Kailua Beach by Way of the Pali Lookout

Kailua Beach by Way of the Pali Lookout

The drive from Honolulu to Kailua takes thirty minutes via the Pali Highway, and the halfway point — the Nu'uanu Pali Lookout — is worth stopping for even if Kailua didn't exist. The lookout sits at 1,200 feet in a gap in the Ko'olau Range, and the view is the windward coast spread below you like a green quilt tossed over a sleeping giant — Kailua Bay, Kaneohe Bay, Chinaman's Hat (Mokoli'i), and the flat expanse of Coconut Island. The wind at the lookout is legendary — 40 mph gusts are normal, and the locals dare tourists to lean into it. Some lean too far. The railings are solid.

The lookout is also the site of the Battle of Nu'uanu in 1795, where Kamehameha I's warriors drove the defending O'ahu forces over the cliff face in the battle that unified the Hawaiian Islands. The cliff is a thousand feet, and the bones found at the base confirmed the oral histories. Standing at the railing, looking down, the beauty and the violence occupy the same view.

Kailua Beach itself is a two-mile crescent of powder sand and turquoise water that has been voted the best beach in America often enough that the ranking feels less like an opinion and more like a fact. The water is calm, the kayak rentals are plentiful, and the Mokulua Islands offshore are paddleable — twin volcanic islets with tiny beaches and nesting seabirds that regard your arrival with the territorial suspicion of animals who live on an island and didn't invite you.

Practical notes: Park at the Kailua Beach Park lot (free but fills by 10 AM). Lunch at Buzz's Lanikai — a steakhouse that has been serving the windward side since 1962 with the confidence of a restaurant that doesn't need a renovation to be relevant.