on the South Shore, kind of in the center of the South Shore amongst a lot of the hotels and resorts. This is one of Kauai’s idyllic beaches, one of the most popular on the South Shore of Kauai, it’s two crescent-shaped beaches, nice sand, the sea turtles often come up here, it’s protected by a rock jetty, which also makes it good for snorkeling, when it’s not too windy, there’s also an island in the middle, that protects some of the waves as well, there’s ample parking, bathrooms, a lifeguard tower, oh and did I mention there’s wild chickens?
Continuing from the Poipu Beach Park, there’s the Marriott Beach Club and the Sheraton, there’s kind of sandy beaches, that extend all on this way to the Sheraton, they’re not as calm, they get a little bit more waves, I should also mention on the beaches, it can be pretty windy in Kauai, so make sure if you’re putting your towels down and things like that, you put some weights on them, otherwise they’re gonna fly away and your stuff won’t be here anymore.
Another great big, sandy beach on the South Shore of Kauai in Poipu in front of the Grand Hyatt Poipu is Shipwreck Beach, this beach is famous, ’cause there was a shipwreck, that wrecked upon it, but it’s a big, wide, sandy beach, there’s a lot of rocks in it, so not super good for swimming, really popular for surfing and boogie boarding by the cliff over there, it’s also been a popular spot for cliff diving, Justin Bieber’s famous for having dove over there, but if you just like sand, you wanna walk on the sand, then check out Shipwreck Beach in front of the Grand Hyatt.
The closest nice beach to Lihue Airport is Kalapaki Beach, this beach right here, easy to find, because it’s in front of the Marriott, that big, ugly pink building behind me and this beach is nice, ’cause it’s a big, wide sandy stretch of beach, there’s a beachfront path in front of it for biking or walking, right next to it is Duke’s restaurant, a famous restaurant, but this beach, if we pan over this way, it’s really popular for swimming, stand up paddle boarding and it’s also the cruise ship terminal, you can see the cruise ships come in back there, so if you’re coming in or out of a cruise, this’ll be your closest beach.
One of the best beaches for ultra protected swimming is Lydgate Beach Park, it’s on the East Shore and it is super protected, ’cause it has a big rock thing around the whole area, where you can swim, there’s two pools, there’s the adult pool and the KK pool, or the kid’s pool, but as you can see here, the waves are really, really choppy, it’s really, really windy and so it’s nice to get in that protected thing to swim and not have to worry about the waves and the pounding surf. Lydgate Beach also has lifeguards and bathrooms, plenty of parking, picnic areas and for the little kiddos, a pretty big children’s playground.
One of the coolest beaches on the North Shore is right below the St. Regis Princeville, it’s the Puu Poa Beach, it’s a little hard to get to, but there is a parking lot with about eight or nine spots right in front, if you can’t get those, the St. Regis will valet park your car for free, but it’s cool, ’cause this is a little pocket, sandy beach, calm waves, protected by a reef and it kind of feels really just kind of away from everything, like your own personal little beach here. Now I guess if you’re staying at the St. Regis, it’s even better, ’cause then you’ve got the pool and the beach chairs, not a lot of beaches in Kauai have chairs on the beach, so if you do want one of those, then check out the St. Regis, ’cause there’s chairs on the sand here.
The other big, sandy beach with easy access on the North Shore is Hanalei Bay, this bay right here is a big, crescent-shaped bay, there’s like four different beaches that are on it, it’s famous ’cause movies were shot here, the best place to park, if you’re coming here is at the Hanalei Pavilion Beach Park, there’s bathrooms, a lifeguard tower, parking lot right there, and you can access the whole bay, down this way, there’s a famous pier on the bay, in the summer, it’s calm for swimming, in the winter, it’s a popular boogie boarding and surfing spot and this beach also, North Shore I will say, it’s pretty natural, so there’s a bunch of stuff, that’s like washed up on it and logs and sticks, but I think that gives it the appeal of a natural and rugged North Shore. If the beach of the St. Regis, which is just up the hill behind me seemed too manicured for you, well come down the hill to Hanalei Beach, Hanalei Beach, it’s very natural apparently at this beach, you can actually park right on the sand just to the side of the pier, there were tons of cars parked right on the beach, that makes for extra plenty of parking.
Just north of Wailua town is Anahola Beach, Anahola Beach, it’s a crescent-shaped bay, there’s more locals that come here, but I’ll tell ya, this is actually a pretty nice beach, I mean, maybe not today, ’cause I’m here on a cold day, but I can see how this would be nice on a warm day, lifeguard towers, bathrooms, huge parking lot, the parking lot is dirt, so be slow, when you come through it, but there’s, you know, just another one of these great combinations between grass and beach and trees and so this would be a great beach to come to on a hot day, because there’s lots of shade from trees in front of the beach.