A coastline made of craters
Southeast Oahu is the island's youngest volcanic real estate, a chain of late-stage eruptions that left the coast studded with tuff cones: Diamond Head, Koko Head and the flooded crater of Hanauma Bay. The drive along Kalanianaʻole Highway threads between them, with the ocean close enough to taste the spray.
The day begins at the Diamond Head Lookout, where Leʻahi's 760-foot crater rim frames Waikiki and the morning surf. From there the road east passes the mansions of Kahala before the landscape turns abruptly wild.
Hanauma, Halona and the blowhole
Hanauma Bay, a crater breached by the sea, is Oahu's most famous snorkeling preserve; the tour passes its rim with a view over the reef. A few bends later comes the coast's showpiece: the Halona Blowhole, where swells force seawater through a lava tube and blast it up to 30 feet into the air. The pocket beach beside it, Halona Cove, earned permanent fame in From Here to Eternity.
Next door, Sandy Beach serves the island's most notorious shore break, beloved by expert bodysurfers and respected by everyone else. In winter, every lookout on this stretch doubles as a whale-watching platform as humpbacks cruise the channel with their calves.
Makapuu and the turn north
The coast ends at Makapuʻu Point, where a candy-striped lighthouse has guarded the island's eastern tip since 1909 and offshore islets shelter seabird colonies. Rounding the point, the Koʻolau cliffs rise ahead and the island changes character completely, from black lava to green velvet, as the route rolls into the Windward Coast toward the long sands of Waimanalo and the sacred valleys of Kualoa.
Fifteen minutes from a Waikiki espresso to a 30-foot saltwater geyser. Southeast Oahu does not ease you in.
Tour stops on this coast
- Diamond Head Lookout, the iconic crater above Waikiki
- Halona Blowhole, the lava-tube geyser and Eternity Beach
- Pass-bys: Kahala, Hanauma Bay rim, Koko Head, Sandy Beach and Makapuʻu