Activities | Food & Wine

Shipwreck Beach

Keomuku Rd.

Kaiolohia Bay, Lanai , HI , United States

Why Go: You never know what you’ll find at Shipwreck Beach, on the island of Lanai. The same brisk trade winds and strong currents that make the waters dangerous for swimming also churn up flotsam and jetsam—and intrepid beachcombers. Accessible only on foot or by four-wheel-drive vehicles, the eight-mile-long beach—with views of Molokai across the channel—is littered with treasure, both natural and man-made.

What You’ll Find: Coral, violet snails, leopard cones, imperial cones, sea slug shells, textile cones (whose cross-hatched pattern of browns is clearly echoed in Polynesian fabric designs), and even on rare occasions, blown-glass floats from Japanese fishing nets.