Unless you’re an expert surfer, bodyboarder or bodysurfer, keep your feet dry at ‘Shipwrecks,’ the half-mile crescent of light gold sand that skirts Keoneloa Bay in front of the Grand Hyatt. Row after row of waves crash close to shore, giving Shipwrecks a rugged, untamed feel, so it’s best to simply enjoy an invigorating walk. This is the starting point for the hike along the magnificent Maha‘ulepu Coast.

Rocky Makahuena Point to the west, covered with condos, is the southernmost tip of Kauaʻi. Makawehi Point, the gigantic lithified sand dune that looms immediately east, is famous as a site for daredevil cliff-jumpers, many of whom have been seriously injured or even killed.


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1. Makawehi Point

0.2 MILES

This gigantic lithified sand dune towers east of Shipwreck Beach, overlooking Keoneloa Bay. Resist the urge to jump off the cliffs; people have died.

2. Makahuena Point

0.57 MILES

West of Shipwreck Beach, condo-covered Makahuena Point is the southernmost tip of Kauaʻi.

3. Brennecke's Beach

0.96 MILES

With a sandbar bottom and a notch of sand and sea wedged between two lava rock outcrops, this little beach flanks the eastern edge of Po‘ipu Beach Park…

4. Kanei‘olouma

0.99 MILES

The site of a pre-contact Hawaiian village just inland from Po‘ipu Beach was set aside by the county in 2010. You can’t enter the complex, which is being…

5. Poʻipu Beach Park

1.09 MILES

There are no monster waves or idyllic solitude at the South Shore's most popular beach, but it's a go-to spot with something for everyone. Patrolled by…

6. Poʻipu Beach

1.41 MILES

This long swath of prime sand west of Po‘ipu Beach Park is open to all, even if it does stretch right in front of the hotel and condo complexes from which…

7. Moir Paʻu a Laka

1.42 MILES

On the grounds of Outrigger’s Kiahuna Plantation complex, this diverting, if modest, cactus and exotic flower garden established in the 1930s boasts…

8. Makauwahi Cave Reserve

1.58 MILES

This amazing natural site is also a paleontological treasure house. Seen from above, it’s a deep, circular sinkhole, possibly formed by the collapse of an…