Kauai Coffee’s secret little beach

It’s amazing how large the Kauai Coffee estate is. I mean, I could tell you that they farm over 3,400 acres of ocean-front property on the southwest side of the island but that wouldn’t really mean anything to you, would it? Instead, you have to do what I did which is get in a SUV with Martin Amaro who works there and go for a drive in the fields. It will take you more than half an hour to go from the south end of the estate to the north and along the way you’ll see some of the most spectacular, undeveloped coastline in Hawaii.

We’d been pulling cherries from six-foot-high trees in various parts of the estate (the harvest won’t start for another couple of months) when Martin said he wanted to show me something special. We drove down a series of winding red dirt roads (there’s a lot of iron in the soil here) until we got to a bluff and Martin stopped the car.

I got out and walked over to the edge and there below me was the most beautiful bay you could imagine. The water was calm and lapped up on a deserted sandy beach protected by a ring of green trees. The amazing thing was there wasn’t a soul on the beach or in the water.

“That’s our secret beach,” Martin said.

Camp 1 Beach. Photo by David Lansing.

Because the beach is miles away from the highway and at the end of a dirt road on the Kauai Coffee estate, hardly anyone knows it’s here.

“Is it open to the public?” I asked him.

“Sure,” said Martin. “All beaches in Hawaii have to have public access. But why you going to come if you don’t know it’s here?”

So here’s the secret: In order to get to the beach you have to check-in at the Kauai Coffee visitors center and buy a $15 annual pass. That may seem kind of steep (although if you lived on Kauai and could use it whenever you wanted, it would be a bargain), but I’d certainly pay 15 bucks to have this gorgeous bay all to myself.

Later we took the rutted road down to the beach and got out. There are beautiful picnic spots in the grove of trees and some basic services—a picnic table or two, trash cans—for visitors. Martin says it’s such a gorgeous setting that he’d like the company to do more with it. “Maybe make it accessible for weddings and such,” he said.

I don’t know. Sitting on the sand with my feet in the water, tossing stones out over the glassy water, I kind of liked having the bay—which, by the way, is called Camp 1 Beach—all to myself.