Hiking Diamond Head Crater
View of Molokai, Lanai, and Maui from the Diamond Head Crater in Oahu
What you need to know to hike Diamond Head Crater
What: Paved trail with multiple sets of stairs, originally built by the military in 1908 as part of Oahu’s defense system, which leads to the summit of the crater rim along the Southwestern point. Diamond head is the remnant of an extinct volcano that erupted approximately 300,000 years ago, leaving behind the crater. Located along the Eastern border of Waikiki beach, it is an iconic image of Hawaii and you have likely seen a picture of it at some point. The summit offers amazing views of the Southern and Western coasts of Oahu, including Waikiki. We could even see the smaller islands of Molokai, Lanai, and the peaks of Maui in the distance from the top.
Where: Located along the eastern border of Waikiki within the city of Honolulu.
Distance: 1.8 miles
Difficulty: Intermediate. There is about 500 feet of elevation change in .9 miles, so it will get your heart pumping, but it is paved and has stairs, so there is no technical difficulty.
Pay out: 9/10
What we liked about Diamond Head Crater:
Short, relatively easy hike with high pay out and amazing views at the end.
Seeing the remnants of a massive volcanic eruption up close provided perspective on how massive these explosions can be.
Gus liked the military bunkers along the hike and it was interesting to learn about the military history of the crater (homeschool history and science for the day)
What we didn’t like about Diamond Head Crater:
This is a very popular attraction. Even though we went at a downtime, there were still tons of people along the hike and at the summit.
Most of the plants and birds within the crater are not native plants and were introduced by humans during the last century, so it feels more like a city park than the wilderness.
It is $10 to park and $5 per person to hike, meaning this hike cost us $35. It’s not bad, but hikes are usually free.
Tips for a great hike at Diamond Head Crater:
Everything I read said to get to the hike early to avoid the crowds. This might work if you get there at 6:00 AM when the gates open, but that wasn’t realistic for us.This should be enjoyable after all. According to Google, 8-12 are the busiest times and aiming early, for us, would have put us there at 8:00 and that would have been peak time. Instead, we decided to do the hike at 3:00 in the afternoon. This is a trick I learned from hiking in the Red River Gorge. Around 3:00 or 4:00 PM, most people are finishing their hikes and you can slip onto some popular trails and avoid the crowds at that time. I also love hiking around dusk, since it is my favorite time of the day and the lighting is often magical. The trick worked for us and there was no line to enter the park and plenty of parking spaces. If I had it to do over, I would try to go even later, and be the last car into the park at 4:00. You just have to make sure you are out by 6:00 when the gates close.
Try to go on a day with some cloud cover. The hike is totally exposed to the sun and I can imagine it could get really hot. I picked the only day of the week that was supposed to be cloudy and, as a result it was overcast, 73 and breezy, which was perfect.
Wear good walking shoes. Despite this being a tip provided by every single review of the trail that I read, we still saw people doing this in Michael Kors flip flops. Don’t do that. Given that the trail is paved, tennis shoes should be fine.
Update: Do to the popularity of the trail Hawaii is implementing a reservation system for out of state travelers.
See “To ease overcrowding, DLNR launches online reservation system for Diamond Head trail”
Here is the link to make your reservation, Hawaii.gov, which is required as of May 12 2022
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