Diamond Head Crater – Stunning view over Honolulu (USA)

Today we wanted to hike along the Diamond Head Crater Trail, which is located in the middle of diamond head crater. From the summit you have a super beautiful view of Waikiki. We were already on our world tour on the crater in 2015 and we liked the view so much that we really wanted to do the hike again 🙂

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Diamond Head Crater in Hawaii

Diamond Head (Hawaiian: Lo’ahi) is a 232-metre-high tufa crater and one of Oahu’s most famous landmarks. The silhouette of the crater is already visible from afar.

In In the 19th century, British sailors visited the crater and confused the calcite crystals in the rocks on the slope of the crater with diamonds. Thus, the term ‘Diamond Head’ became the common name for the crater. In the early In the 20th century, the crater rim was used as a strategic military lookout point and was registered as a national natural monument in 1958. Today, Diamond Head is a well-known and popular hiking destination with beautiful views of Waikiki, Honolulu and the south coast of Oahu.

Admission & Parking at Diamond Head

From Waikiki, it’s just a short drive by car or local bus to Diamond Head Crater. The entrance is located at the intersection of Diamond Head Road / 18th Avenue. After driving a little further through the Diamond Head Tunnel, you come to the cash register of the State Monument. If you are very lucky, you get one of the few parking spaces here for 5 US dollars per day ( GoogleMaps). Even though we were very early and it wasn’t even 9 o’clock, there was already a lot going on here and the chance to get a parking space went to 0. There was still a small queue on the side, but the lady in the cashier’s house said that we had to go out again. Even the queue was too long. Stupid. So we had no choice but to drive out through the tunnel again. At the end of the tunnel there is a small parking lot on the right side (at the Kahala Lookout), but even that was already full. So we went down diamond head road again and then sat down in a small parking lot next to the Leahi Millennium Peace Garden. From here we went on foot back to the entrance and the cash register in 15 minutes. Meanwhile, the car queue at the entrance was twice as long and we were glad that we had even found a parking space. As a pedestrian, you pay 1 US Dollar entrance fee to Diamond Head State Monument Park. The park is open every day from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The last start for the hike is 4.30 p.m., because at 6 p.m. all visitors must be outside.

Car snake at the small parking lot

The entrance to Diamond Head

The cash register

Diamond Head State Monument

The hike to the observation deck

The hiking trail to the crater summit was built as early as 1908, because somehow the military had to come up to the military ice directions. The beginning of the trail is adjacent to the parking lot inside the Diamond Head State Monument. There is also a souvenir shop, toilet rooms, drinks vending machines and drinking water dispensers. One should not forget to replenish one’s beverage supplies, because in bright sunshine the hike can already be strenuous due to the ascent – even if the path with a simple length of 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometers) is not so insanely long. The path goes up in a serpentine manner and at the end the ascent continues over steep stairs, through an illuminated tunnel, over a spiral staircase and through military bunkers. It took us about 45 minutes to get there.

Diamond Head Summit Trail

The hiking trail to the crater rim

Diamond Head Crater Hike

The way to Diamond Head

The stairs to the crater rim

The stairs to the lookout point

The view into the crater

Just before the vantage point

The view from Diamond Head via Honolulu & Waikiki

At the top is a viewing platformthat offers views over Waikiki and Honolulu. It can take a while to get a place right in front of the railing, because up here it is insanely full. The tourists flock here in droves and on the day we were here, the park had reopened for the first time after a week of renovations, so there was pure chaos here. But that didn’t bother us any further, because at some point we had secured our place at the front and were able to enjoy the view.

The view of the city, the ocean and the mountains in the background is truly breathtaking. We’ve seen a lot of cities from vantage points, but Diamond Head really offers us the most beautiful view of a city. We were back and forth and could have been up here forever. That was the effort definitely worth it.

Diamond Head Crater, View, Honolulu, Hike, Honolulu, Oahu, National Park, Hawaii, USA, Photo Spot, TravelReport

The view from Diamond Head

The pretty full observation deck

View of the Waikiki district

View of the Diamond Head Lighthouse

The view from Diamond Head to Honolulu

Unsere Reiseberichte von Hawaii

Die Inseln von Hawaii hatten wir ja schon während unserer Weltreise auf dem Sprung von Nordamerika nach Australien besucht. Hier waren wir auf O’ahu, Kaua’i, Maui und Big Island. Da wir so begeistert von den unterschiedlichen Inseln und der abwechlungsreichen Natur waren, konnten wir so all das nachholen, was wir das letzte Mal nicht geschafft hatten oder was zum Teil auch gar nicht möglich war. So konnte man 2015 z.B. keine fließende Lava auf Big Island sehen, da diese nicht wie sonst Richtung Meer geflossen ist, sondern in Richtung eines bewohntes Dorfes. Und dies wurde zur Sicherheit aller für den Zugang gesperrt. Seit 2016 fließt die Lava des Kilauea aber wieder Richtung Ozean und so konnten wir auch endlich einer unserer größten Wünsche verwirklichen: Mal ganz nah an fließender Lava zu stehen. Zudem wollten wir auf O’ahu in der Hanauma Bay schnorcheln, den Koko Head Krater besteigen, eine Hula-Show sehen, das Feuerwerk des Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort bestaunen, den Sonnenaufgang auf dem 3.055 Meter hohen Haleakala genießen und die Schildkröten am Strand entlang der Road to Hana beobachten. So viele Sachen, von denen wir letztes Mal gar nicht wussten oder diese nicht geschafft hatten.