Beach at Aulani

iowacedar · Sep 8, 2016

Can any one comment on the beach at Aulani?

Specifically:

1. How long is it?
2. Is is typically crowded during the day?
3. How is the water off of the beach? Calm? Choppy?

Thanks!

85glht · Sep 8, 2016

Went twice in September. Beach not crowded. The swim area is a lagoon, if you will. Not choppy and is paddle board friendly. I did snorkel in it and did see a turtle swimming around. This is about 2/3rds of it

Elima2015 · Sep 8, 2016

Beautiful picture above! We never found the beach to be very crowded. The little rental shack did run out of beach toys a couple late mornings, but we were able to snag them later in the afternoon. It is a public beach, so feel free to walk away from directly in front of the hotel if you want - or even to a different Ko'Olina lagoon. Water was pretty calm when we were there.

ktlm · Sep 9, 2016

The beach area is a man made lagoon. I think there are 4 hotels in that area that have carved out lagoons. It is mostly calm, you will not find big waves there- or really much in the way of waves at all. It does have currents though that can be pretty strong. (as I found out while trying to maneuver a paddle board). The Disney lagoon is netted off to prevent predator fish from getting in, and I'm sure to also keep people from getting pulled out by current or going too far out. When we were there, they also had CMs on paddleboards in the lagoon most of the day. We were there in July, and it was a whole lot easier to get a chair at the beach than the pool. We never had trouble getting a chair at the beach, although not on the front row. If you walk around it to the east, there is a grassy area past the little wedding chapel that is a great spot to watch the sunset. Also, on the Disney beach you will find photopass photographers to take pictures around sunset. You can get some really good pictures.

heaven2dc · Sep 9, 2016

85glht said:
Went twice in September. Beach not crowded. The swim area is a lagoon, if you will. Not choppy and is paddle board friendly. I did snorkel in it and did see a turtle swimming around. This is about 2/3rds of it

View attachment 193204

Nice pic! I have a quick question - do you know what those white tented type structures are? Thanks!

Elima2015 · Sep 9, 2016

heaven2dc said:
Nice pic! I have a quick question - do you know what those white tented type structures are? Thanks!

If the OP sees this they can probably tell you for sure. It must be set up for some special event - there appears to be a stage there too. A concert taping? Those tents were not there when we were - just rows of beach chairs!

85glht · Sep 9, 2016

heaven2dc said:
Nice pic! I have a quick question - do you know what those white tented type structures are? Thanks!

They were having a food and wine event that evening.... There was also a winner from Cupcake wars there to serve their cupcakes at this event..... We did not attend.

CateinPhoenix · Sep 16, 2016

The beach is very calm. Great for little ones but not so much for adventurous teenagers who want to boogie board.

alldiz · Sep 17, 2016

1st time planner myself

I was wondering about the water in lagoon.... Clear water like Caribbean? Is it light blue ?

CateinPhoenix · Sep 17, 2016

We found the water to be fairly clear, not as clear as the Caribbean, however were able to snorkel and see quite a bit of wildlife around the edges. YMMV

kdonnel · Sep 17, 2016

Where it is sandy, it is murky. It gets less clear as the day goes on.

85glht · Sep 18, 2016

kdonnel said:
Where it is sandy, it is murky. It gets less clear as the day goes on.

Agreed. I unfortunately went snorkeling mid afternoon and it was pretty cloudy.... I did manage to see a turtle swimming around though.

punch57 · Sep 18, 2016

how is the water temp in the lagoon ???

85glht · Sep 18, 2016

punch57 said:
how is the water temp in the lagoon ???

Both times we went to Aulani was in September. The water was really nice temperature wise.

kdonnel · Sep 18, 2016

In April it was warm enough that you didn't have second thoughts about walking on in but not so warm you were uncomfortable.

buffettgirl · Sep 18, 2016

How warm depends on what you're used to. I have friends who were here in April and they thought the water was cool, compared to other tropical places they've been. On the other hand, I've always gone to the beach in Maine, so no matter what, it will always feel warm to me.

Vernie822 · Sep 20, 2016

Just back from Aulani. Water temp was good, I was never freezing getting out of the water. The lagoon makes the waves quite calm compared to when we were in Maui. In Maui, we could 'ride the waves' and saw a ton of people with boogey boards. I would say the water at Aulani was very calm.

Agree w/ above posters who said water got less clear as the day went on. A few times we snorkeled in the morning and then came back in the afternoon to water that was much less clear.

We had no issues with the beach/lagoon being too crowded. There were always chairs available (opposite of at the pool).

CateinPhoenix · Sep 26, 2016

Water was fairly warm in November, it was the breezes after getting out that could be cool that time of year.

ehrawn · Sep 26, 2016

Elima2015 said:
Beautiful picture above! We never found the beach to be very crowded. The little rental shack did run out of beach toys a couple late mornings, but we were able to snag them later in the afternoon. It is a public beach, so feel free to walk away from directly in front of the hotel if you want - or even to a different Ko'Olina lagoon. Water was pretty calm when we were there.

punch57 said:
how is the water temp in the lagoon ???

If it wasn't clear for the other responses , Ko'Olina has four man made lagoons. All beaches in Hawaii are open to the public, but there isn't much public parking near Lagoon 1 so it's never too crowded.

Water temps in Hawaii are fairly constant: 76-81 degrees F. https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/dsdt/cwtg/all_meanT.html

The water quality is clean and clear. Because it's a shallow, man-made lagoon, you're going to get some bottom movement which results in less clarity than some of the other beaches, but I've never found reason to complain. This was taken on a rainy/windy day and you can see it's still pretty.

Beach at Aulani

Earning My Ears

This is the way....

Mouseketeer

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

Mouseketeer

This is the way....

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

DVC-BCV

This is the way....

Mouseketeer

This is the way....

DVC-BCV

The whole tag thing, so 1990's internet.

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

Mouseketeer

Share this page