The Green and Black Sand Beaches of the Big Island of Hawaii

As I was researching places to visit on the big island of Hawaii I kept hearing specifically about the green sand and black sand beaches in the southern part of the island. We visited both beaches and here are some helpful tips and my personal opinions about each of the beaches.  

The Elusive Green Sand Beach (aka Papakolea)

Ohhh this green sand beach. Overall I have mixed feelings about this beach but I wanted to make a blogpost about it because it was such a tale to get there and it was difficult to find information. Plus the information that I found was not super accurate so I wanted to provide information based on our experience. 

Why is the sand "green" 

First of all I think they use the term "green" loosely. In my opinion it was gold- but to each his own. It is created from a crystal called "Olivine" that gives off a greenish color that comes from lava. There are only 4 beaches like this in the entire world so you can see the appeal of visiting one if you are nearby. 

How do you get to the green sand beach? 

It is located on the southern most tip of the big island of Hawaii roughly an hour and 40 minutes away from Kona. Towards the end the road becomes less smooth so you might want to medicate if you are one to get car sick easily. 

Unfortunately the majority of the beach is located on a sacred Hawaiian burial ground so a road leading directly to the beach cannot be constructed ( I also feel like it is a lucrative business so I doubt the local people would want a road built) 

When you get the end of the road there is a dirt parking lot and port-a-potties (if you have to go at all go because there is nothing else!).  You will notice that some brave people are proceeding ahead with their jeep wranglers onto the trail. I would highly recommend NOT doing this. The road is so rough and lets face it if you are renting a car you don't know the last time the brakes were checked or any true maintenance was done to it. I've done a lot of stupid things in my life, but I don't think I'm stupid enough to take a rental car on this "road". 

Ok so hear me out if you look on google/apple maps it says that it is a 2.7 mile hike from the parking lot to the beach and that it should take you an hour. This is WRONG! I was never actually able to calculate how long the the trail was but it is only 2.7 miles as the crow flies- the trail itself is incredibly windy and unkempt-plus there is no shade to be had. Despite being in relatively good shape we quickly realized that we bit off more than we could chew. 

Now if you are in really good physical shape and you prepare for this hike there and back (i.e. bring plenty of water and food) I think this would be a doable day trip.  However for the average person this is a bad idea. The solution and recommendation that I have for you is- the local people will drive you to the beach and back in their pick up trucks. They charge $20 round trip.  Now normally I'm usually like "no thanks, I'll just save the money and walk" but in this instance I would say that this is totally reasonable and worth it. It took 25 minutes for a pick up truck to drive from the parking lot to the beach. They have installed bars on pick up trucks and have you stand in the bed and hang on for dear life. It's definitely a memorable experience. 

Zach and Max hanging on for dear life on the back of the truck & people getting off the truck

My friend asked the driver how often they have to replace the brakes in the trucks and he said every month. I 100% believe it- that whole "road" looked like a brakes worst nightmare.  

The Beach Itself 

Once you finally get to the beach itself the truck drops you off at the top of the beach and you have to walk down to get the to water. You have to climb down a ladder and then take some narrow "lava tunnels"  for lack of a better term. 

There is no shade to be found- on the hike or the beach. Make sure you wear plenty of sunscreen. One person brought a small personal tent which I thought was a good idea. Technically there are a few alcoves that provide minimal shade but they are hot commodities. The picture below is the best my friend and I could find for us to sit and eat lunch 

After we ate lunch we played on the beach and did really enjoy ourselves. The water felt great and I imagine it would be quite fun to swim in because it didn't feel like a big rip tide. We also noticed some people snorkeling. I could see this being a nice place to snorkel because you are slightly more protected from the big waves because of the  "C" shape of the beach. 

Overall opinions about the Green Sand Beach 

Was it pretty cool- yes I thought it was a cool beach, however I'm not sure it was worth all the effort we put into getting there. It's in a pretty remote location, plus the crazy ride to actually get there. I would NOT recommend doing it if you are not semi-physically fit and I would not do it with children. Because we were uninformed we brought a 6 month old- thankfully she did fine and we were diligent about keeping her in shade as much as possible and keeping her hydrated. I quickly realized that there were no other kids at the beach- it's not very kid friendly at all. If you are super motivated to see it then go- you hopefully learned more about the process of getting there. If you are on the fence about visiting then I would say you could skip it- there are plenty of cool beaches (including the one described below). 

Hawaii's best black sand beach- Punalu'lu 

This beach is pretty close to the green sand beach- but way more visitor accessible and friendly. It is about an hour and 40 minutes from Kona ( its quite close to Hawaii Volcanos National Park). There is a large parking lot, bathrooms and it is free to enter.

I really liked this beach for many reasons. 1. Its neat to see a black sand beach. 2. This beach is quite large and is surrounded by palm trees which makes its very picturesque. 3. We saw SO MANY sea turtles. I could not believe how many we saw- 10 a one time all just sunbathing on the beach. 

Now this beach isn't super swimmer friendly- we saw plenty of people attempting to swim and snorkel and they were getting absolutely hammered by the waves. There are signs in certain areas that warn about rip tides. I'm sure the snorkeling would be pretty neat but it might be hard to see because of the strength of the waves. Proceed with caution if you decide to swim. 

Overall thoughts 

We really enjoyed this beach- it is much more visitor/ family friendly and we LOVED seeing the turtles. I think the turtles are here pretty regularly (based on the signage) so if you are looking to see some this would be the place to go. I would be hesitant to swim here, but you could try.