Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve

Great way to spend a sunny day! It was my first time snorkeling and it was a great experience to see this area and all its beauty. No fee or reservation required for Hawaii residents. $25 and advance reservation required for non-residents. Parking lot is cash only, $3 for non-residents and $1 for residents. The staff and volunteers here do a great job at maintaining the bay and can answer any questions you have. They're friendly, informative, and efficient moving people through check-in. After checking in, you'll listen to the site rules, watch an informative video about the area, and make your way along to the beach. You can ride a tram up/down or take a short 5 min walk. There's also a snack shop outside, just make sure to get stamped upon exit so you can re-enter. If you forget your beach or snorkel gear, don't fret. Down at the beach they have a shop to rent beach chairs, umbrellas, snorkel gear, life vests, etc.

Fee to visit the beach: 25$ per person. Paid online, 2 days ahead. Parking fee: 3$ CASH ONLY. Why not include these three dollars into the online paid reservation?? Who has cash nowadays? Also, if you reserved for 7am, be ready to go in at least at 6:30. You need to enter, go to ATM for cash, then find parking, and go down to beach entrance by 6:45 (15 minutes before reservation, no late enter).Park opens at 6:30, by the way, so you won't have much time. But you will have crowds, even at 7am. Not sure if snorkeling would be pleasurable in such conditions.

***Make sure to make reservations two days in advance if you are visiting. *** it's about $25 then $3 to park.They have a shack that has lots of rentals such as snorkeling gear, life jackets, small lockers, wetsuits and umbrellas. There's a cafe for food. But you can also bring your own stuff in. It's nice that you need to have reservations because it doesn't get too busy. It was a little cloudy when we went into the water so seeing the fishes was a little harder. But overall it was great. The view and beach is amazing.

Located a bit further away from the main city areas, Hanauma Bay is a nice beach that offers a somewhat less crowded affair, and a lot more fishy. It's located near another landmark, Koko Head park/mountain which is right across from Hanauma Bay.A much different affair than Waikiki beach, Hanauma Bay offers an experience that's a bit more for those looking to explore the ocean rather than just playing in it. By explore I mean this is a perfect place for those who want to snorkel and view fish and other aquatic life up close and personal.Unlike Waikiki, there's a whole ton more of coral here right from the starting parts of the beach, which means that the increase in fish sightings will be much higher and more consistency. The beach itself is pretty wide reaching, but obviously nowhere near as long as Waikiki.One thing about Hanauma is that it is an admission beach, so you will need to buy tickets there or use their reservations system to book time to get down there. It's not terribly pricey, but certainly not free by any means.The beach is split up into several sections where the amount of coral will vary greatly, with some areas also off limits. For those who don't want to swim out as far, focus more on the coral heavier areas as fish are always hiding in there. For those who don't like coral because you're worried you'll scrap or something else around them, swim out from the center ish portions of the beach open area. Note, you do have to go out much further than the coral areas to start seeing fish, but the swim itself is more relaxed because of the empty space and less worrying about bumping into others, but you have to go out much further.All in all, Hanauma was a great experience. If only it were free, it if it were, probably would be too crowded to and take away from what is a nice spot already. Highly recommend.

Beautiful place, crazy to get in but worth it. We lucked out this year with the last minute reservations. My wife saw an eel and I got to see a few variation of local fish including the state fish. Today they stated they could not rent out umbrellas because they were understaffed. The bay doesn't have many shaded places so again we were happy to have brought extra sun screen. The view is amazing, the tram is a great way so save energy for the snorkeling and love that they added a place for quick food and souvenirs on the entrance.

One of our favorite days of our Oahu trip. This beautiful gem of a park and beach was loaded with tropical fish. We happened to visit on a particularly wavy day, however we managed to snorkel for about 45 minutes. The whole endeavor was well executed by park staff and we easily parked and entered at 11am. There is a tram you may ride for free down to the beach and back. I wish we'd thought to prepare a picnic and stay all day, would have been great to have chairs and umbrella. They DO rent them however, so take a picnic and enjoy your day. for the admission price it's worth it!A note about reef preservation: we learned from the ranger that ALL sunscreen sold in Hawaii is reef safe so even if the bottle doesn't say so, your Hawaii purchased sunscreen is safe for the park.

I have been here quite a few times but this will be our last. The staff is absolutely horrendous to guest and even each other. One older skinny lady in the parking lot yelling at cars, coworkers and people standing in line. Once the line starts moving she goes along the line berating you if you got out of your car for a chance at getting in. Then sits her cranky butt down with a box of tickets and acts like she doesn't know why you're in line. Then stands up to yell that if you're a local you don't have to pay or wait in line...weird to be so rude to the ones that do pay. Unfortunately for her I match energy and haggatha didn't get a dime from me. We left and went to the north shore where reef isn't dead and mean locals don't yell at you for wanting to spend money.

Walking down to the bay you will be enchanted by its beauty. It's $25 to get in, but residents can get in for free! You will be snorkeling right over the reef. Snorkel experience would help since it is quite shallow and you have to be conformable staying close to the surface. I recommend bringing your own snorkel gear, but you can rent gear also. There is a lot of parking. Login website 2 days in advance as 7am to get a ticket if you are a nonresident.

So beautiful and well kept! They do a great job at maintaining the area and it really makes this bay stand out. There is a fee to enter, we purchased our tickets online and there was a counter at the entrance to purchase as well. You are directly lead into a waiting area after the entrance to watch a short film about the nature preserve. The beach does close at a certain time which we got in 2 hours before, it seemed less crowded then which was nice and there is a stand to rent out snorkeling gear or you can bring your own. Overall I think it's nice to visit at least once.

We had a great trip here! It is sort of like Disney land crowd control and info sharing to get in. I was just in Florida at the NASA space center and the process to see one of the rockets was the same! So if you don't want to follow the process and listen and learn about the fish, and this all sounds stressful, enjoy a different activity for your vacation time. The bay itself was beautiful. We rented all the snorkeling gear except wet suits, it was hot so we would just get out and warm up when we were cold. We did not see loads of fish but we saw very cool fish like parrotfish and the Hawaiian state fish. We just swam out in the middle part and floated and watched the fish, it was very relaxing. I listened to the information session about the fish and looked at the pictures so I learned a lot about the fish and their habitat, very cool! I wish I would have walked down the hill rather than take the tram, to plan out our snorkeling because you don't want to swim on the coral, as it is way too shallow and close to the top of the water. So I did not make it to the far side sandy area to check out. Plan to swim alongside the coral spots in the sandier areas. Again, if you don't have the patience or you expect to see schools of amazing fish, this is not the trip for you. I am scuba diver and we learn in our training diving is about just being lazy, floating and observing the sea life, some dives are good and some aren't. So I approached this trip in that way. If you are looking for amazing snorkel, book a tour. All in, it was about $75-100 each for rental and the cost to get in, so you may want to think about putting that money towards a tour instead and skipping this.