Diamond Head Beach Park, Oahu

Diamond Head Beach Park is located on the southeast side of Oahu.

This beautiful beach is surrounded by high cliff walls and has a paved walkway that you can take down to the beach.

The west side of the beach is sandy and the east side is rocky with some tide pools.

This is where it is located on Oahu.

When we pulled up we found a parking spot in the public parking lot. If that lot is full, there is plenty of street-side parking. All of this parking is free.

After parking, we took the paved trail down to the beach.

As you come out onto the beach the sandy part is on the east side and the rocky/tide pool area is on the west side.

This is what the small parking lot looks like.

This is what the paved trail down to the beach looks like.

As we got to the bottom of the trail, we saw a shower area to rinse off after swimming in the water.

As we walked out onto the beach we decided to explore to the left or east side of the beach first. 

We could see surfers getting in and out of the water and out in the distance you could see them surfing.

After hanging out and exploring the east side of the beach, we decided to head over to the west side of the beach and explore the rocky area and tide pools.

This is the area where you can see the lighthouse too.

The tide pool at the end was really calm so I got in to snorkel a little bit. The water was clear, but I didn't see any fish.

Overall, we had a great time. There were hardly any people here and we felt like we had the beach all to ourselves. The hike back up was steep so make sure you have enough energy to get back to the top. We would definitely go back here again.

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

Diamond Head Beach Park is free to visit. There is a free small public parking lot and free street-side parking.

Total Cost: $0

These are the checklist items I recommend:

• Bring your own towels, beach chairs, and beach umbrellas.
• Bring some drinks and snacks.
• Bring reef safe sunscreen.
• Bring your own snorkeling gear if the water is calm (summer months).
• Don't leave anything in your car.