Lydgate Beach Park

We hit this amazing playground everyday — our two year old went bonkers for it. Great baby pools for families. Clean beach park. Good vibes always. Our favorite, preferred spot while vacationing on Kauai.

This place is really cool, especially if you have kids. They have a mega playground that you won’t find anywhere else in Hawaii. They have a cool enclosed area where it’s safe to swim and snorkel. And then there are nice areas to go fishing. The only problem is that it can get really windy here sometimes.
Tips:
–bring a snorkel
–watch out for the wind!
–let the kids go nuts at the playground
–don’t let the kids go swimming outside the enclosed area!

Small beach but there’s a breakwater which is great because you can swim without worry that waves will pummel you. It’s a perfect beach to bring your kids.
If you snorkel, you’ll see fish here. We saw a bunch by the rocks. Someone claimed they saw a tuna. Ha ha. Another person claimed they saw a puffer fish. I dunno about that one. But, hey, you get to see some fish for sure. Water clarity isn’t GREAT but it’s not too bad. We were there on a relatively overcast day too.
Driftwood galore. I got kinda creeped out by it because it looked so scary without a mask on.
Very easy parking. Clean bathrooms. Shower to rinse. Chickens and roosters.

We had a great time at this beach! We snorkeled and saw awesome fish! A ton of birds and really had a great day.

Beautiful Kauai beach with kids area and closed off snorkeling area. Has lots of parking and a playground as well. How could anyone not like this place?

This is a fantastic stop for kids. Sometimes on vacation you need to go back to the basics and do things like eat regular toast for breakfast and visit a playground. This is one of the coolest playgrounds I’ve seen with lots of nooks and crannies and challenging structures. Even tweens would like this one.
There are also picnic grounds, clean bathrooms, and a beautiful beach.

Great simple beach area with a large outcrop of rocks that protects kids and families from the harsh waves.

Lydgate is a pretty awesome place to go. They have plenty great facilities, showers to wash the sand off and a great place to swim in protected waters. The breakwater is an excellent way to make sure you don’t get pummeled by the waves. Don’t get me wrong, you still feel the ebb and flow of the waves, there just isn’t a lot of power behind them where you are swimming. And for the little ones, there is even another section inside another breakwater which makes for a very safe kiddie pool. It’s really a great place to spend some nice beach time.
Will I be back? I really hope to!

Horrible for Snorkeling /​Great for younger children
Yesterday, our last day on Kauai, we decided to stop by Lydgate Beach Park for some snorkeling (based, in part, on another Unilocal review). Well, as of July 29, 2015, Lydgate is a very poor snorkeling option. My daughter and I tried both the small and large protected pools, and we could not see further that a couple of feet in front of our face. The water was extremely cloudy and murky. We did see a surgeonfish that swam a couple of feet below us, but that was it!
I guess it may be better at other times (maybe early in the day? — we went in the early afternoon), but it was not a good snorkeling trip for us.
If, however, you are looking for a beach park protected from the ocean’s power and do not care about snorkeling /​water clarity, then this could be a good option. I did notice that there were quite a few families there enjoying the beach.

This was my favorite beach in Kauai. I love that it felt safe and blocked off from the current and big waves of the ocean. Nice and sandy, huge gras area, tons of shaded picnic tables, clean bathrooms. It was perfect for my family. I also appreciated that there is a small wading area for babies and little children and a much larger, separate area for big kids and adults.

Very nice family beach. Water was s little murky due to strong current. Lots of fish in the bigger pond area. Not that many people so parking was really easy

I have mixed feelings about this beach. It is so perfect for kids ideally. A nice closed off cove made safe from sharks and huge waves to swim BUT the water is so so dirty. Partly due to tree debris but worse, there was so much trash and plastic in the water. It was heartbreaking to see such a nice place treated that way with litter. I did not feel comfortable swimming long. Also the snorkeling was awful. It was cloudy– hard to see what little fish there was to see. A great place to sunbathe if you have kids though– and nice that there is a playground and lots of picnic benches which make me give this a 3 instead of a 2 rating.

