Tunnels Beach (aka Makua Beach)
Tunnels Beach (about 25 minutes from Princeville) is considered by many people to have the best snorkeling on the north shore. The beach is large and rarely crowded, the views are spectacular, and the snorkeling is excellent.
Tunnels is a great beach to go to all year, but "good" snorkeling days are a little less common in the winter months, per the chart below.
Parking at Tunnels Beach can be a little tricky, you can either park down an alley (unmarked), or park at Haena State Beach and backtrack (east) to Tunnels Beach.
Ke'e Beach
Ke'e Beach is about 30 minutes from our condos. The beach has excellent snorkeling (particularly on left side of the beach as you face the ocean) as long as the waves aren't too big and visibility is good. Ke'e is a great beach for summer snorkeling, in the winter it is hit and miss.
Ke'e Beach is at the trail head to the Kalalau Trail in Hāʻena State Park, and reservations are necessary to get into the park (click here for reservation info). Once you park, it is a quarter mile walk to the beach.
Our advice is to bring a beach wagon, beach chairs, a cooler with food and drinks, etc, and haul everything from the parking lot to Ke'e Beach. Set up your beach chairs and stake out a place on the beach, hike the Kalalau Trail (or at least part of it), then after the hike relax at Ke'e Beach and snorkel if possible. We've never had anything stolen when we do that, but of course we cannot take responsibility if you do (our attorneys said we needed to write that!).
Hideaways Beach
Hideaways Beach (about 2 miles from our condos) has great snorkeling in the summer months. You are likely to see a giant sea turtle. In the winter, few days will be calm enough for good snorkeling, but it is a great beach to visit and enjoy views of Bali Hai all year.
Note that the trail down is steep and not particularly easy, so please be careful hiking down to the beach! The trail has railings and ropes that can be useful for getting down, particularly when the trail is wet.
The main problem with Hideaways Beach is parking. There is a small public parking lot between Puu Poa resort and 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay that holds about 8 - 10 cars, and the beach is popular enough that the parking lot often full. If you park on the side of the road, you very likely will get a ticket and need to pay a fine.
A last note for surfers: there is a surf break ~100 meters or so out from shore, and while we are not surfers, we have seen surfers out there.
Sealodge Beach (aka Kaweonui Beach)
If you are staying at Orchid Point, Sealodge Beach is a 10 - 15 minute walk. If you are staying at Alii Kai or The Cliffs, it is about a mile away, and you can park in the Public Parking marked by dashed lines in the image above (four public parking spaces, but generally at least one is open). Click here for directions on how to get to the beach from Orchid Point (or from the public parking spots).
Sealodge Beach has good snorkeling at high tide, not so good at low tide (the water is shallow, and there isn't a lot of clearance above the coral at low tide). We recommend that you check the Hanalei Bay tide schedule before you go snorkeling at Sealodge Beach: https://www.usharbors.com/harbor/hawaii/hanalei-bay-hi/tides/
This beach is fairly well protected from ocean swells, so many winter days this is a good snorkeling destination.
Snorkeling off the path to Sealodge Beach
If you take the trail to Sealodge Beach, along the way you will come to a point where the trail turns sharply to the left. Instead of turning left, you should walk out onto the rocky point. Once you are standing on the rocky point, if you look to your right you can see all the way to the Kilauea Lighthouse. And if you look down and you see small waves, you have also found a fantastic snorkeling spot that very few people know about.
This point often has tremendously large waves in the winter, but can be calm and spectacular in the summer.
All year round, this is a great place to bring a beach chair and a book, and sit out on the point with some of the best scenery in the world and enjoy the sound of the ocean.
'Anini Beach
'Anini Beach is about a 12 minute drive from our condos, and is probably the best snorkeling option on the north shore in the winter. The beach is protected by 'Anini Reef, the largest reef in the state of Hawai'i. As you can see in the picture above, the ocean at 'Anini Beach is often as calm as a pond.
'Anini Beach has a relatively large public parking lot, the beach is easy to access, there are picnic tables, and public restrooms are also available.
It is a nice beach, and the snorkeling is pretty good - you do have a good chance of seeing giant sea turtles here.