Oahu Beaches

East Windward Oahu Region

#2 Rated Beach on Oahu

Highlights: Enjoy this North Shore beach with its long stretch of gorgeous, white sand beach with calm waters. Many consider it one of Oahu’s most beautiful beaches. While there, make sure to savor the views of several offshore islands.
Must-do: We recommend this beach for its lovely, fine sandy beach for strolling and general lounging due to lacking high surfs. Additionally, it boasts excellent swimming and kayaking opportunities. Further, please take advantage of its world-class windsurfing. Rent equipment and arrange lessons from several shops in Kailua.

Kailua Beach Park

East Windward Oahu Region

#4 Rated Beach on Oahu

Highlights: We revere this stunning beach as one of the most family-friendly beaches on Oahu. The mild waves here make this beach ideal for swimming, body surfing, and boogie boarding, especially for beginners and children. Waimanalo offers several miles of white sand to walk. It can get crowded on the weekends but is worth visiting if you can fit it into your schedule. 
Must-do: Besides the numerous water activities, join the locals in enjoying this spot for its fishing, barbecuing, and family picnics.

It can get crowded on the weekends but is worth a visit if you can squeeze it in.

Waimanalo Beach Park

North Shore Oahu Region

#6 Rated Beach on Oahu

Sunset Beach is the ideal North Shore paradise with sprawling white sand and turquoise waters.

Highlights: A surfing haven, Sunset Beach provides some of the best waves in the world. This paradise of two miles of white sand stretches from Sunset point to Ehukai beach.
Must-do: Enjoy swimming and snorkeling in its calm summer waters. During the winter, hit the waves for stellar surfing. You can also peer into a few tide pools to observe some of the wonders of nature. Or relax on the powdery soft sand. 

Sunset Beach

Waikiki & Honolulu Region

#8 Rated Beach on Oahu

Waikiki Beach is one of the most famous beaches in the world. Hotels and tourist facilities front the two-mile stretch of white sand coast.

Highlights: We revere this stunning beach as one of the most family-friendly beaches on Oahu. The mild waves here make this beach ideal for swimming, body surfing, and boogie boarding, especially for beginners and children. Waimanalo offers several miles of white sand to walk. It can get crowded on the weekends but is worth visiting if you can fit it into your schedule. 
Must-do: Besides the numerous water activities, join the locals in enjoying this spot for its fishing, barbecuing, and family picnics. It's worth a visit just to say you walked on Waikiki.

Waikiki Beach

Windward Oahu

#10 Rated Beach on Oahu

A long, thick stretch of silky white powder on the windward coast just outside Waimanalo, facing a clear turquoise expanse with views all the way down to Makapuʻu Point. Many visitors rate the sand here the finest on Oʻahu.

The gentle shorebreak is excellent for beginner bodyboarding and the water is usually calm enough for an easy swim. The one catch: the beach sits on an Air Force station, so public access runs Friday afternoon through Sunday and on federal holidays — plan around that and it over-delivers.

Bellows Beach

North Shore Oahu Region

#12 Rated Beach on Oahu

Locals and those from afar enjoy this gem of a beach!

Highlights: Local visitors galvanize to this beach gem for camping and fishing opportunities. This state beach park stands between the towns of La'ie and Kahuku. 
Must-do: Malaekahana's northern region hosts a range of camping spots and plantation-style cabins. During the day, enjoy the excellent swimming conditions. Just make sure you wear reef shoes because of the rocky nearshore waters. Take a boat ride offshore, and catch a glimpse of Goat Island.

Malaekahana Beach

North Shore

#14 Rated Beach on Oahu

Home of the Banzai Pipeline, the most famous — and most dangerous — surf break in the world. In the winter months the waves here reach towering, barreling heights and the beach becomes a spectator's arena for pro competitions and fearless local surfers.

Come summer the same beach flattens into a calm, walkable stretch of sand with some of the best beginner sandbar surf on the North Shore. Lifeguards are on duty year-round, which matters here more than almost anywhere.

Ehukai Beach Park (Banzai Pipeline)

Leeward (West) Oahu

#16 Rated Beach on Oahu

At the literal end of Farrington Highway on the Waiʻanae Coast, Yokohama Bay (Keawaʻula) is a wide, wild sweep of white sand where the road simply runs out. Drive west past Waiʻanae and Mākaha and the coast turns quiet, remote, and strikingly beautiful.

It's more a scenic stop than a swimming beach — winter currents are strong and the shorebreak can be punishing — but monk seals haul out here and it's the west-side trailhead for Kaʻena Point. There are no lifeguards or facilities, just roadside parking, so come prepared.

Yokohama Bay (Keawaʻula)

Waikiki & Honolulu Region

#18 Rated Beach on Oahu

With its crystal-clear waters, lush vegetation, and picturesque settings, it's no wonder that this beach has been called "the place to be." The Ala Moana Beach also offers a wide range of activities for visitors – from swimming to sunbathing to fishing.

Highlights: The turquoise blue, shallow water lures locals and tourists to Ala Moana Beach Park, located in the large Ala Moana State Recreation Area between downtown Honolulu and Waikiki. This vast beach sprawls a half-mile-long white sandy beach protected by a reef with usually calm, clear waters.

Must-do: Both locals and visitors enjoy the beach's activities: Hawaiian paddling, yoga sessions, running, beach strolling, surfing, swimming, and playing volleyball. Moreso, visit Ala Wai Harbor or the Ala Moana Center – the largest shopping mall in Hawaii.

Ala Moana Beach Park

Leeward (West) Oahu

#20 Rated Beach on Oahu

The local name for Kahe Point Beach Park, a small county park on Oʻahu's leeward coast directly across Farrington Highway from the Kahe power plant. The plant's warm-water outflow draws huge schools of fish, sea turtles, and the occasional dolphin pod offshore.

It's also one of Oʻahu's most demanding shore snorkels: entry is over rock and broken coral and the swim out to the pipes is a moderate distance offshore through often-choppy water with real current — for confident swimmers only. A lifeguard tower was added in 2023.

Electric Beach (Kahe Point)