by law, public has right to access all beaches in Hawaii yet Beach at Mauna Kea Hotel in big island has nice place to go to enjoy but you cannot access to that place. it is blocked by the hotel with limited access, almost impossible for public to use. limited parking public parking space(6 slots last time I counted amongst dozens of other parking space reserved for the golfers reserved for the hotel guest only. Hotel security guard at the entrance always blocks the public from entering with excuse "parking lot is full". I wrote to the State of Hawaii(governor) with no response. All these big corporations with political ties are allowed to use this kind of illegal behavior and we, taxpayer are paying the price. Anyone who has a chance to visit big Island, try to go to Mauna Kea Hotel beach, I am almost sure you will have same response from this friendly hotel security guard. Hawaii should change the law to give privilege to those who can afford are only allowed to enjoy nice, quite beach on their own instead of forgery law as if all beach belong to the public.

I have been to Mauna Kea beach many many times and was only once told the parking lot was full. We told them we were going to have lunch at the hotel, which we did, and were given access. Yes, you need to go early, but it is certainly not impossible to go to the beach without staying at the hotel, and, while I agree that they need more public spaces than they have, there are definitely more than 6.

Your letter of complaint should be mailed here.

Ms. Laura H. Thielen
Chairperson
Board of Land & Natural Resources
P.O. Box 621
Honolulu, HI 96809

It would be better if your letter had a hawaiian return address.

According to this article by the LA Times, the number of parking spaces is 40.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr...gisland26?pg=2

We never had problems getting in if we went early(before 10). If we wanted to go in the afternoon, we walked from the beack park parking lot through the HP grounds to the Mauna Kea . However, I must say the public beach there is so nice I really dont see it a big issue that MKs beach is harder to get to.

When public access parking was N/A, we found as mentioned previously by <blue>kwil<black>, that parking priveleges became available by mentioning to the guard that we were dining at the beachside, Hau Tree restaurant.

How is this a T.R.

You shouldn't have to lie to get to the beach. Insist that you'll wait until a spot opens up. Also tell them you'll drop off the kids/wife first and then wait for a spot that way you can verify the parking situation.

not in waikiki, but definitely worth the one hour drive to kahuku from honolulu-romy's shrimp shack. i dream of eating there all the time. the 1lb steamed prawns is heavenly. the fried whole fish is also good (what's this fish called? is it moi?) and so is the garlic butter shrimp. follow with pineapple cheesecake for dessert at ted's bakery in sunset beach. best eaten with diet coke, imo. heavenly!!!

oooops, i meant to post the above on the WAIKIKI DINING thread. my apologies ... hope gumbo sees this post.