Punaluu Black Sand Beach
No admission feeWalk a beach of black basalt sand on the Big Island's Kaʻū coast and watch green sea turtles resting on the shore.
Transit: reachable by public transit

Photo: W Nowicki, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.
A roadside state park on Hawaii island with a mix of native and introduced trees, picnic space, and access to a nature trail.
South Kona, HI
This small state wayside on the Mamalahoa Highway serves as a roadside stop where visitors can eat outdoors beneath an arboretum of native and non-native trees. It sits beside the Manuka Natural Area Reserve, a large protected area on the leeward slopes of Mauna Loa. A nature trail of about two miles leads into the reserve, offering a look at Hawaiian natural history, including lava flows, varied forest types, and rare species. The park is about 13.4 acres in size.
The closest stops to Manuka State Wayside Park, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.
Walk a beach of black basalt sand on the Big Island's Kaʻū coast and watch green sea turtles resting on the shore.
Transit: reachable by public transit
21 mi awayMore like this
Walk the Royal Grounds and a centuries-old place of refuge guarded by carved wooden kiʻi on the Kona coast.
22 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing
Snorkel a protected marine bay and see the white monument marking where Captain Cook was killed in 1779 on the Kona coast.
26 mi awayMore like this
A self-guided historic coffee farm on the Big Island that shows how Kona's early 20th-century coffee families worked and lived.
27 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing
A 15-acre biocultural garden in South Kona showing native and Polynesian-introduced plants, plus an ancient Hawaiian agricultural site.
27 mi awayMore like this
A lava rock royal residence on Kailua Bay, built in 1838 and now run as a museum by the Daughters of Hawai'i.
38 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing