Punaluu Black Sand Beach Camping — Attraction in Hawaii

Like others have mentioned, a great place to VISIT but DON’T CAMP. We had a pretty terrible experience camping. The tent sites are super close to some picnic pavilions that are lit up into the evening, which attracts folks that are camping/living in the nearby woods. There is no gate or security so cars can come and go all night. A couple guys were walking around all night around the picnic area, one of them was cracking a serious whip (no joke, think Indiana Jones) rapid fire in spurts, which sounded like a small caliber gun going off. Not conducive for sleep, especially since they were between us and our rental car and the bathrooms. We were not comfortable asking them to quiet down during the night, but I talked to them the next day and they were nice. Seemed to be experiencing mental health or drug issues. Like others, we had additional nights reserved but got the heck out of there after the first night. From reading other reviews, similar experiences seem common, so I wouldn’t camp here. The state or county should really consider warning people about the situation or put a gate on the parking lot to reduce night time use. Despite this experience camping, this is an incredibly beautiful place that I fully recommend visiting for the day. We had a turtle sleeping on the beach about 100’...

TERRIBLE camping experience. You have to sleep between the restrooms and the recreation area, which is not much space and is packed with homeless people. They just squat here in the park with no permit. The park officials know about it and do NOTHING. We met someone who was servicing the park who told us to move the tent because "that area is where the homeless live"!!!

On top of this, the area is a natural habitat to a sizeable population of flying cockroaches and stray cats. The cats (or the homeless? Or both?) have fleas, which they bring to the restrooms. I had to kill one that jumped on me, after which I decided to never use the restrooms again.

The rating of this place on Google Maps is inflated because of the people rating the beach and turtles instead of the camp. Don't trust any review which doesn't mention camping!

Cannot stress this enough: AVOID...

This is a very special place, it has been for the last 20 years. We have been regularly camping there. Yes, there are some restless souls, but if you respect them they will too. There is a night guard that keeps an eye on the place and they do close the gate to the parking lot. I also appreciated that they turn all the lights off and you can see the amazing night sky.

Now, to the person that stole my solar light from my tent, you should know Karma will follow you. This was a special light that had been in the sacred lands of the Black Hills in SD, in the sacred lands of the Blackfeet in MT, and sacred lands of Yellowstone & Tetons National Park, to name a few. Really, for $10-20 that these lights cost, you took that from me? shame on you. The spirits are not happy, stealing is not OK in the outdoors, specially in a...