Three Hawai‘i Beaches Featured on Expedia’s Extraordinary List

Three Hawaiʻi beaches have been featured on a list of the 28 most extraordinary beaches in the world by Expedia.

The list includes Hanauma Bay in East Honolulu on Oʻahu at number 14; followed by Hawaiʻi Island’s Kaunaʻoa “Mauna Kea” Beach in Waimea at number 15; and Papakōlea Beach in Kaʻū at number 16.

Expedia Viewfinder published the feature on July 10, 2018. It includes 28 unique and beautiful beaches across the world. Criteria for the list included responses from Expedia’s traveler survey and named beaches because of their quirky features, breathtakingly divine vistas, and memorable characteristics.

The report selected the “crescent-shaped coastline and turquoise water” of Hanauma Bay for it’s beauty created by the collapse of a volcanic crater thousands of years ago.

It highlighted Kaunaʻoa “Mauna Kea” Beach for the wildlife offshore, including manta rays and coral reefs. And Papakōlea was selected for its “grass-like” sand that “gets it color from olivine crystals that washed ashore from the eroding cinder cone off the coast.”

The list was topped by Alaska’s Black Sand Beach at Prince William Sound.