Hawaii has no legal nude beach. Nudity is prohibited in the state parks and the indecent exposure statute applies statewide, but four beaches have been nude by custom for half a century and are tolerated most of the time: Little Beach on Maui, Kehena on the Big Island, Polo Beach on Oahu and Secret Beach on Kauai. Knowing the difference between tolerated and legal is what keeps a Hawaiian beach day from ending with a citation.
The law
Hawaii Revised Statutes 707-734 makes indecent exposure a petty misdemeanor for anyone who "intentionally exposes the person's genitals to a person to whom the person is not married under circumstances in which the actor's conduct is likely to cause affront." That wording is why the tolerated beaches exist: a Maui district judge dismissed Little Beach cases in the 1990s on the ground that a secluded beach used by people who came there to be nude was not a place where exposure was likely to affront anyone. The state responded by relying on park rules instead, and the Department of Land and Natural Resources, not the police, is now the agency that sweeps the beaches. Nudity is also prohibited by rule in every state park, which covers Little Beach directly. The result is a system that works on tolerance and periodic crackdowns, and every beach below has had both. Read our US nudity law guide for how that pattern plays out across the mainland.
Little Beach, Makena, Maui
Little Beach (Pu'u Ola'i) is the small cove north of Big Beach in Makena State Park, over a short lava-rock trail from the end of the main beach. It has been Hawaii's best-known nude beach since the hippie years and is still the one with the most regulars. Makena State Park charges non-residents $5 per person, children three and under free, plus $10 per non-commercial vehicle paid at the kiosks or through ParkMobile. The park opens at 5 am; Big Beach closes at 7 pm (7:45 pm in May, June and July), but Little Beach closes at 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. That early weekend closing is the state's answer to the Sunday drum circle, which drew hundreds of people, alcohol and complaints for years and prompted a DLNR conservation officer sweep in November 2020 that produced a round of citations. Weekdays are quiet and tolerated; weekend afternoons are when rangers appear. The water is lovely but the shore break is strong.
Kehena Beach, Puna, Big Island
Kehena is a narrow black sand beach on the Puna coast south of Pahoa, formed by a 1955 lava flow, reached by a short, steep scramble down from the highway. Spinner dolphins pass close enough to earn it the name Dolphin Beach. Nude use has been the norm here for decades and the atmosphere is the most relaxed of the four, with a Sunday gathering of its own, but police have cited people for nudity at Kehena in several recent years. There are no facilities, the surf is unpredictable, and the beach can lose most of its sand in winter.
Polo Beach, Mokuleia, Oahu
Polo Beach on Oahu's north shore, near the polo fields at Mokuleia, is officially Makaleha Beach Park, and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser confirmed in 2016 that a change of signage there did not make it a designated or regulated nude beach. It remains the quietest of the four: a long, mostly empty stretch of sand with no facilities, where nude use is tolerated at the far end away from the park entrance. Keep the distance from clothed visitors generous, because the tolerance here is thinner than on Maui.
Secret Beach (Kauapea), Kauai
Secret Beach, properly Kauapea Beach, lies below the Kilauea lighthouse on Kauai's north shore, reached by a steep ten-minute trail from a dirt road off Kalihiwai. It is the most beautiful of the four and the one with the most dangerous water; winter swells make swimming impossible. Nudity is illegal here as everywhere in Hawaii and is tolerated at the far western end on quiet days. Secret Beach draws many first-time visitors who did not know it was nude; be the person who covers up when a family arrives, not the person they complain about.
How to visit a tolerated beach
- Walk in dressed and undress at the traditional end. At every beach above the nude section is the end farthest from the entrance.
- Keep a cover-up within reach. Enforcement is sporadic and almost always announced by a uniform walking down the beach. Dressing quickly ends it.
- No cameras, no drones. Hawaii's beaches are where tourists point phones; the regulars will ask you to stop, and they are right.
- Respect the sacred. Several of these beaches sit beside places that matter to Native Hawaiians. Stay off the rock features and the dunes.
- Leave nothing. The complaints that bring the sweeps are about litter and noise far more often than about nudity.
Everything in the nude beach etiquette guide applies here with the extra weight that comes from being a guest on an island where the beach is not yours.
Finding people and current conditions
Each beach's listing in the Hawaii beach directory carries fee, closure and enforcement updates from members who live there. Hawaii members list their island and home beach on their profiles, and the island groups are the right place to ask whether a given weekend is a good one for Little Beach. If you want nudity that is lawful rather than tolerated, the islands have very little in the way of resorts; the resort directory covers what exists.