Did you ever dream of being a mermaid as a child? If Aquamarine was your favorite movie, the Mermaid Caves will be your favorite destination on Oahu. It’s a natural cavernous wonder located on the West Side. Depending on the tide, this elusive spot is an area that you can swim at and take pictures in. It’s a little difficult to find at first, but once you do, it’s one of the best spots to visit.
How to Find the Mermaid Caves
While the Mermaid Caves are generally explored by more adventurous tourists and locals, you won’t find a bunch of people spreading the location around. As the Mermaid Caves are located in a neighborhood on the West Side, I won’t provide an exact location or directions out of respect for locations. That said, know that the directions provided on Google Maps when you search “Mermaid Caves” are fairly accurate. You can park in the neighborhood or at the beach park nearby at your own risk. Like almost everywhere else on Oahu, I wouldn’t leave valuables in the car, and I would avoid parking in anyone’s front yard. Always be respectful to the locals. If you’re visiting (or even if you live on the island), you are a guest. You should act as such and leave everywhere you go better than you found it.
If you have trouble finding the Mermaid Caves, keep an eye out for any other tourists or people exploring the rocks by the ocean. Most people in this area are looking for the same thing. I found this to be a useful way to narrow in on where you’re supposed to be searching. To get to the Mermaid Cave tunnels, you’ll be traversing jagged lava terrain to reach the ethereal sea cave.
It’s generally recommended that you go at low tide so that you don’t have issues getting into the tunnels, and it’s easy to climb back out. I read some advice stating that you could swim/snorkel into the tunnels; however, based on what I saw, I do not personally recommend this. While it may look like you can swim in, the waves are likely to shove you toward the sharp edges of the cliff. Even as a strong swimmer, you’re at risk of injuring yourself.
How to Get into the Mermaid Caves
Once we arrived at the Mermaid Caves, we found a medium-sized hole that others had already climbed down into. And I’ll be honest, while we could initially hear people down there, it didn’t really look big or safe enough to enter. I was nervous initially, and then I saw that there was a step stool that someone had brought and left down below. My boyfriend, Dan, took one for the team and lowered himself into the hole first. He then helped me drop down into the Mermaid Caves.
Although the sea cave wasn’t large, it was immediately evident why it was called a “Mermaid Cave.” It seemed as though it would be exactly the spot that mermaids would come to hang out after they were done at sea. Any songs they would sing would fill the cavernous room, and the light entering the space was beautiful. Take a look at the pictures…didn’t we look radiant?
Most everyone in the caves was worried about one thing — exiting. I had multiple people approach me and ask if I had brought the step stool with me. They were desperate to know because they didn’t want to be left down in the caves without it. Would it have been possible to climb out without it? Yes, probably. But it would’ve been much harder.
For safety reasons, I would head to the caves with a few other people that can help you climb down in and out. Plus, it never hurts to have a photographer.
Check out other items on my Hawaii bucket list along with the Mermaid Caves!
