Kanewai Community Park

We love this park. It has a little of everything: basketball, volleyball, tennis, baseball, pool, playground. The playground is fun enough but really needs a slide. I'm not sure why that was left off. My kids like it anyway. The upper level even has swings and a painted concrete turtle to play on.There is a great community pool. It's small but not too busy. Hours change regularly. It's been so fun having a few saline pool to swim laps and take the kids to swim in. This is a busy place with classes, picnics, and families all enjoying the amenities. Definitely worth a visit.

Newly resurfaced courts are beautiful! As long as you don't mind the smell of manure every once in awhile they courts are great (the gusts of wind blow the stench sometimes). Unfortunately they removed the lights so this is only a court for the day time. Convenient parking and restrooms.

On long runs exploring the city, I noticed Kanewai Community Park years ago and didn't think much of it. Typical old playground equipment, basketball courts, and the like. I never saw any people there. That all changed a few months ago with a massive renovation of all the buildings and facilities. When you arrive, they have free dedicated parking along Dole Street, as well as sometimes free, sometimes metered street parking for overflow. The park facilities sit on a hill and go down: restrooms at the top, sports and playground down a ramp/stairs, baseball/open fields at the bottom.The park has public restrooms, water fountains with clean taps and good pressure, a new safe and modern playground, and large paved areas for children to play and ride bike. In the realm of sports, they have new basketball hoops and courts, two tennis courts with nice nets, and multiple baseball diamonds on the large field at the lowest level. The field is big and open; so this area does get exceptionally hot on a sunny day. There are trees around the perimeter that offer some shade.The nicest amenity is the public swimming pool. This is also free to use and offers dedicated lap swimming times and open swim times for families and fun. Be sure to checks signs for the hours as they change by season. They have additional restrooms, changing and locker areas, and professional lifeguards.

Man, this park certainly has changed a lot through the years! As a kid, Kanewai Park was my "hangout", as it was my go to place after school to hangout with my friends, & play sports. Kanewai Park use to offer a lot of organized sports here, so as a kid, I joined the little league baseball teams, basketball teams, volleyball teams, & even played tennis here. My time here as a kid did not have the swimming pool........that came waaaaaaaaaay later sometime when I was a student in college. Too bad the pool wasn't around when I was a kid.........because I could see myself hanging out by the pool too!Some of the big changes I saw at the park were the elimination of the "grass field" by the jungle gym area. The grass field is gone, and now it's all concrete (not sure if that's a good thing). I sure miss that grass field, as we use to play Tackle Football on that field, Dodge Ball, & Kick Ball on that field.In the summers, I use to also attend Summer Fun here, and I have a lot of happy memories at this park!Kanewai Park went over a major renovation recently, and I swear the City & County of Honolulu took forever to complete this renovation. But when it's all said & done..........the renovations work by the City & County of Honolulu came out beautiful, and was probably worth the wait.Kanewai Park has a lot of nice amenities like -1. Tennis courts2. Swimming Pool3. Volleyball court4. Basketball court5. Baseball field6. Jungle Gym7. Pavilion for indoor activities8. Restrooms (not da cleanest, but better than using a tree!)There is also a lot of free parking in the private parking lot. Be careful University of Hawaii (UH) students...........the parks people monitor the parking lot to make sure you're not trying to do "da ol' Hawaiian trick" by parking in the park's parking lot, then sneaking off to UH! Lol! 'Eh, I did that back in da dayz when I was a student at UH. You just gotta know how to run da game son! Lol!It's nice to see that they up kept this park through the years, and I still use this park every so often.

