A-Bay Beach is also known as Anaehoʻomalu Bay Beach.

We saw lots of turtles snorkeling here and loved how much beach there is to explore.

They have public bathrooms and free parking too.

A-Bay Beach is located on the northwest side of the Big Island of Hawaii.

To get to A-Bay Beach, we turned onto Waikoloa Beach Drive and followed the directions to the A-Bay free parking lot.

This is an aerial view of the parking lot.

We pulled up to the parking lot and found a spot.

From the parking lot, it's just a short walk to the beach.

As we walked up to the beach we saw two signs. One sign showed the beach hours from 6am to 7pm. The other sign was a welcome sign.

They have an area with public bathrooms.

As we walked out onto the beach you can go to the right and explore that part of the beach or to the left to explore the longer section of the beach.

We decided to go to the right first. This part of the beach is between a lagoon and the ocean.

As you reach the end of this part of the beach, you're actually on Waikoloa Beach that backs up to the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa. There are no signs differentiating the beaches. This is the view from the end of the beach.

After hanging out on this part of the beach, we headed back to where we came in to start exploring the other part of the beach.

We walked past the restaurant and then got to the soft sand and great snorkeling.

We could see turtles swimming all over, but our favorite spot was at the very end of the beach. There is a little cove that is protected from waves by a reef. This is where we had the best visibility and lots of turtles.

This is what the cove at the end of the beach looks like.

We got in the water and started snorkeling. This is what we saw:

After snorkeling and laying out on the beach, we headed back to the parking lot.

Overall, we loved exploring and snorkeling at A-Bay Beach and would highly recommend it on your next trip to the Big Island of Hawaii.

(Click on the map above to go to a Google Maps larger view.)

A-Bay Beach has free parking. 

Total Cost: $0

These are the checklist items I recommend:

• Bring your own snorkel gear.
• Bring some drinks and snacks.
• Bring reef safe sunscreen.
• Bring some money if you want to eat at the restaurant.