Anini Beach is located on the north shore of Kauai. Well known for its snorkeling and swimming, Anini Beach also offers camping on a permit basis and a minimal fee of $3 per camper and free for locals with Hawaii State ID’s. Permits can be obtained through the County of Kauai Website. We applied for our Anini Beach camping permits just a few weeks in advance. We printed out the Camping Request Form from the County of Kauai website and mailed with money order to the Parks Permit mailing address located on form. A few days later we received confirmation email with camping permit.
We camped at Anini Beach the first night we arrived to Kauai during our week long stay. We landed in Kauai on a Saturday afternoon. The drive from the Lihui airport to Anini Beach took about an hour; the beach was easy to find and we found parking right away. The beach has bathrooms with running water and also a couple covered gazebos with tables and electrical power.
The beach was pretty busy when we arrived but started clearing out later in the afternoon. We walked the beach when we first arrived saw a few empty camping spots so we decided to go snorkeling before setting up camp.
We found a camping spot close to the beach with a nice wind block and a picnic table. The camping is not assigned and spots are available on a first come, first serve basis. We had read on the county website that camping was allowed after the first two pavilions past the boat launch but since the camping area didn’t have any signage, we decided to stay fairly close to some other tents.
The winds really started picking up in the afternoon so we spent most the evening eating dinner in the tent and catching up on much needed sleep after driving through the night to catch our flights.
In the morning we woke up to calm winds, glass like ocean and a beautiful sun rise over an empty beach. After shooting some photos and watching the roosters and chickens running around, we walked to where we parked our car and got approached by a Parks Ranger. He asked us about our camping permits and camp spot and politely told us we weren’t technically in the designated camping area of the beach. The camping area started a few hundred feet up the beach.
Once the commotion settled down and we had camp packed up, we cooked breakfast on the beach then headed out to check out more Kauai.
Camping Post Comments