Ala Moana Beach Park

Protected by a shallow reef offshore, it is one of the most popular open ocean swimming sites in Hawai’i, with an estimated 4 million visitors annually.

However, there are sharp corals, so most people prefer the east end of the beach (the one that's closer to Diamond Head) where the ocean bottom is sandy and has no reef or rocks.

Big grassy areas, banyans and palm trees make the park a good place to picnic, barbecue, play various ball games or go running.

There are lifeguards, showers, restrooms, phones, tennis courts, picnic tables, food concessions and a music pavilion.

In the 1920s Ala Moana Beach Park was a wetland with bulrushes, kiawe trees, and coconut palms that the city used as a garbage dump.

The federal government then deeded the land back to the Territory of Hawaii and then the city of Honolulu in 1927, with the condition that the property be used wholly as a public park.

The park added a sport pavilion, lawn bowling green, Banyan court, and bridal path bridge.

The deep swimming area fronting the beach is a former boat channel that was dredged through the coral reef in the late 1920s to join Kewalo Basin with the Ala Wai Harbor.

In 1955, Hawaiian Dredging Company closed the west end of the channel with a landfill, now Kewalo Basin Park.

[22] The city of Honolulu has proposed an improvement plan for Ala Moana Beach Park and Magic Island.