10 Best Beaches in Hawaii, Big Island! | Plus tips to get to the green sand beach

Welcome to the Big Island. Now where are the best beaches to go hit up? Here are our 10 favorites. The Big island is known for its colorful beaches. You got white sand, black sand and even a green sand beach. One of two in America. It is a big island. Some beaches aren't safe during the winter, so we break it all down right here. Hi, I'm Jordan. And I'm Erica and this is the Hawaii Vacation Guide. The island of Hawaii is the newest of all the Hawaiian islands. So you won't find long gold sand beaches here like you would on Kauai or Oahu. But you will find secluded lava coves. You'll find abundant marine life and thriving coral reefs. And less people because it's far less crowded than the other islands because it's so big. Here are favorite beaches from white to black sand beaches. No particular order. If you're looking for details on like parking and bathroom facilities and all these other like things to really make your trip, check out our itinerary. It is at thehawaivacationguide.com thebigisland Click the link below. You won't regret it. You'll love it. Let's jump right to it. Here are 10 favorite beaches going clockwise around the island starting in Kailua Kona. First one is the Manini Owali beach in Kua Bay. Then you have the Kikao Point Park. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. Great place for snorkeling. Then Pow Au Bay at the Fairmont Orchid Hotel you have Hapuna beach which is the most famous white sand beach on the island. And a little farther north you have Spencer beach park which is probably the most kid friendly beach on all the island. Hololu Beach Black sand Beach. This is not kid friendly. Very dangerous to swim but still made our list. Over in Hilo you have Richardson Ocean Park. Great place for snorkeling. Then my favorite black sand beach is Punaluu. Black sand beach around the southern tip. Then up in Kona you got Magic Sands beach park and we end it with our bonus beach which is a green sand beach. That's a big list. Keep watching because we'll give you more details on each one of these beaches. Also if you have a favorite beach on the Big island, leave a comment below. Share with the team Last time we were here we saw spinner dolphins off the coast. So we'll see. This is a state park so there's parking fee $5. There's a lot of parking here. Just got park up the road. I Mean, look at this beach. This is a white sand beach. This is amazing. It does get high surf during the winter. They got a lifeguard here though. They got showers. They got a bathroom facility. It's a nice beach just to kick it like all these fine people are doing right now. Doesn't have a lot of shade. It's just north of Kona Airport. It's south of South Kahala district where a lot of those resorts are. So it's a good beach to go to. It's really nice. Nice state park. This beach does get a little busy today. It's a Tuesday and the parking lot's already full. But there's parking up the side of the road, so it's really easy.

Do you see fishes? Where? See them? Oh, you want to go? Boat.

We're going out on the beach. The beach, the beach, the beach. We're walking down to Hapuna beach right now. This is usually rated the best beach on the big island. It's white sand beach. It's over half mile long, has good snorkeling either ends. There's a beautiful resort on the side of it also. It's got picnic tables. It has bathroom facilities. Has lots of parking too. Parking does cost $5 for non residents though. And I gotta admit, today is super windy. Like wind is blowing. But down here, you see, I'm kind of like down below a little bit. It's nice and calm on the beach. So don't let a windy day scare you away. Hop over the wave. Ready, set, go.

Have you shown them the water?

This is nice water, isn't it? Yeah. Look at that water.

Can we talk about the sand too?

There's a few white sand beaches on the big island. This is the most famous. Look. Pretty white, right? That looks pretty white. Usually white sand beaches come from coral, so like par fishes will chew up the coral and spit it out. That's why I read. Anyways.

I'm gonna jump in here with a quick PSA because I'm super fun. Make sure to practice ocean safety. Never turn your back on the ocean. Obey lifeguard signs. Also, let's take care of the ocean. So if you see any plastic or any trash, pick it up. Wear mineral based sunscreen, reef safe sunscreen, or wear SPF UPF shirts.

Have fun out there. That's where we're going as a nice shot of the black sand beach in the coast. Wow, it's pretty rough down there. This beach has a pretty nasty undertow and some big surf, so don't go swimming down there. So we're at Pololu Lookout right now. You see this parking lot fills up about 9am It's 9am Right now on a Monday. It's already filling up. There's more of the street, but definitely get here early. We are going to go down the Pololu Trail down to a black sand beach. It's 0.6 miles down. It's steep. It has to switchbacks, a little muddy, so we'll see what it's like. But this is a cool place, right? Just coming here for the view alone is worth it. You don't have to do this hike. We got to mention 400ft elevation. So 400ft down to the beach. Was it worth coming down here, buddy? I think so. Henry and I are at Richardson Ocean park right now. It's about 15 minutes south of Hilo. This is, in our opinion, the best place to go snorkeling in Hilo, and I can see why. Some rough seas out there today, but it's nice and calm in this great little tide pool right here. It's really shallow and it's great for families. This is probably one of the best family beaches also over here in Hilo. If you disagree with any of this, let me know in the comments below. Tell me what your favorite place to go, especially with the kids. This is also a great place to see sea turtles. Southern tip of Hawaii, Hunalua Beach. Think I'm pronouncing that right? Hope so. This is my favorite black sand beach in all of Hawaii. It's really soft sand. It's got sea turtles always resting right over my shoulder. It's got lifeguards. Even has a refreshment shack right here, too. And even has shade. It's really nice. And there's this cute little town for lunch with food trucks just up the road.

It is a cloudy day. This beach usually is very bright and vivid. But this is Magic Sands beach and it is a really nice beach. In Kailua Kona, it's called Magic Sands because in the winter the sand washes away. I will say it's a smaller beach than what you'll find on the Kahala coast, and that's because you're in town. There's just not a whole lot of space here. But there's a lifeguard. There's nice water, nice sand, and it's a great spot to enjoy.

All right, in our last beach, we're going to take you back south to the southern point of the island is Papakolua Beach. Hope I'm pronouncing that right. Also goes by Mahana beach or just the green sand beach. Yeah this beach is tough to go to and this is why we didn't go during the last trip and we didn't get out. We didn't get any footage for it. It's about an hour and a half south of Kailua Kona and then once you get there you have to hike 2 and 12 miles there and it's a long hike. Recommend going to this beach in the morning because it's a lot cooler and less windy there. But it is worth it cuz it is a green sand beach and is one of only two in America. So pretty unique down there. We have so many more beaches to go to and other details about how to get there, where to find parking and other pro tips that you need to know.

To lunch.

Exactly. All those good things.

Make a full day of it.

Check out our itinerary at the hawaii vacation guide.com bigisland we have a link right below. You're going to love them and have a great time.

Thanks for watching.

Thank you. Made it. I like it here. We're really excited tourists right here. This is nice.