Start from 18 curated places around Lanai, HI, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Blue Ginger Cafe
The soul of Lanai City dining, a no-frills plantation-era cafe that has been feeding locals since 1991 from a screen-door shack on the town square. Breakfast brings the Lanai omelet stuffed with Portuguese sausage and the buttery ensaymada rolls that locals buy by the bag; lunch pivots to saimin noodles and burgers on house-made buns. The walls are covered in local paintings and the service is entirely unhurried — the pace of old Hawaii is alive here.
Pele's Other Garden Deli
A small, colorful deli on Houston Street that transforms into a lively bistro come evening, with a back-room bar where visiting musicians regularly drop in for impromptu sets. The menu leans heavily vegetarian with daily soups, overstuffed sandwiches, and what locals call the best pizza on the island — baked thin and loaded with fresh toppings. The owner is a fixture at the door and her warmth makes the whole place feel like a house party.
Trails & outdoors
Koloiki Ridge Trail
Lanai's most rewarding hike begins in the cool Cook pine forests of the Koele highlands and climbs a ridge that opens onto one of the island's most expansive panoramas — Molokai, Maui, and the deep green folds of Maunalei Valley all laid out below. The 4.3-mile out-and-back moves through rainy forest, red-dirt lava fields, and remnants of old cattle trails before arriving at the ridge overlook. Rated 4.8 stars on AllTrails from 500+ reviews, it earns every one.
Shipwreck Beach Coastal Walk (Kaiolohia)
An 8-mile stretch of wild, windswept north-shore coastline where a rusting WWII-era Liberty Ship sits grounded offshore and petroglyphs mark the land just above the waterline. The walk along the rocky shore requires scrambling over lava shelves and is more exploration than manicured trail — which is exactly the point. Views of Maui and Molokai fill the horizon and the sense of being on a truly remote Hawaiian shoreline is intact from start to finish.
Things to do
Lanai Adventure Park
Lanai's only adventure park sits alongside the Four Seasons Lanai and offers zipline runs across Kaiholena Gulch, e-mountain bike tours to Keahiakawelo, aerial ropes courses, and guided UTV rides through the island's backcountry. The guides are consistently singled out in reviews for being knowledgeable about the island's history and ecology, turning a zipline into a de facto nature lecture. For a small island, the range of activities is genuinely impressive.
Expedition Lanai Ferry (from Maui)
The 75-minute ferry crossing from Lahaina to Manele Bay Harbor is itself part of the Lanai experience — humpback whales appear in the channel from December through April, and the approach to the island's sea cliffs from the water gives a perspective no plane arrival can match. The Expeditions catamaran runs multiple crossings daily and is the most affordable way to reach the island for a day trip.
Landmarks & sights
Hulopoe Bay Beach
One of Hawaii's finest beaches, this crescent of golden sand sits inside a protected marine preserve where spinner dolphins patrol the bay and sea turtles graze the reef. The left side of the bay offers shallow snorkeling over coral gardens teeming with parrotfish and moorish idols, while the right side connects to dramatic sea cliffs and tide pools. No crowds, no jet skis — just the kind of quiet that makes you forget the mainland exists.
Keahiakawelo (Garden of the Gods)
A haunting moonscape of wind-sculpted boulders and rust-red earth on Lanai's remote northwest tip, sacred in Hawaiian tradition and unlike anything else in the state. According to lore, the landscape was stripped bare by a kahuna who burned every plant to keep a ritual fire alive longer than his rival on Molokai. The colors shift dramatically — pale ochre at midday, deep crimson and violet at sunset — and on clear days you can see across the channel to both Molokai and Oahu.