21 Things You Need On Your Hawaii Packing List

Packing for Hawaii looks easy right up until you start. It’s a beach trip, so you throw in swimsuits and sandals and call it done, and then you get there and find out the sunscreen you brought isn’t legal, the shoreline is lava rock instead of sand, and the sunrise everyone told you to see happens at 10,000 feet in near freezing wind.

That’s the thing this Hawaii packing list is built around. You’re packing for two completely different places at once, a reef and a rainforest and a volcano summit, and the stuff that makes the difference is small and easy to forget. Here are the twenty one things worth the space, plus what to leave at home.

1. Reef Safe Sunscreen That’s Actually Legal There

Start here, because this one is the law and not a suggestion. Hawaii banned the sale of sunscreen containing oxybenzone and octinoxate back in 2021, so most of what sits on a mainland shelf can’t be sold in the islands at all.

Maui County goes further. Since late 2022 it’s mineral only there, and the rule covers using the stuff, not just selling it. Non nano zinc oxide or titanium dioxide are the two ingredients you want on the label.

Buy it before you fly. Sunscreen on the islands costs what you’d expect from a product that has to be shipped 2,500 miles, and the airport shops know exactly why you’re standing there.

2. A Rash Guard So You Reapply Less

Hawaii sits close enough to the equator that the sun does real damage fast, and you’re going to be in and out of the water all day, which is exactly when sunscreen stops working.

A long sleeve swim shirt solves it without you having to think. Put it on in the morning and your shoulders and back are handled for the day.

It earns its space a second time on the reef. Snorkelling over shallow coral means brushing against things, and a layer of fabric is the difference between a scrape and nothing at all.

3. Water Shoes For Lava Rock And Reef

The picture in your head is soft sand. A lot of the coastline is not that. These are volcanic islands and much of the shore is old lava, which is sharp in a way that beach sand never prepares you for.

Getting in and out of the water at a rocky entry is where people cut their feet, and it’s also where the waves shove you around while you’re trying to balance.

A cheap pair of water shoes with a real sole handles it. They double for waterfall hikes, which tend to end with you walking through a stream bed.

4. Your Own Snorkel Mask And Snorkel

Rental gear is priced per day and fitted by nobody. A mask that leaks turns a morning at a reef into an hour of standing in the shallows emptying it out.

Bringing your own means it fits your face and you can go whenever you feel like it, including the early window before the wind picks up and the water goes cloudy.

Worth knowing that Hanauma Bay on Oahu takes reservations and they go quickly, so if that’s on the plan, book it before you’re on the island wondering why you can’t get in.

5. A Light Rain Jacket You’ll Use More Than You Think

Every island has a wet side and a dry side, and the wet side is genuinely wet. Hilo on the Big Island gets somewhere around 130 inches of rain a year, which puts it among the rainiest cities in the country.

The rain itself is warm and usually brief, so this isn’t about staying dry so much as not being soaked through on a long drive or a lookout stop.

Something light that packs down to nothing is the right call. A heavy waterproof shell is overkill and you’ll leave it in the room.

6. A Warm Layer For The Summit Sunrise

This is the one that catches people out. Haleakala on Maui tops out at 10,023 feet, and the summit runs at least 20 degrees colder than the coast, with pre dawn temperatures that regularly sit around freezing.

People turn up in shorts and a beach towel because they packed for Hawaii, and then stand in the dark shaking for an hour. A fleece, long trousers and a hat are the actual requirement.

Sunrise there also needs a reservation, released 60 days ahead with a second batch two days out, so sort that early. Mauna Kea on the Big Island is higher still at nearly 13,800 feet and is colder again.

7. Trail Shoes That Handle Red Mud

The trails on the windward sides are red clay, and after rain they turn into something closer to a slide than a path. Grippy soles are not optional if you plan to walk anything.

There’s a second problem nobody warns you about. That red dirt stains, and it doesn’t come out. Whatever you wear on a Kauai trail is what those shoes will look like from then on.

So bring shoes you don’t love. Old trainers with decent tread beat brand new white ones every time.

8. A Dry Bag For Boat Days And Waterfalls

Anything you take on a snorkel boat, a kayak or a waterfall hike is going to get wet, and a plastic carrier bag is not a plan.

A roll top dry bag keeps a phone, a wallet and a dry shirt genuinely dry, and it clips to things so it isn’t sliding around the deck.

A small one is enough for a day out. You’re protecting a few items, not moving house.

9. A Waterproof Phone Pouch

Separate from the dry bag, because this is the one you actually wear. It hangs around your neck and goes in the water with you.

Most of them let the touchscreen work through the plastic, so you can take photos while you’re floating over a reef instead of leaving the phone in a bag on the sand.

Which is the other point. Leaving a phone unattended on a busy beach is how it stops being your phone.

10. Motion Sickness Bands Or Tablets

A lot of the best days out here happen on a boat. Molokini crater, the Na Pali coast, the whale watching trips, the sunset sails. The channels between the islands are open ocean and they get choppy.

The Road to Hana does the same thing on land. It’s around 600 curves and 50 odd bridges, and plenty of people who are fine in a car are not fine on that one.

Take something before you get on, not after you start feeling it. By then it’s too late to help much.

11. Binoculars For Whale Season

Humpbacks come to Hawaii from about December to April, with the peak somewhere in January through March. Thousands of them, in the shallow water between the islands.

The thing people don’t realise is how much of it you can see from land. Pull over at a lookout on Maui in February and you’ll spot spouts without trying.

A compact pair turns a distant splash into an actual whale. Skip this one entirely if you’re going in summer.

12. Bug Spray For The Rainy Side

There are no snakes and nothing much that bites hard, but there are mosquitoes, and they live exactly where you’ll want to walk. Wet forest, waterfall trails, anywhere with standing water.

