United States · 1 entry · Not designated; statute applies
Clothing-optional beaches in Hawaii: what the law says and where people go
What the authorities say
No state or county authority in Hawaii designates any beach as clothing-optional. Hawaii Revised Statutes section 707-734 makes it indecent exposure, a petty misdemeanor, to intentionally expose one's genitals to a person one is not married to "under circumstances in which the actor's conduct is likely to cause affront". Whether a given beach meets that test is decided by the county police and the courts, not by custom. This page does not tell you it is legal; it tells you what the statute says and what the park pages say.
Hawaii Revised Statutes 707-734, Indecent exposure (FindLaw codes, current through 1 January 2025)
Hawaii is the one place in this guide where the honest answer is a statute rather than a signpost. The beach below, Little Beach at Makena, is the one Hawaii beach associated with nude use that has an official park page of its own, and that page says nothing about clothing.
Kehena Beach in lower Puna, the beach the archive's 2023 guide is built around, has no page on the County of Hawaii shoreline-access list or the county parks directory that we could find, so it has no entry here: there is no official statement about it to quote, and this guide does not invent one.
The old guide on this site, kept as it was written, is at /hidden-nude-beaches/. Read it as a 2023 traveller's account, then read the statute above.
Entries
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Pu'u Ola'i (Little Beach), Makena State Park
Legal status: The Division of State Parks page lists Pu'u Ola'i (Little Beach) with its own opening hours and says nothing about clothing; no designation exists.
Where Makena State Park, south Maui, behind the cinder cone Pu'u Ola'i next to Oneloa (Big Beach). Access Paid parking and an entrance fee at the state park: non-resident vehicles 10 dollars, a per-person entrance fee for non-residents (children 3 and under free), residents free with a Hawaii driver's licence. Facilities Not stated by the source. Season and hours Open daily. Little Beach hours: weekdays 5:00 am to 7:00 pm, Saturday and Sunday 5:00 am to 4:00 pm (Big Beach 5:00 am to 7:00 pm, to 7:45 pm in May, June and July). Rules on the page Park rules on the page: no pets, no alcohol, no open fires, no camping, no smoking, no driving on the beach. The page carries a shore-break warning. Source Hawaii DLNR Division of State Parks, Makena State Park Last verified 15 September 2026
What is not on this page
Beaches that appear on commercial lists for Hawaii but have no official page stating a clothing rule. Adding one would mean inventing a status, and a wrong "legal" here is a harm, not a typo. If you know an official page for a beach that belongs here, the editorial policy says how to send it.
Sources and last verified
- Hawaii Revised Statutes 707-734, Indecent exposure (FindLaw codes, current through 1 January 2025), read 15 September 2026.
- Hawaii DLNR Division of State Parks, Makena State Park, read 15 September 2026.
- Method, corrections and what we do not publish: editorial policy. Page checked 15 September 2026.