I found myself walking to UH Mānoa from my home in Kaimuki on one Sunday afternoon in mid August. Along the way to my destination is Kanewai Community Park and decided to stop here for a break.Community Parks are always a good place for anybody, individuals, and families to get together away from stuff that may be causing them stress in this world. Parks and outdoor spaces are intended for the community to enjoy the outdoor space without having to be inundated with the worries of everyday life. It was nice to take a rest stop for about 45 minutes to refresh and rejuvenate before heading towards Ala Moana shopping center on foot. This community free space on Dole Street is always amazing and no cost to anyone who uses this space. The park itself is clean and maintained by the good folks at the city and county of Honolulu. I arrived here around 10am on a Sunday August morning and left close to 11am. Only thing about the city park system in 2020 is that it is closed to the public due to surging COVID-19 cases in the community, so the only thing I really did is sat on the rock wall facing the park like I was waiting for an uber, while wearing a face mask, and enjoyed the park in this manner until I can really use the park and its facilities whenever COVID-19 manages to go away from the human psyche. The best part of the Kanewai community park is that it's close to the University of Hawaii campus. Kanewai community park is a nice space for rejuvenation of the soul, a place for physical activity, and a place to just get away from reality for a while, while managing social distancing protocols. It's amazing that you can do work here - as well as write yelp reviews if you wanted to, although you'd have to do it outside the park. The park is your office and it helps that the scenery of this park can help with such purpose. For the most part though, I enjoyed my time here at Kanewai community park every time I stroll through the University of Hawaii area via Dole Street. The overall experience here at Kanewai Community Park is awesome, casual, and quiet, even when I was looking from the outside in (during the most recent visit). The park is set in a quiet neighborhood and usually tucked away. You can't really see it if you're passing by. During my time here, I managed to draft a few yelp reviews here before heading out, which was nice to be productive here. There was a couple of people walking on the far side of the park that morning, enjoying themselves with their dog. It was nice to see the simple pleasures that COVID had taken away from us, even if it is temporarily. For the most part though, enjoyment of mother nature is a great thing, especially if you're used to staring at the computer screen at work all day. It's a hidden gem in the Kaimuki / University area. Come on by if you're in the area.Kanewai community park is located at 2695 Dole Street in Honolulu. The park is more than a park, boasting athletic fields for team sports and a functioning swimming pool for public swimming and team events. Like all community parks, there is no admission fee to enter. Just be mindful to pick up after yourself and throw your trash in designated trash bins on property. Parking wise, your best bet would be the designated parking lot near the park's restrooms. If it's full, consider parking in available parking in the neighborhood via street parking. If you are like me, bus routes 13 and 18 come through the area and makes stops nearby. Routes 1, 1L, and 9 comes through on Waialae Avenue, but it's about ¼ mile walk via St Louis Drive and left on Dole Street. Regardless of why you come here, take a rest break and enjoy yourself here at Kanewai Community Park. Might just be the best thing ever you did for yourselves. Morther Nature is awesome this way, whether it is a trees in a park, the ocean, or towering mountains, she's always there to help set you free from the urban rat race we call life. Take a listen.5.0 stars for the overall experience.Support local!A+

HAZARD WARNING: A large tree crashed down in the parking lot on August 31, 2018, crushing a car. No one was injured thankfully. You wish to park on the non-tree side in the future.Pool hours are as follows effective to 6/10/2018 - 7/28/2018Lap Swim:Mon - Friday 10:15 AM -12:15 PMRecreational Swim with 2 reserved lanes for lap swim:Mon - Friday 3:00-5:00 PMTue & Thurs 6:00-7:30 PMSaturday, Sunday and Holidays 1:00-5:00 PMClosures are noted on a placard posted outside of the gates. 25 yard pool, not meter, yard. So it's smaller than many of the other city pools. Pool has 5 lanes, with 3 of them dedicated to free swim at night. The mere 2 laps assigned to lap swim during the evenings have their own lap pattern. Lap pattern instructions are laminated and are posted. Pool is shallow with the deepest section around 5-6 feet. Temperatures in December feel around 80 F. Chlorine levels seem much higher than Manoa and you can taste the chlorine. YUM. At least the water is clean. Showers are ice cold (BUURRRR!), outside and coed. Changing areas and bathrooms are small for both sexes. There are cubbies to store your stuff, but like all public pools, it's best to leave your valuables at home or in your car's locked glove compartment. Equipment is pretty minimal with just kick boards and pull floats. There is a water powered lift chair to help disabled or limited mobility users get into and out of the water. Night crowd ranges from a solo swimmer to totally packed. When school is out, people take their kids and the free swim section can have 20+ swimmers of all ages. Lap swim section can get up to 4+ people. You enter the pool via a corridor next to the tennis courts after going down the ramp from the parking lot. Speaking of which, the parking lot is small and is crowded around 6 PM. Thus, go early as there are a lot of park users. Sometimes you have to drive around the neighborhood looking for street parking. Staff is friendly. Ask the lifeguards about C&C swim classes that are available. It's not the BEST exercise pool, but it will do in a pinch and especially if you live in the nearby UH Dorms and fancy exercising at night without getting sweaty.

ONE WORD: RENOVATED.Street parkingLot parkingBathroomsPublic PoolBig open fieldJungle GymBasketball CourtSmall community roomGreat for outside exercising, pool use, to rent out for a birthday venueWow this park is finally compete with renovations and if I was a mommy/community member I totally would utilize this place! Great resource for the community with all the amenities that I put above. Marvelous.

Tennis courts are great. But be careful not to run into the concrete light stands that were inexplicably left behind when new lights were installed outside the courts. We had three players run into them and one suffered a dislocated shoulder. We no longer play there.

Walking distance from home? Check!A variety of interesting playground equipment, not just same old same old, and actually in working/safe condition? Check!A bathroom available for use? Check!Plenty of trees for shade? Check!No tweekers/vagrants/tents/biohazardous people around? Check!It took them over 2 years to complete the construction, but seems like it was worth the wait!5 stars from me!

Okay, am I the only person who thinks this playground is a death trap? The jungle gym is built very odd..not too enjoyable for small children(kids in general I feel, even myself, a 23 year-old child). I have to keep an extra eye on the keiki when coming here and quite frankly they seem quick to lose interest in the jungle gym because it's hard for them to maneuver on!On the positive side, I do like that they have big open fields and also a basketball court and public pool available. There are two small swings on the upper playground. Nice to have a park in walking distance from home, too!