A recent article from insider.com caught our attention. It was showing Hawaii beaches as strewn with litter. The post was entitled “Disappointing photos show what vacationing in Hawaii is really like.” Considering the source, we didn’t take this all that seriously. Nonetheless, we wanted to set the record straight, since we are here, and well, they are not.
The article seems to confuse islands. It states: “Hana Highway in Hawaii is one of the most scenic drives in America…. You’ll see waterfalls, rainforests, and dramatic cliff sides. But you won’t be the only one.” It goes on, “In 2015, Honolulu’s traffic was ranked second-worst in the entire US.”
What do Honolulu and Hana have in common?
It’s hard to imagine they share much, other than they are both in Hawaii and both start with an H. Hana is located on one the most rural and remote parts of Maui whereas Honolulu, is the only major city in Hawaii and is located on Oahu, home to 80% of the state’s population. Maybe putting the two together was just in error, who knows.
Is Hawaii littered with trash everywhere?
In our humble opinion, it is not. That isn’t to say we haven’t seen Hawaii beaches on all the islands with overflowing trashcans and otherwise littered. But that is most definitely the exception, not the rule. Hawaii does in fact suffer from too much tourism for its limited and aging infrastructure. No doubt about that, and the fact that the burden of 10 million annual visitors isn’t easy.
For the most part, we do not find extensive trash on Hawaii’s beaches. Strangely, the article’s photos are captioned as stock photos from ” Shutterstock and Getty Images.” So we don’t know where they were even taken.
What about Waikiki Beach?
The article depicts Waikiki as overcrowded, saying “but popular beaches like Waikiki Beach are anything but relaxing.” Well, that can certainly be the case. In fact, that seems to be and has always been one of the iconic aspects of Waikiki Beach. If that isn’t to your liking, you can easily carve out generous space for yourself at either end of the Waikiki strip. So it is all about what you are looking for. Remember that Oahu is known as “The Gathering Place,” and Waikiki perhaps best exemplifies just that.
Are the views in Hawaii incredible, or as the articles say, not necessarily so?
They use a photo of the Ala Moana shopping center parking lot taken from the Ala Moana Beach Hotel as an example of bad views in Hawaii. Well sorry folks, the views throughout Hawaii, once again, are overall, simply incredible, and something even those of us who live here never tire of.
The Beat of Hawaii lead photo above was taken at Ala Moana Beach Park facing towards Waikiki in mid-afternoon.
Okay Hawaii fans. Please chime in! Mahalo.
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Hawaii’s problems have many roots.
Over tourism: too many hotels, too many tourists for the infrastructure. They need to stop building new ones till the roads get widen, new ones built. But it’s all about money.
Roads/traffic
Road to Hana traffic is bad. So is the Main roads in Honolulu. Locals take 60-90 minutes to travel back and forth to work and home. I take the bus on Ohau. Forget the rental. Maui traffic is bad too and now Kaua’i is terrible!! Spent 4 weeks their this winter, traffic fron Kappa to Lihue 45 minutes and it’s just a few miles. Trying to get to the west sise on a Friday night, took us 2 hours and didn’t go back again.
Homeless
Yes you can find the problem on all the islands, you just have to look around. Local government I feel does its best but if people don’t want or can’ t work what do we do? Living under a tarp in feyis better than in a box in any northern mainland state.
Local costs
Generally every thing seems to cost so much more in Hawaii. I’ttold it’ An island, you have to ship everything in. Sorry still doesn’t explain it. So much goods come from the Far East, Hawaii is half the distance to California so the freight should be less. Even if it went to California first then reshipped to Hawaii the cost had to be cheaper then going by trucks loading and unloading especially to the east coast. I can find many things for the same or even less than in my home town, but alm the rest is just crazy. Costo’s large pizza is the same price here like in Hawaii.
Well I’ve gotten off subject, sorry.
Hawaii is great, but it has the same issues we gave on the mainland.
Thousands of people go every day expect issues, be realistic and plan. Now with lower airfares expect more.
Sorry the trashing I saw on the West side of Oahu was not tourists…… it is people who live there and are supposedly caring about the land…
Spent 10 days in Maui a month ago. Kihei and Wailea had clean beaches, just beautiful. Baby Beach in Lahaina was sadly overrun with garbage and recycling (no larger resorts here). I think there may have been a homeless community there. I told a family member that lives in Maui about it and they were going to report it to Island Care Group. We were shocked how many storefronts and buildings stood empty, too.
