Picture this: a massive, towering palm stands all by itself on the shore of a Hawaiian black sand beach. There is nothing else there except for the gritty dark sand, the aqua blue water, and the waving fronds of the palm in the wind. The Lone Palm Beach in Hawaii is beautiful and landed a spot on my top 10 sights on the Big Island, but how do you get here?
Finding this beach is trickier than it seems—for example, if you simply type “Lone Palm Beach” into Google Maps, there are actually two lone palm beaches and neither of them really have any signage to speak of. If you try to drive to the location, you end up on the side of a sketchy-looking road with a waste management facility across the way. Not exactly reassuring!
After doing some extensive research, I found out that there are indeed two lone palm beaches. One of them, which I never found, has an actual black sand beach. The one that I hiked to had a much taller, massive palm tree, and not so much a black sand beach as a black pebble field. There is also a beautiful little blue pool beneath the tree that you can swim in!
Lone Palm Beach Hike
This hike is relatively short but extremely rocky. Definitely wear closed-toed shoes, because the rocks are jagged and will rip up your feet. None of the trail is paved, but it’s well-traversed and easy to follow. The hike takes about 1-1.5 hours round trip, depending on how often you stop for pictures (we stopped very often, obviously).
There is also no shade. Make sure to bring water and lather up on sunscreen before heading out! Luckily, because you’ll be hiking directly along the coast, a nice sea breeze will help whisk away the worst of the heat.
How to Get to Lone Palm Beach
To get to the trailhead, you need to drive on Interstate 19, aka the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway. Put “Lone Palm” into Google Maps and you’ll get two results, one in Waikoloa Village (slightly more north) and one for Kailua-Kona (slightly more south). The one we will be hiking to is the one in Waikoloa Village.
If you’re driving up from Kona, you’ll pull off on the left side of the highway in the suspicious-looking makeshift parking lot before you see the Waste Management facility on the right side of the road. If you see the Waste Management road, you’ve gone too far. Turn around! If you’re driving down from the north side of the island, drive past Waste Management on the left and turn right when you see the crude parking area.
You’ll know you’re in the right place if you see an obvious volcanic black rock trail that has a white gate. There should also be a sign that reminds visitors to not litter. Even if the gate is closed, you can still hike the trail.
As you hike along the trail, you’ll notice on Google Maps that this path intersects with another trail called the King’s Highway Foot Trail. Keep walking; do not veer onto the King’s Highway. However, keep your eyes peeled for a narrow footpath that breaks off to the right, lined with periodically placed white stones.
When you see the white-stoned path on the right, turn off the main trail and onto this one. Do not keep walking straight on the large trail, which is what we did the first time and ended up almost trespassing on private property in the middle of nowhere. The white stone trail will start to take you on a more elevated path with slightly more rugged terrain.
There’s only one path to speak of from here on out, so it’s hard to get lost. You will hike over the crest of the hill and be able to see black stone caves and the beautiful blue water off the coast before finally starting to hike back down. Once you start seeing riparian vegetation, you’re almost there. Round the bend onto the large-pebbled beach and you will see the towering lone palm in all its glory.
We did this hike around lunchtime and there was no one when we reached the palm at the end, but within 15-20 minutes small groups of people started showing up with towels to chill out in the bright blue pool. So if you’re looking to do this hike, I would suggest coming before afternoon.
Interested in other things to do on the Big Island? Check out my 1-week Big Island itinerary here.
