Hanauma Bay is located just off Kalaniana’ole Highway on the southeast corner of Oahu. It has a rich history of fishing, relaxation, and even royal visitation. The bay is the remnant of a volcanic cone that has become a diverse marine ecosystem that thrives among the corral reef that has developed within the bay. It has limited access, and the tickets are not easy to get, but more on that later. Lets get started with the basics first.

Sunscreen

Scientists have found that one of the leading causes of coral reef decline is sunscreen chemicals. Hawaii has recently passed a law banning sunscreens that contain oxybenzone and octanoates – two chemicals that are harmful to the coral reef. Make sure you have the right sunscreen with you.

Hours of Operation

• Entry Allowed: 6:45 AM - 1:30 PM, Wednesday through Sunday.

  • There is no entrance on Mondays or Tuesdays, and it is closed on Christmas and New Year’s Day.

• Visitors must arrive 15 minutes before their ticketed time. You will not be allowed to enter if you are late.

• The beach will be cleared at 3:00 PM, and all visitors must be off the beach by 3:30 PM.

• All visitors must exit the park by 4:00 PM.

Admission

• Park Entry Fee – $25.00

• Parking lot Fee – $3.00

• Kids 12 yrs & under – FREE

• Locals with State ID – FREE

• Active Military – FREE

• Tram Ride – included (the tram carries riders from the top of the hill to the beach at the bottom and back again, with trips every few minutes)

Purchasing Tickets

The Tickets

Buying five tickets to Hanauma Bay was quite thrilling. The day before, I was on my phone while we were waiting to go on a different adventure. Five minutes before 7 AM HST, I was refreshing the ticket purchase page over and over again. Finally, the date appeared. I selected it, selected the 9 AM time slot, and tried to buy eight tickets. I got an error because I didn’t know there was a 5-ticket maximum per transaction, and I had to start over. This time, I selected the same time slot, entered five tickets, and went to complete my purchase. Another error: there were no longer enough tickets available for 9 AM. AHHHHH! Back at the beginning, I selected 11 AM, five tickets, and rushed to make the purchase. SUCCESS!!! The only problem was that we had a group of 8, so I needed to try to get three more tickets. More than 5 minutes had passed at this point. I jumped back into the time slot page and tried to get three more tickets, but it was impossible. I tell you this as a warning. If you are trying to take a group larger than 5, I would have at least two people buying tickets. Make sure you are organized, you know how many tickets each of you are buying, and choose a different time slot for each of you. At least you may have a chance of making it work. It is insane.

The Approach

The Hanauma Bay State Park entrance is right off Kalaniana’ole Highway on the southeast corner of Oahu. From the highway, you’ll turn south onto Hanauma Bay Rd. Keep left at the intersection, which becomes Catafalque Drive. This will lead you right into the parking lot. Find any open spot and park. You can explore the upper park area and look over the bay from the elevated viewing area. Restrooms are also available in the grassy area west of the parking lot.

The Entrance

Directly south of the center of the parking lot is the entrance where you will present your tickets. They are very strict about the times on your tickets. If you are too soon, you will be asked to wait. If you are late, you will not be allowed to enter because they will have sold your tickets to anyone waiting for them to become available.

The Video

Once you enter, you will be taken to a waiting area. Here, you will wait until the others with your time slot have arrived. A 9-minute video will be played with instructions and information about swimming in the reef. Please pay attention and do your best to follow the directions given. Failure to do so led to the restricted access currently in place.

The Tram

Two trams travel top to bottom and back every few minutes. They each can carry around 20 people. They are great if you or someone in your party needs a ride for whatever reason; however, It is not required. We hiked down and enjoyed the cool ocean breeze and views.

The Beach

At the bottom are a sand rinsing station, the snorkel renting station, an information booth, restrooms, and a lot of sand. The beach extends in front of you and along both sides. There are usually a lot of people, but because of the limits, plenty of places are available in the shade or on the sand to put your stuff and hang out.

The Reef

The reef is massive, and there is plenty to explore. We brought our own snorkels, so we didn’t need to rent any. We also packed some inflatable pool noodles. These were great because they came super compressed and easy to pack without taking up much room. Once on the beach, we just inflated them, put them under our chest, and floated out into the reef face down and floating along.

The reef was incredible. There were some pretty strong winds, so we did get moved around a lot as we floated, but it usually wasn’t an issue. The time passed so quickly that we barely noticed when rain clouds moved in and sprinkled on us for about 20 minutes. We spent almost 4 hours floating from one section of coral to the next taking in the incredible variety of tropical fish, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers. We saw various butterfly fish, parrotfish, tangs, wrasse, one aggressive reef triggerfish, and so much more. It was an absolute blast, and we talked about it for hours after. I’m pretty sure the aggressive triggerfish was protecting something on the floor, so we tried to move on quickly from that spot to leave it in peace.

That reminds me of the primary challenge of swimming in a reef. In order to protect the reef, we avoided making contact with it at all times. However, this meant that we moved slowly and carefully everywhere we went. This was usually fine, but occasionally, a larger-than-expected rolling wave could send you a little off course or even for a little tumble. We would go to a sandy area between the coral whenever we needed to stand up for a minute. Even here, the waves would often knock us off balance, but we quickly got the hang of things and were soon moving about with confidence.

The Gift Shop

As we left the bay, there was a cute little gift shop where we picked up a few little trinkets for folks back home. Most items in these gift shops tend to be identical to other shops around the island. I recommend picking items that are branded for that specific location if you want something as a souvenir. Otherwise, go generic so you get a gift in one place without worrying about getting anything elsewhere. The one item I had to get in the gift shop was a card identifying all the fish in the area so I could look back later and compare them to the videos to see which ones I saw. It was the best $8.99 plus tax I spent in that shop.

Summary

This was quite the adventure. From purchasing the tickets, the process of getting down to the beach, and finally snorkeling in a coral reef among tropical fish. The entire experience created one incredible memory. All the effort to make this work was worth it. I wasn’t sure when I was trying to buy the tickets, but it was an incredible experience. It's a core memory, for sure. If you can make it happen, I highly recommend trying to fit this trip into your schedule. It was challenging because of the constraints, but it was so amazing. If you want to top off the trip with something tasty, just west of Hanauma Bay on the Kalaniana’ole Highway is a little food truck called Leonard's Bakery Malasada Truck. You’ll thank me later.