Kauai’s Hanalei Bay Named Best Beach

Dr. Stephen Leatherman, who releases a Top 10 list of U.S. beaches annually, has chosen Hanalei Bay on the Hawaiian island of Kauai this year, the Associated Press reports.

Coincidentally, I was there just last week. If you click on the photo below, you can see some more of my pictures from the bay:

Hanalei Pier

The annual beach award is a little bit contrived. Previous winners are retired so that a new beach can be named each year. It’s all for a good cause — to raise awareness and support for beach conservation.

Hanalei Bay is an excellent choice, a beautiful two-mile stretch of sand with minimal development. My husband dislikes the concrete pier at one end of the beach, but I enjoy walking out on it.

I made a trip to Hanalei Bay one of my top priorities when I got to Kauai last week. When I arrived I found people swimming long-distance across the bay, fishing on the pier, surf paddling, sailing, doing tai-chi on the beach. Yet the bay is so big it never seems crowded.

I walked from one end of the bay to the other, stopped to do a yoga lesson with help from my iPod, swam and soaked in the placid, clear Pacific and swam across the gentle, refreshing Hanalei River. It was truly idyllic.