EXCELLENT beach for small children/​families!!! There are two separate lagoons. One for babies/​toddlers and one for older kids and snorkeling. There are picnic tables, showers, bathrooms, a playground, plenty of shade and parking!!! My 2 yo got to swim with the fishies! It was a great day. :)

Snorkeled here for about 15 minutes, theres hardly any fish or coral. The deepest spot is around 7ft. Could be good for kids though

Easily my favorite beach in the world!
The water so blue, a lifeguard on watch, and not crazy crowded.
There was a separate area for kiddies to enjoy the water and see fish, yet it was close enough to a more secluded area. There are plenty of picnic tables that do not require walking across acres of land to reach.
In comparison to Brennecke’s, we favored Lydgate as it was less rocky and crowded. Bear in mind, however, that we did not snorkel at either beach. Our activities included wading in the kiddie section and jumping with a few waves on the adult side.

Clean, blue waters. Great for children and beginner swimmers! The park has a small section squared off by rocks that allows for peaceful snorkeling or wading.
Relatively clean bathrooms. SUPER convenient parking. Lots of pesky birds and chickens though that will come for you –_​_​_​–

If you want some privacy and are looking just to put your feet in and spend more time sunning, go to the camping area to the right of the popular beachy area. This is much less noisy, not kiddos and lots of lovely wave sounds here… ahhhhhh

I get that there are a bunch of chickens and roosters on the island, but it’s especially noticeable at this beach. They’re like the seagulls and squirrels of the island.
The swimming area has a surrounding rock barrier so you know you won’t encounter a shark. There’s a shallow section for kids and a bigger and deeper section for snorkeling. This used to be my favorite beach to swim and play at when I was 4 years old. It’s not anymore. So you can say this beach is kid friendly fersure.
Idk if your phone is dying, but mine was dying 80% of the time on this island. If your phone is prone to dying, no worries. Find the huge shelter with picnic tables and a stage. You’ll find an electric outlet to charge your phone on the stage if no one is using the stage of course.
There are plenty of grassy areas and picnic tables around but this beach does get crowded.

This beach is definitely meant for families with kids. Lots of picnic tables with newly renovated restrooms & showers, you could easily set up camp here & hang out all day. There’s a man made lagoon of sorts that creates a pool of calm water as the waves are stopped by a rock wall so it’s a nice place for kids to swim & snorkel. Keep in mind there are no fish in the lagoon at all, or at least none that I saw today, so don’t come here expecting a good snorkel. The one thing I really didn’t like here though was all the small pieces of trash & plastic in the sand, it was everywhere & seemed to be incorporated into the sand, so tragic.
My favorite part of the beach is actually outside of this protected swimming area, the part where the ocean is at its best — roaring waves that seem to go on for miles. These waves were perfect for a few hours of body surfing & wading around. They can get pretty big & rough, but that’s part of the fun! Though I do not recommend it if you are not a good swimmer or don’t like being pushed around by water. These are the kind of waves that can pull your suit off (sorry for all the people I may have flashed or mooned by accident!). But because the water may scare people off, you pretty much have this part of the beach all to yourself!

I didn’t swim at this park, but for exercise and land-​based activities, Lydgate Park is great. There is ample parking for cars and bikes, bathrooms (the nice ones were being redone, but that just means they will be nicer), a playground for kids, and plenty of paths for running and biking. I used this park as a base for a run up the coast along the path. If you are looking for a great place to start, this is definitely one of them. Just run back out of the parking lot and turn right. The path will be on the side of the road closest to the water.
Overall, this park was great. It had the facilities needed in a good park, as well as scenic appeal. Even though I didn’t go swimming here, I would still recommend this park to anyone looking for a great outdoor day at a beautiful park.