Manini'owali Beach at Kua Bay is a beautiful beach with soft sand and great snorkeling. We even saw dolphins here.

It is located on the northwest side of the Big Island of Hawaii.

From the highway we turned off and followed this long road to the beach. At the beginning of this road you will see the sign for Kekaha Kai State Park. You follow the road to the end where there is parking.

The state park is open from 8am to 7pm. There is no entry after 6:30pm. They lock the gate at 7pm.

As we got to the end of the road there is a lot of parking and a roundabout. 

At the roundabout, there are public bathrooms off to the side.

We went ahead and parked and then walked to the beach.

The sidewalk to the beach has an area with showers to shower off all the sand from the beach.

Then we walked down a staircase to the beach.

We walked to the other side of the beach to layout and go snorkeling.

We got into the water at the far end of the beach by the rocks to snorkel.

As we were snorkeling, we saw a pod of dolphins in the distance. You are supposed to give them room so we were just going to watch them from a distance. The dolphins were curious and came over and swam all around us. It was an amazing experience.

Overall, we loved this beach. It has plenty of room, soft sand, great snorkeling and seeing dolphins was lucky but made it an amazing experience.

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

Manini'owali Beach has free parking. It does fill up fast so show up early. 

Total Cost: $0

These are the checklist items I recommend:

• Bring your own snorkel gear.
• Bring some drinks and snacks.
• Bring reef safe sunscreen.