Hanauma Bay is one of the best snorkeling place on the Hawaii Island of Oahu! It is located at SouthEast side of Oahu Island and attracts thousands of visitors every day. Hanauma Bay is very close to Waikiki and very accessible to the tourists. It only takes 20-30 minutes of drive from Waikiki to Hanauma Bay. Many hotels at Waikiki even offer shuttle bus to go directly from hotel to Hanauma Bay. City of Honolulu offers bus ride to Hanauma Bay as well.
If you decide to drive to Hanauma, I recommend to plan to get there before 7:30. We left Waikiki and headed to Hanauma Bay around 6:30AM and got to Hanauma Bay just a bit before 7AM. The parking lot is already half full and many cars were coming in. The parking lot fills up very fast and once the parking lot is full, the guards will not let anyone else in. Thus it is better to arrive early. Besides, if you arrive before 7, there is not parking fee!
Once we get to Hanauma Bay, the entry ticket is $7.50 per person. Then visitors are required to watch a 9 minutes long video about Hanauma Bay and things to be cautious about. If you have visited the place and watched the video in the past year, you can skip this video and head down directly to the bay.
The walk down to the bay is pretty easy, but may be difficult for elderly people. There are rides for people to take and it will take you all the way down to the bay. The ride cost around $1.50 each way if I remember correctly.
At the bay, there are fins and goggles that you can rent. Thus you do not need to worry about bringing your own snorkeling gear. There are also lockers for rent, but those lockers are tiny! We only put valuable things such as wallet and keys at the locker. We brought the rest of things to the beach with us.
We went on a Saturday and the water was calm. The water is some what clear, but does not offer the best visibility. Snorkeling was still fun however. We were able to snorkel around easily and got to see various species of colorful fish. Most fish can be found around the area with coral.
We even saw an eel snailing through the bottom of the ocean floor! Remember not to touch anything here!
By 9AM, it started to get crowded and more people were coming in. The water was getting less clear due to the amount of people moving in the water and stirred up the sand. So if you want to get a clear shot of the fish, it is better to arrive arrive early in the early morning.
When we head back at around 11AM, the parking lot was full. We saw many cars trying to come in to Hanauma Bay but the guard told them to turn around. Thus arriving early is very important!
In general, this is a great place to do snorkeling on Oahu! Remember to bring a GoPro to capture all the cool fish in the photo when you snorkel! Also, keep in mind that Hanauma Bay is closed to public on every Tuesday.
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