Kukio Beach is a public beach located at the Four Season Hualalai Resort.

You go through a guard gate to get a pass and then drive to a big parking lot that has public bathrooms and outdoor showers.

You walk a short path to a beautiful beach with great snorkeling and lots of sea turtles.

This beach is located up on the northwest side of the Big Island of Hawaii.

So first we went to the guard gate to get a pass to go to the beach.

This is what the pass looks like. You just put it on the dash of your car. The pass clearly states that you are being welcomed to the Four Seasons Hualalai Resort. Even though it's a resort, the beach is still public and free to go to.

We followed Google Maps and drove to the large parking lot. It wasn't crowded so we parked by the public bathrooms/showers and the trail entrance.

We walked the public shoreline access trail to get to the beach. This was a beautiful walk.

As we got to the beach, the first area is the snorkeling area. Since we were already here, we decided to go snorkeling first. 

This whole beach has reefs along the shoreline. One of the nice things was that they layed out green sandbags so you can walk right out to go snorkeling without stepping on rocks or the reef.

It was really windy and wavy on the day we went so the visibility wasn't that great in the water. Even with bad visibility we saw turtles and all sorts of fish. This would be a great spot to come back to on a calm day for sure.

After snorkeling we decided to walk this beautiful beach and explore. The sand was so soft and we saw turtles all over.

We had a great time at Kukio Beach and would highly recommend visiting on your next trip to the Big Island of Hawaii.

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

Kukio Beach at the Four Seasons Hualalai Resort 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.