One central location where you can start your one day Oahu trip is visiting Lanikai Beach Park. Lanikai beach is located on eastern southern part of Oahu. You would be glad to know such a pristine beach like Lanikai Beach is totally free to access.

Oahu is a big island and offer lot of tourist attractions which cannot be covered in a single day. There are options for shopping, city walking, nightlife and eating if you are close to downtown. On the other hand, different parts of Oahu, have a unique set of places and destinations.

The best strategy to explore Oahu is to group activities which can be performed at closely located places for one day in Oahu. It will enable you to spend a productive and fruitful day resulting in peace of mind. This will save you time and money.

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Lanikai beach view, Oahu

Planning your Lanikai beach park trip

You can reach Lanikai in 45-60 mins from Waikiki. The reason to start your day trip in Oahu from Lani kai beach park is that it has one of the best sunrise scenes among Hawaii islands. Therefore, you have to get up early in case you wanna see the breath taking sunrise view at Lanikai beach. You will find parking easily by going early. From here, you can visit attractions next to the Lani kai beach.

Attractions at Lanikai beach

Lani kai beach is a gorgeous place to visit with your family in Oahu. It features lush green areas nearby and quite environment for families to spend time together. Here you will enjoy walking on the soft golden sand that is spread all over a mile. Swimming, snorkelling and kayaking, every opportunity is here for you to enjoying at the sandy beach of Lanikai.

At Lanikai beach there is an option to kayak or Stand Up Paddle Board to the twin islands which are nearby. As there are no rental shops next to Lanikai beach, you can bring these from Kailua beach or order them online and these will be delivered to Lanikai beach. You can order online chairs and umbrella in Lanikai beach in case you don’t have your own..

Lanikai beach is a quite and calm place and its a perfect place for families and kids. Up till current date, there are no bathrooms, showers or lifeguard at Lanikai beach. You can rinse off at Kailua beach and visit Lanikai Beach afterwards. Don’t forget to bring your towel, food, umbrella waterproof camera to capture the beauty under water.

Area behind Lanikai Beach is full of lovely homes which are built for renting. This is one of the reasons why Lanikai beach has been kept without much facilities. i.e. to allow the people living nearby to fully enjoy the breath-taking view of the two small mountains coming out of the sea. Then entrances to Lanikai beach are also limited.

Pillbox Trail Hike

After watching the sunrise at Lanikai beach, either you can stay at beach for swimming or start hiking the Lanikai Pillbox trail. Lanikai pillbox trail is also called Kaiwa Ridge trail. Kaiwa Ridge trail is a 60 to 90 mins (roundtrip) hike (approx. 2 miles) .It has some patches which are slippery and challenging. Therefore, you should wear good shoes for hiking the Kaiwa ridge trial. The trail gets you to one of the best high views of the area. i.e. Koolau Mountains and Chinaman’s Hat. Chinamans Hat is given to a small islet which is 0.7 miles away from Lanikai Beach Park.

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Lanikai beach pillbox hike, Oahu

Starting point of pillbox trail is called pillbox hike. You will see families and older people also hiking the pillbox trail, but keep in mind that its not an easy hike in case you are not in good shape. It is not advised to hike the Lanikai pillbox trail with dogs. On the trails, its explicitly written “Many dogs have died hiking the Lanikai Pillbox trail”.

Precautions for Pillbox Trail

Pillbox trail is graded as medium difficulty and because of no covers or shades along the trail, it can be quite exhausting when sun is shining. Don’t forget to bring water. You will encounter bees on a couple of places while hiking the Pillbox trail. This is an information worth sharing if you have allergy to bees.

Kailua Farmers Market

On your return from the Lanikai pillbox hike, you can visit the Kailua Farmers market for fresh fruits, veggies, island coffee beans and macadamia nuts. You can have some street food too if you are hungry. If you wanna relax, you can come back to Lanikai beach or walk towards Kailua beach for the rest of the day for water activities.

In case you are interested in further hiking activity, Maunawili Falls Trail is a also a good option as its around 2.8 km however, you must note that it has some muddy patches and you will be passing through some streams.
Kawai Nui Marsh is another unique destination closer to Lanikai beach where you can see native birds, turtles and ducks with your family. In the evening time, you can go to Kailua for dinner and watch Luau show.
Categories: Oahu - Hawaii

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