Hawaii Big Island: Day 4 – Hapuna Beach and Historic Kailua Village

When visiting the Big Island of Hawaii, you will find many activity options: waterfalls, volcanic activity, beaches, and more! After a long drive to Hilo the day before, we decided that a beach day was in order! Having had several beach fails during our first beach day, we decided to follow the advice of a friend and headed towards Hapuna Beach. On the way home, we stopped by the Historic Kailua Village.

Hapuna Beach

Having learned our lesson during our first beach day, we decided to pack a lunch. Many of Big Island’s beaches are quite far from food options. If you are unsure how long you will be at the beach, plan ahead and bring food with you!

Having remembered our lunch, we forgot to bring our snorkel gear. Fortunately, between the boogie boards, cliff jumping, and super clear water, we still had a lovely time at Hapuna Beach State Park!

I was recovering from unexpected sunburn, so I covered up with a hat and top that wouldn’t be terrible to swim in. Consider bringing a real swim top if you sunburn easily and make sure you reapply sunscreen as soon as you get back to shore!

James and I enjoyed spending time floating in the water and enjoying the waves near the shore. Too bad that we forgot our goggles. Although this isn’t a beach that is known for it’s snorkeling, it would have been delightful to look at a few sea creatures near the rocks! When you visit a beach, make sure you know what you want. It is very rare to find a beach on Big Island that has it all. Sandy beaches tend not to have much snorkeling. Surfing beaches tend to have too many shore rocks to make beach swimming safe. Snorkeling beaches tend to be very calm, but have very little sand.

While the beaches on Big Island do not seem to be near as long as beaches in California, Hapuna Beach is a respectable length and is long enough to enjoy a decent walk.

The boys’ favorite part was probably the cliff jumping. As the morning progressed, we watched person after person jump off a cliff at the end of the beach. At first we told the boys that it was way too dangerous, but eventually they talked me into swimming out with them to check out the safety conditions. While cliff jumping always has its risks, this particular spot seemed to have a decent ledge with a big pool underneath. I was reasonable certain that they wouldn’t scrape their bodies along the rocks on the plummet down and that they wouldn’t crack their heads on the ocean floor, so I let them jump!

What fun! Note that to get to this spot, you need to make a fairly lengthy swim through deep water. If you are uncertain of your swimming capabilities, think twice. I really like doing open water swimming with a swim buoy, but the boys though it was tacky, so I made them bring a boogie board instead. The boogie board was quite annoying to swim with, but at least I had the piece of mind that no one was going to drown.

All in all, it was a really great beach. If you are in the area, consider spending at least one day at Hapuna Beach!

Historic Kailua Village

After lunch, everyone was feeling beached out, so we decided to head towards the Historic Kailua Village. If you like shopping for souvenirs or eating in a restaurant, this is a great place to visit! We chose to wander through the shops, get some shave ice, and enjoy views of the water!