Picaridin is the easy choice because it doesn’t wreck plastic or fabric the way strong deet can, which matters when you’re covered in gear.

The beach won’t need it. The rainforest walk that afternoon absolutely will.

13. A Quick Dry Towel The Hotel Won’t Miss

Plenty of hotels don’t want their room towels going to the beach, and some charge you when they don’t come back. Resort pool towels often can’t leave the property either.

A microfibre towel packs down to about the size of a paperback, dries in a couple of hours instead of staying damp for two days, and shakes sand off cleanly.

One each is enough. They’re small enough that it costs you nothing to bring them.

14. A Beach Bag That Lets The Sand Fall Through

A mesh tote is a small thing that fixes a daily annoyance. Sand goes straight through it instead of collecting in the bottom and coming home in your suitcase.

It also drains, so a wet swimsuit or a pair of water shoes doesn’t sit in a puddle for the rest of the day.

Look for one with a zip pocket. An open mesh bag is great until car keys are involved.

15. A Soft Cooler For Long Beach Days

Most of the good beaches have no shop, no cafe and sometimes no facilities at all. That’s part of why they’re good, and it means whatever you want, you carry in.

A collapsible soft cooler packs flat in a suitcase and then holds a day’s water, fruit and a plate lunch picked up on the way.

It pays for itself in one afternoon against resort prices, and it means you don’t have to leave a beach you like just because you’re thirsty.

16. A Wet Bag For Swimsuits That Never Dry

The humidity means things do not dry the way they do at home. A swimsuit hung over a balcony rail overnight is still damp in the morning, and two of them in a suitcase is a smell you’ll remember.

A zip up wet bag keeps the damp things away from everything else, and it goes in the wash when you get home.

This matters more if you’re island hopping, since you’ll be repacking wet gear every few days.

17. Aloe For The Burn You’ll Get Anyway

Even careful people burn here. It’s the reflection off the water, the wind that hides the heat, and the simple fact that you’re outside all day.

Buying aloe on the islands costs several times what it costs at home, and it’s the one purchase you’ll be making in a hurry and at whatever price is in front of you.

Keep it in the fridge once you’re there. It’s a completely different experience cold.

18. A Small First Aid Kit For Coral Cuts

Coral cuts are the specific reason this makes the list rather than a generic bit of advice. They’re shallow, they don’t look like much, and they get infected far more readily than a normal scrape because of what’s living in the water.

Clean one properly the same day and it’s nothing. Ignore it for a couple of days and it can turn into the thing that ends your snorkelling.

Antiseptic wipes, plasters that stick to wet skin, and something for reef scrapes on your hands and shins covers almost everything that actually happens.

19. Polarized Sunglasses You Can See The Reef Through

Polarised lenses cut the glare bouncing off the water, which means you can see into it. Turtles, reef, the shape of a break, all of it goes from a bright white sheet to something you can actually read.

That’s genuinely useful and not just a comfort thing, especially if you’re picking a spot to get in the water.

Bring a strap or a cheap pair. Sunglasses and boats have a well established relationship.

20. A Sun Hat That Stays On In The Wind

The trade winds blow almost constantly, which is lovely and is also why a wide brimmed hat with nothing holding it on will end up in the sea.

A chin cord looks slightly silly and solves the problem permanently. A cap with a decent brim works too if you’d rather.

Whatever you pick, make it packable. A stiff straw hat survives roughly one flight.

21. One Outfit That Works For A Nicer Dinner

Hawaii is casual almost everywhere, and you will be overdressed far more often than under. But there’s usually one evening that calls for slightly more than a swimsuit and a cover up.

A luau, a nicer restaurant, a sunset dinner somewhere with a view. An aloha shirt or a simple dress covers all of it.

One outfit is the whole requirement. Nobody here is dressing up, and packing as though they are is how suitcases get heavy.

What To Leave Off Your Hawaii Packing List

The other half of a good Hawaii packing list is the stuff that comes home unused every single time.

Leave the heavy hiking boots. Trails here are warm and often wet, and stiff boots are miserable in both. Leave the hair dryer, because the hotel has one, and leave the beach towels if your accommodation says it provides them.

Snorkel fins are the big one. They’re bulky, they eat half a case, and they’re the one piece of gear that’s genuinely cheap and easy to rent when you get there. A mask is personal, fins are not.

Skip the umbrella too, since the wind makes it useless, and skip most of the smart clothes. Jeans are the other classic mistake. They’re hot, they take days to dry, and there’s nowhere you need them.

A Few Things To Sort Out Before You Fly

A short list of things that are easy at home and hard once you’ve landed.

Book the reservations. Haleakala sunrise, Hanauma Bay on Oahu and Diamond Head all use timed entry systems, and they fill. Sunrise slots open 60 days ahead with a second release two days out.

Buy the sunscreen before you go, both because of the rules and because of the price. Check any you already own for oxybenzone and octinoxate and leave those bottles at home.

Download offline maps. Signal drops out on the Road to Hana, across Saddle Road on the Big Island and along big stretches of Kauai’s north shore. And if you’re island hopping, check the baggage rules on the inter island flights, which are their own separate charge on top of whatever you paid to get there.

Final Thoughts

Almost everything on this Hawaii packing list is small, cheap, and the sort of thing you only think about once you need it and don’t have it.

If you cut this down to five, make them the mineral sunscreen, the water shoes, your own mask, a warm layer for the summit and something to keep a phone dry. Those five map onto the five ways a Hawaii day most commonly goes wrong.

The rest is comfort, and comfort adds up over a week. Pack for the reef and the rainforest and the cold volcano, and the beach part takes care of itself.