Maui & Oahu Nude Beaches
Maui & Oahu Nude Beaches — What could possibly be better than strolling along the beach in Hawaii? …..strolling along the beach in Hawaii, NAKED, of course!
After many years away, we had the opportunity to revisit one of our favorite places on Earth. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve been there, but, it’s never too hot or too cold, always gentle breezes and sweet rains bathing the land. The pizza, the banana bread, the pineapples, the shaved ice are added treats, all in a setting that redefines the colors blue and green. And the sunsets….there’s a reason why it’s called paradise.
Maui has two official nude beaches, Little Beach and Red Sand Beach. Little Beach is arguably THE BEST nude beach in America. It is located on the southwest side of the island, just south of the touristy hotel hotspots in Wailea. If you’ve never been to Hawaii before, you have to understand that everything has at least two names. Little Beach, also called “Pu’u Olai Beach”, sits adjacent to Big Beach, and both beaches as a whole are referred to as Makena Beach. So Google Maps has become quite comprehensive lately, and will probably lead you right to your spot at Little Beach, but in case you need a general reference, parking is at Makena Beach State Park. Makena Beach is quite popular, and parking can sometimes fill up and spill down the road that leads to the park. So, if you don’t want a long walk or a long wait, try not to show up at 10 or 11am like a Haole.
You’ll walk through a portion of Big Beach, which is pretty and has a famous fairly heavy close out shore break that is popular with boogie boarders and body surfers, but also famous for neck and shoulder injuries. When you see the water, look to your right and you’ll see an outcropping of black rocks blending into a sandy cliff. Yes…a cliff. Not like a death trap kind of cliff, but it’s certainly not an ADA accessible spot. It’s a little bit of a climb, about 20 ft vertical with a gully to struggle up. You have to be a bit careful because it’s sandy and therefore slippery. But once you reach the top, you are rewarded with a gorgeous view, both looking back at Big Beach, and looking forward to Little Beach.
Little Beach faces due west, which makes it sort of a perfect place for watching the sun set. It also looks out at the nearby island of Kaho’olawe on the left and the more distant island of Lanai on the right, both land masses add to the dynamic painted sky that the sunsets offer. The crowd that Little Beach attracts is truly a mix, straight, gay, tourists on a first time visit, local regulars with drums, hippie, business class, families, college age, retired age, and it all feels pretty evenly distributed. The beach is shaped like a crescent moon backed up to a lush wooded hill, which adds a protected feel, but also provides a unique option of having trees with shade on the beach. If you hike to the furthest end of the beach, you encounter some lava rocks, and can explore the rugged coastline sans clothing. At the very tip of that lava spill it gets pretty windy, but if you stare out over the wide open sea you’ll see an occasional plume of mist. This is an epic spot to do some naked whale watching. We didn’t see any whales breaching, but we’ve heard if you watch long enough you can sometimes spot them. You probably won’t be alone no matter where you go, but everybody at Little Beach is in a good Hawaii kind of mood and is super friendly if you need to ask what’s worth seeing on your explorations. There are plenty of amazing backdrops to capture a clothed or non-clothes picture if that’s your thing, just be respectful of others that might be nearby.
In the summer the turquoise water at Little Beach is perfect for swimming, usually in the upper 80’s (Fahrenheit). It’s a perfect place for body surfing. Body surfing naked is an amazing way of connecting with nature in your most natural state. Basically, you feel like a dolphin dropped into the middle of paradise. The sand is very forgiving, but do keep in mind that there are a few small rocks on the bottom to avoid.
There are no bathrooms on Little Beach. There are port-o-potties by the parking lot, but it’s not the kind of hike that you want to do just because you forgot to use the restroom, so, plan accordingly, bring water, sunblock, something to eat, and water that way the second time you need to navigate a cliff can be on your way out after a fun and memorable day. And, don’t save it for your last day on Maui. This is the kind of place you’ll want to go back to as much as you can.
The second beach we returned to on Maui was Red Sand Beach, also called Kaihalulu Beach. It is located within the town of Hana and central to a lot of great hikes and attractions along The Road to Hana. This place looks like a movie set, and the red sand with black rocks and blue water kind of puts it over the top on the color spectrum. It isn’t super easy to find, and there is pretty much no designated parking. The entrance to the pathway is by the school, and you have to sort of walk across a corner of the lawn to find the winding path. It’s not a mystery though….that big streak of dead grass going diagonally across the lawn points the way. This is a medium hike? But, it’s a little narrow and there’s a part to get down a rocky facade with a rope to help at the end. It’s not the kind of hike you would want to do after a rain shower, because that red sand will get slippery and it’s already a little slippery in dry weather.
Technically speaking, Red Sand Beach is a clothing optional beach, but that being said, it is a little bit if a “first come first serve” or “majority rules” beach. When we arrived there was a young lady sunbathing nude off to the side, and then there were 2 families with kids who basically occupied the water and the rest of the shore. They didn’t seem bothered by the young lady sunbathing, but we didn’t feel like it was worth possibly making them uncomfortable. Plus it was around 8am and still pretty chilly (72 degrees), so we opted to keep our clothes on and snap some pictures of this beautiful beach before heading out to see the other sites on our Hana adventure.
It cost about $40 for one way airfare to Oahu, so we hopped over there for a couple days to explore. Oahu has a little more tourism and traffic to deal with, but is still very charming. Our favorite spot is The North Shore, also called Haleiwa (two names, remember?). The North Shore is famous for Banzai Pipeline, but also famous for Shaved Ice. Waiting in the long lines for some of the famous shaved ice is the closest thing to a saintly midieval pilgrimage that you can experience today. The town is a nice place to walk, explore, see some art, and eat some good food.
About 5 miles outside of town is Oahu’s most notable nude beach, Polo Beach….also called Mokulē’ia Beach. There are no signs, you’ll just have to trust Google Maps on your phone, and when you see a bunch of cars parked randomly on the right side of Farrington Highway next to a path cutting between two unkept fields, you are there. The walk is easy, and the beach is lovely. Turn to the RIGHT at the end of the path and you’ll soon see your people. The nudists here tend to be more local, so you will probably look like a tourist to many of them. But they are helpful and friendly. We wanted to take a picture with a fallen tree, but were told that if we venture too far to the east there was a row of houses and one house in particular where the owner wanted nothing more than any excuse to call the police on visiting nudists that he views as a threat to his property value. So if you see the dead tree, turn around. In the end, the beaches of Hawaii do not belong to property owners, they belong the “the people of Hawaii”, but Hawaii also doesn’t have rules protecting nude beaches or the nudists on them, so it’s important to be respectful and not push any limits, because the local courts will not rule in favor of your Haole tourist rights on their sacred beaches.
You never know who you might meet on your travels. And once in a blue moon you run into a friend on the other side of the world…..”it’s a small world after all”. So we felt lucky that day to see an old friend and to meet a new one, and to share some time in the sun on a picturesque beach before heading back home to Florida.