Pretty much what I saw… the Lahaina side had trashed spots… not by tourists…
Six of us just came back from a 17 day trip on the big island clean beaches and lava fields (lol) and on Oahu we saw more homeless living on secluded beaches in Waianae and Waimanalo but where on the mainland are there not homeless people we have plenty in Massachusetts. I have family still and I myself lived In Makakilo on Oahu. Yes livable land is scarce on the island and some peoples yards are not kept up but my Aunty says they actually ticket homeowners for that. If you look in your own State and neighborhood Hawaii will still be the tropical paradise it is famous for
“Hawaii does in fact suffer from too much tourism” but the trash I see on Kauai is from locals – abandoned cars, fishing equipment, and tents and garbage in homeless encampments. Overall though, the beaches are clean.
Mahalo for this article. I also saw the insider post and didn’t believe it. I lived on the Big Island for 18 years until 2016 and have spent time on all other major islands and I have never seen trash like that on the beaches. The other pictures are also misleading. I’m sure you could find an unattractive view from some hotel room in Honolulu but that is the exception, not the rule. I’ve traveled all over the world and although Hawai’i is not perfect, it is as close to paradise that I have found and I return at least twice a year.
Hi Melanie.
Thank you.
Aloha.
Every beach we have been on in Kauai are super clean….on the Big Island, only saw a lot of trash at South Point….but this is due to currents going around that end of the island. Not far from there at the Green Sands beach, the beach was very clean.
1 was surprised to see smoking on the beach a couple of yrs ago but now I see police ticketing people. I also go to the beach from 8 to 11 am.sometimes stay till noon. Get plenty of sun and very quiet. Yes,there are homeless but they are everywhere. It’s just a fact of life. Thks
I wouldn’t worry about the article. It seems the author specializes in click-bait:
https://www.insider.com/author/gabbi-shaw
Unfortunately a lot of the trash on the beaches is being washed up from the ocean. Groups and individuals are constantly picking up what comes ashore.
Yes it is trashed. This spring Spent 5 days on Oahu. Stayed near Makaha. That beach was the cleanest and best. Place stayed in was nice. However, getting there is different. Going from HNL up that coast …. A lot of beaches have piles of trash and permanent tenters…. The piles are not overnite piles either…. the worst were the beaches that were not city, county. They were at least attempting to keep them presentable. And along most highways there was quite a bit of litter… more than I remember from previous trips. Disappointing to say the least. Our other 5 days was on Maui….. very limited amount of trash…. mostly near the airport.. Sad the way things are going everywhere…
I think the bulk trash pick up days can leave some visitors believing that Oahu is a trashy place 🙁 All the visitors see are piles of old TVs, mattresses, broken chairs, etc., and think that is how we live on a day to day basis – not realizing it will be gone the following day after pick up.
No, saw the city/county picking up…. beaches out of town or not a park were not picked up…homeless camps with piles….. I know the difference. Not washed up from ocean either.
The beaches are kept very clean for the most part. Especially where there are condos.
However, outside of Honolulu the rivers/creeks were absolutely awful..homeless were living and dumbing trash in the river. It was so sad! There also was a few beaches on the North shore where there was tons of dumping of trash although there was public trash cans! I cant say it’s any worst than anywhere else, especially considering the popular.
As far as Waikiki, its not my idea of Hawaii and yes very crowded…some might not mind, but it it’s not the Hawaii I seek….yet Oahu also has some of my favorite towns and beaches!
We’ve visited Maui several times and Oahu and Kauai once. We can definitely confirm that there isn’t trash on the beaches. Hawaii has so much to see and do and breath taking views at every turn. The article must have been written by someone who has never been there and didn’t want others to go either. We are looking forward to visiting the Big Island this winter for our 15th anniversary. Mahalo.
Thanks Anna and Jim.
Aloha.
Wow, where was I? Back in November I visited family and we visited a number of beaches and never saw trash. Granted, Honolulu does have traffic issues, but trash was never an issue. If you are considering visiting, go. The island views are jaw dropping.