Napili Bay
20°59′44″N 156°40′01″W
Napili-Honokowai
- Golden
- Sand
- Sandy
- Water entry
- Moderate
- Swimming
- Beginner
- Surf
- Good
- Snorkelling
- Busy
- Crowd
Napili Bay is a half-mile crescent on Maui's north-west shore, between Kapalua and Kahana. The sand shelves gently into a sandy-bottomed bay sheltered enough to swim through the summer; winter swell puts a shorebreak on the sand and cuts visibility to a few metres.
Reef at both points holds green turtles year-round. Low-rise condominiums front almost the entire bay, so it fills from mid-morning, and there is no public car park — only roadside stalls at three rights-of-way.
Plan of the bay
Best months
April – October. Outside that window the same beach is a different place.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Food
Access and parking
Street parking. Three public rights-of-way reach the sand, off Napili Place, Hui Drive and Lower Honoapiilani Road. None has a car park; parking is a handful of roadside stalls at each, and they are gone by about eight in high season.
Lily Mae
Come before eight or don't come. By ten the sand between Hui Drive and the point is a solid line of umbrellas and the water is more sunscreen than water.
The turtles don't care about any of that. They're at the north end most mornings, close enough in that you don't need fins — just don't be the person who reaches out.
February is the month to aim for and the swell is the reason to watch it: a late system arriving overnight puts a shorebreak on the sand loud enough to hear from the lanai, and it can do that on two mornings out of thirty. Every other day of that month you can be in the water before breakfast.
Two months on the west side, and what the guidebooks get wrong about Napili
Nearby beaches in Maui
- Kapalua Bay
Golden · Calm · Busy