Lanikai Beach and The Mokes

Lanikai Beach is a breathtaking beach located on the southeast side of Oahu, Hawaii.

With its long stretch of soft sand and turquoise water, there's lots of room to spread out.

It also has great snorkeling with lots of fish and sea turtles.

Off in the distance you can see the Mokes Islands.

Below, you can see where Lanikai Beach is located on Oahu:

We drove all around the surrounding neighborhood looking for a parking space. There were "No Parking" Signs all over and we couldn't find anywhere to park. We decided to go back to Kailua Beach Park and park there for free and then walk the 0.8 miles to Lanikai Beach.

As we got close to the beach we noticed that there were multiple access points. The first access points lead to the water, but not the beach.

The first access point that takes you to the beach is "Ocean Access 4". You'll follow this down a trail until it comes out at Lanikai Beach.

As we walked out onto Lanikai Beach we couldn't believe how beautiful this beach is. With its super soft sand, turquoise water, and the Moku Islands out in the distance.

This beach has a long stretch of sand, so there was plenty of room to spread out.

After exploring the beach, we put down our towels and decided to get in the water to do some snorkeling. We loved snorkeling here as we saw all sorts of fish and sea turtles.

After snorkeling, we got out and laid out in the sun. 

We noticed a few people launching their own kayaks to go out to the Mokes Islands. These two islands that you can see off in the distance are called Moku Nui and Moku Iki. The nickname is the Mokes.

We found out that you have to rent your own kayak and bring it to Lanikai Beach or Kailua Beach Park and then paddle out to the islands.

We didn't have a Kayak so I flew my drone out to explore so we know what to expect on our next trip when we do rent our own kayak.

This is what Moku Nui looks like:

Overall, we had an amazing day at Lanikai Beach. We will definitely go again. We want to kayak out to the Mokes too on our next visit.

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

Lanikai Beach is free to go to. We couldn't find any parking close to the beach so we parked for free at Kailua Beach Park and walked 0.8 miles to Lanikai Beach.

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.
• Don't leave anything in your car.