Laniakea Beach

Laniakea Beach is a beautiful beach with great surfing and snorkeling on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. This beach is also known as "Lanis" for short.

In the summer time it is known as Turtle Beach because of all the turtles that rest on the shore. It also has great snorkeling in the summer.

In the winter it has great surfing.

You can see on the map below that it is located in about the middle of Oahu's North Shore.

Laniakea Beach has a large dirt parking lot that is free.

It is a one-way parking lot so you need to enter going from the northeast on Kamehameha Highway.

If you're coming from the opposite direction, there is no left turn allowed into the parking lot.

You would need to go down farther and pull a u-turn.

If the parking lot is full, you can go down past the parking lot and park on the side of the street.

From the parking lot, you'll take the crosswalk over to the beach.

The far end or north side of the beach is usually where you will see sea turtles resting in the sand. The day that we went, we didn't see any on the sand, but we did see turtles swimming in the water.

We walked to the southern end of the beach and layed out our towels. This is where most of the surfers were getting in and out of the water.

The waves weren't too big, so we decided to get into the water and do some snorkeling. The current was strong, but we knew that and planned on getting out farther down the beach and walking back to our towels. We saw a sea turtle and lots of fish. They have a lot of signs that say "When in doubt, don't go out". We are strong swimmers, but if you're not, don't go out. I can only imagine how great this beach would be to snorkel in the summer months when the ocean is calmer.

After snorkeling, we got out and laid out in the sun. We could see surfers off in the distance catching waves.

Overall, we had a great time at Laniakea Beach. We enjoyed snorkeling and watching the surfers. We would definitely go back again.

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

Laniakea Beach has a large free parking lot.

Total Cost: $0

These are the checklist items I recommend:

• Bring your own towels, beach chairs, and beach umbrellas.
• If the water is calm, bring your own snorkeling gear.
• Bring your own surf board in the winter. Not for beginners.
• Bring some drinks and snacks.
• Bring reef safe sunscreen.
• Don't leave anything in your car.