Best Camping on Hawaii Beaches

You can rent a luxury beach view room in a Oahu or Kauai Hotel starting at about $350. per day or you can rent nice condos in Hawaiian towns for about $100 per day, or you can rent a beautiful clean beach side campsite with great views of the waves for about $3.-$8 per day per person depending on services at the campground. If you are a permanent resident of Hawaii you can camp in the state parks free of charge.

QUIET BEACHES

We wondered why the campsites on Oahu and Kauai were so quiet with just a few campers. "Well its winter. Hawaiians don't like camping in December. They'll come for picnics on the weekend." Winter in Hawaii is like summer in Vancouver. Lovely sunny days, some clouds, temperature in the 70's. Some rainy days. We were lucky it only rained at night the whole week we were camping.The campsites are usually in public beach side parks and have showers with tepid water, clean toilet facilities, nice picnic tables and sheltered cooking areas with electric hook ups for your kettle, camera,TV whatever. Some locals actually do bring along electric appliances.

My 91year old mother stayed with us in a condo for a week before we sent her home and went camping. But when she saw the beautiful campgrounds she wished she could come along and camp out. I was enchanted by the quiet beaches. Some had rough surf, others had protected swimming areas. Some had reefs where you can snorkle in the feeding areas of a wide variety of tropical fish. At one campsite I snorkeled with two gigantic sea turtles. Some other campers told me they swam at a beach with seals.

TRIP PLANNING:

1) You can look up campsite locations on line and book the campgrounds on line through the Hawaii State Parks website.

2) You can rent a car inexpensively through Hawaii discount car brokers websites.The islands are small and you can easily drive to town for supplies or a hamburger. More important you can lock your stuff in the trunk of the car when you leave the campsite. Its not safe to leave valuables in your tent unattended. Some people rent a Van and sleep in the van if it rains.

3) You can take cheap public buses from the airport to the campgrounds, or even hitch hike to them without much trouble. But without a car you don't have a secure place to leave your belongings when you go swimming or hiking. Also some public buses wont allow you on with a gigantic pack-so pack light.

4) Each campsite is closed for cleaning one day per week so on that day you need to book a different campsite.

5) You need to bring a rainproof tent, sleeping bags and mats, small cook stove and pots, food. Though some campsites have food stands.