Mermaid Caves (Kalaniana’ole Beach Park) Oahu

Finding Oahu’s Mermaid Cave was a spontaneous adventure that I had stumbled upon while searching for something to do that was “off the beaten path.” I watched a young girls vlog talking about some of the activities she experienced while in Oahu, one of them being a day at  the mermaid cave, so I was intrigued and knew I had to see it for myself.  We had the address to the beach park where the cave is located BUT the actual destination was kinda secret, you had to find it for yourself. In this blog post I’ll explain how to find the cave, tips and advice to make the MOST out of your visit to the Mermaid Cave 🙂

Getting There

All the research I did online helped me find the address to the the beach that the cave is located at which is called Kalaniana’ole Beach Park, towards the Western side of the island. There is a big parking lot you can park at but being being as far to the left will cut down your walking time from car to cave. Once you’re parked you will start walking towards the ocean, there is a rocky area you will see that takes you towards the left side of the beach coast line, follow that but be SURE to be wearing shoes, the ground is made up of sharp rocks.

Chances are you will be accompanied by locals not so many tourists know about this place because it isn’t highly publicized. While wandering around the sharp rocky area you will find a hole that takes you down to the end of the cave. You have the option to go down there or scale down some rocks to the mouth of the cave, I personally suggest getting a lay of the land and seeing what the mouth of the cave is like- then decide if you want to jump in the water first or make your way into the cave.

Safety

Number one thing that should be on your mind the entire time you are at mermaid cave is your personal safety. Since it is a shallowish cave, depending on the tide, the cave could become engulfed in water and a very dangerous place to be when it fills up. I’m not a ocean expert-but going when the tide is low is KEY, when we went we got there about mid day, 2pm to be exact. Coming at this time was perfect because we were able to spend 2 hours there safely before the tide started to rise. Once you’re ready to swim in the cave keep in mind rocks are sharp and wearing water shoes isn’t the worst idea. The cave itself is pretty epic and ensures  that you will have a huge smile on your face when exploring inside.

Remember that hole I talked about that was at the end of the cave? Well there are 2 ways of getting to it, one is by swimming from the mouth of the cave all the way to the end and the second is by walking along the rocky ground above to the hole. If you’re shorter than 5’7 you will have trouble getting down from the top of the cave to the bottom, Scott is 6 feet tall so he didn’t have a problem getting down but I on the other hand, it took me awhile to jump down 3-4 feet safely. Entering into the cave by the far end of it you will jump down into a pile of tiny seashells that cover the sand. There is a nice area where you can lay like a mermaid with half your body submerged into the water, it really is a magical place to be.

Once you’ve had your fun, getting out from the hole can be hard if you have NO upper body strength like me! I could NOT get out of the cave from that hole and I got a little worried at one point because I felt like I was totally stuck. In order for me to get out safely I had to swim to the mouth of the cave while the tide was steadily coming in, I was very careful and made it out safe.

Our take away

Our experience at the cave was like nothing we have ever done before, cave exploring is way up there on must do’s while traveling now! We were lucky that the tide was perfect and we had a very safe and fun experience here, but we didn’t want to go just yet. Since we were already at the beach we decided to check out the beach park that is adjacent to the cave.

While walking along the sand, we were taken back by just how blue the water looked out in the distance, and since we needed some relaxing after our rock climbing we made our way to the sandy shore. We set up our area on the beach and had one of the best beach days while on the island, the water was calm, clear and just perfect. We HIGHLY recommend visiting the beach after your mermaid cave adventure, it was the perfect ending to a wondering day.

So our take away? Make sure you arrive at the best time possible to ensure a safe low tide, bring flip flops or water shoes for the rocky ground, scope the whole area before going into the cave, just incase you get stuck you know your options for getting out. Go see mermaid cave if you’re in Oahu you won’t regret it! Aloha!