What to do on North Shore & in Haleiwa
North Shore is a place you have to visit while on the island of Oahu! It is worth grabbing a rental car and doing a day trip over to the Northern part of the island. There is a lot to do, see, and explore on North Shore and in the Historic town of Haleiwa.
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Dole Plantation
64-1550 Kamehameha Highway
Wahiawa, HI 96786
www.doleplantation.com
Okay so the Dole Plantation isn’t on North Shore, but its really close and right on your way to that side of the island. Its a must do! Yes, its touristy, but if you’ve never seen how pineapples grow it is pretty interesting. We have been here several times over our trips.
The Dole Plantation has a train tour that takes you around the farm and explains the history of the farm, a giant gift shop with food spots inside, and a maze/garden area.
The pineapple flavored food items inside are my favorite. You HAVE to get a Dole Whip while you’re here. Its the best ice cream and the only place you can get it on the mainland is Disney.
The gift shop has everything pineapple flavored that you can possibly imagine. We grabbed some chocolate covered pineapple, dried pineapple, pineapple taffy, and pineapple-mango hard candy.
Haleiwa
This cute surf town sits close to the coast of the North Shore of Oahu. There is a strip of restaurants and shops to browse. Just find parking and get to walking! Here are a few of our favorite stops in Haleiwa.
Matsumoto’s Shaved Ice
66-111 Kamehameha Highway
Haleiwa, HI 96712
Matsumoto’s is the spot to get shave ice. This mountain of ice comes with your choice of flavor and topping and you can watch them making it while you wait. We went with the rainbow. Get there early as the line is usually out the door.
There are quite a few cute shops. My two favorites were:
Sand People and V Boutique.
Sand People has this gorgeous mural painted on the side of the shop of the historic bridge in Haleiwa, it makes a good photo op!
Sunrise Shells are only found in Hawaii. These specific orange and pink shells are gorgeous and you can find them hand made into jewelry. I grabbed one on my second trip to Hawaii and found this beautiful one that I couldn’t resist this past trip. Make sure to price shop because at the upscale stores they will try to charge upwards of $180-200+ for a Sunrise Shell Necklace. I paid $60 for this one at V Boutique.
Eyeing these gorgeous shells? There are some great vendors on Etsy that carry Sunrise Shells for reasonable prices! Click the photo below to view and shop.
Beet Box Cafe
66-437 Kamehameha Hwy
Haleiwa, HI 96712
This cafe is one of the top rated spots for lunch so we decided to give it a try. It is actually a vegetarian/vegan spot so you wont find meat here.
I ordered the Banana Oat Pancakes and Travis got the Burrito Babe. My pancakes were delicious and I could’ve eaten the hand made coconut whipped cream by itself. Travis enjoyed his tofu burrito and it was so big he actually couldn’t finish it.
Alright its time to hit the beaches! Just continue your drive up the coast and the first beach you should hit is Lanikea.
Lanikea Beach
83 Kamehameha Hwy
Haleiwa, HI 96712
This isn’t just any beach, this beach is famous for the sea turtles that come ashore to eat the algae off the rocks. Unfortunately there weren’t any turtles when we visited Lanikea this trip. Our previous trip however there were at least 4-5 turtles on the sand that day. Those are the turtle photos you’re seeing.
Either try to time it right or have the flexibility to sit and wait a while for turtles to come.
Waimea Bay Beach Park
61-31 Kamehameha Highway
Haleiwa, HI 96712
Waimea Bay is the spot everyone is usually referring to when they say “North Shore”. This is THE BEACH where all the surfers go and where all those surf competitions happen. I will say that this beach is the worst in terms of getting there and parking. We honestly didn’t have an issue finding at least street parking at any of the other beaches, but, because of where Waimea Bay is located there is a very small parking lot and no street parking. I did see some people parking at Waimea Valley and walking down, but I’m not sure if you are supposed to or if it costs. We waited about fifteen minutes and happened to be beside a car that was leaving. Lots of people were having to circle the lot and there is nowhere to turn around.
While Waimea Bay is beautiful, it is not the most family friendly beach if you have little kids. The waves were at least six feet high when we went and swells there can get up to thirty feet. We went in December when rip tides and waves are the highest. The view is gorgeous of the sunset and there is plenty of sand to play in and room to spread out even with crowded it is.
Waimea Valley Botanical Gardens
59-864 Kamehameha Highway
Wahiawa, HI 96712
Waimea Valley is a gorgeous spot and I highly recommend visiting if it is your first trip! I went my first two trips and Travis had also been before so we did not go back this trip. Insert our family photo from 2015 which was taken on an iphone 4, so sorry for the poor quality.
Lots of people choose to visit Waimea Valley for the waterfall but Waimea Valley is filled with gorgeous acres of botanical gardens and rainforest. Many movies and shows were filmed here like Hunger Games and Jumanji. Waimea Valley does cost to get in, adults are $18 ($12 with military ID) and kids are $12 (ages 4-12). It is a good little hike up to the water falls but you can purchase a tram ticket to take you up and back if you don’t want to walk or have little ones.
You can also swim in the falls so bring a swimsuit and towel! There are restrooms available along the hike to change in.
Waimea Valley also has a few gift shops and restaurants. Expect to spend a few hours here to be able to walk through the botanical gardens and see the falls.
Shark’s Cove
59-681 Ke lki Road
Pupukea, HI 96712
Keep driving up the coast and you’ll come to Shark’s Cove. This is honestly one of my favorite beaches on the island! It is so great for viewing fish and coral, even if you don’t like to snorkel. And don’t worry, there are no sharks!
One thing you MUST bring to this beach, water shoes. It is very rocky, even on the sand and you can easily cut your foot open or hurt yourself trying to walk around without them. We love our Teva’s since they are a sturdy sandal that can be used for hiking, water activities, boating, etc. Click the photo below to view and shop.
Shark’s Cove is just that, a Cove! So no big waves, no rip tide, and easy calm waters great for the entire family. This is one of the top three beaches for the best snorkeling on the island but even if you don’t like to snorkel, you can see the ocean life in water up to your ankles! Most areas of the cove are really shallow and many fish just swim by your feet completely un-phased by humans.
Shark’s Cove is also one of the better spots to find shells on the island. I love collecting shells and Hawaii is so beautiful you would think there’d be tons of beautiful shells too, but that’s not the case. Shells, especially pretty ones, are far and few between.
As I mentioned, Shark’s Cove is one of my favorite beaches on the island, I’m naming it my #2 favorite beach!
Sunrise Shack
59-158 Kamehameha Highway
Haleiwa, HI 96712
We needed a bit of a refresher from the hot sun so we stopped at the most instagrammable fruit stand, Sunrise Shack! Not just fresh fruit, they’ve got acai bowls, smoothies, drinks, and more to give you something cold on a warm sunny day. I grabbed the Tropical Bowl. I will say acai bowls are still my favorite but it was really good!
After watching the sunset on the beach we headed back to the town of Haleiwa for dinner. We decided on Haleiwa Beach House which is an open air restaurant sitting across from the water on North Shore with a beautiful view.
Haleiwa Beach House
62-540 Kamehameha Highway
Haleiwa, HI 96712
The Beach House does not take reservations and the night we went for dinner they quoted us an hour to an hour and a half wait. We put our name in and they put down my cell phone number to text us when our table was ready. I’m not sure if they were trying to scare us off or what, because we started walking down to the shops and our table was ready within ten minutes.
We weren’t super hungry so Travis and I decided to split the Grilled Mahi Mahi. Absolutely the best fish I ate on the island. It was delicious and though it looks small it was a good sized portion. We ordered the mashed potatoes and edamame for sides and they were very good as well. This place is spendy but very worth it! It would’ve been a beautiful view during the sunset.
Finding the fun everywhere life takes us!
Love, Olivia Michelle
