Jason Momoa Shares His Favorite Beach in the World—and What He Wishes More Visitors Knew About Hawaii

While he loves living “all around the world,” there’s no place like Hawaii for Jason Momoa. “I love other places, and I would probably live in other places more, but this just feels like home,” he said.

“There’s certain foods, there’s the way the water feels for me, the way that the sand feels for me, the way the air smells, how my skin feels here—it’s just a deep connection,” Momoa told Travel + Leisure in an exclusive interview from Hawai‘i. “It’s where I’m from. It’s where I was born. It’s my culture. It’s a wonderful thing to come home. This is where I’m rooted.”

When he’s back on the islands, Momoa heads for family-loved spots like his favorite beach, Makaha on the west side of Oʻahu. “My family beach is Makaha. I love Waimea just because it’s like being a kid,” the actor said, noting how he would rock climb there and play on the shorebreak. Momoa said he also has “good memories” of being down at the beaches at Mokule’ia.

“Pretty much everything on the west side is home, but Makaha is probably my favorite beach in the world,” he revealed.

Despite his love for this O’ahu beach, the island of Kauai is admittedly where Momoa spends most of his time. “I love it there,” the Aquaman star shared. “The Garden Isle”—which Momoa described as “a great romantic place”—is also one of the actor’s recommendations for travelers new to Hawai‘i. Another must for first-time visitors? Eating traditional dishes like lau lau, kalua pig, and poi.

Picking an island base for a trip to Hawaii can be tricky with so many beautiful destinations in the state. For those who want to have fun and go into town, Momoa noted that Oʻahu “serves a lot of different purposes,” and he said, “I think Maui is a big favorite that people go to.”

If you’ve already seen those islands, Momoa suggested checking out Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi. He pointed out that every island has “its own spectacular style,” and if you go to one with an active volcano, that’s even more special, as it has “that umbilical cord” to the Earth.

“I just feel like any place that’s connected to the Earth and that’s constantly changing, it has a different feeling there,” he said. “The first time I stepped foot on Big Island, I was like, ‘Oh, there is a whole other energy going on here.’ It’s our youngest island, so I just feel like there’s a lot of mana (spiritual or supernatural power) there.” 

The actor’s passion project, Chief of War, is set in Hawai‘i. The nine-episode historical series, shot on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island, plus Aotearoa (the Māori name for New Zealand), stars Momoa as the Hawaiian warrior Ka’iana. The epic drama tells the story of the unification and colonization of the islands from an Indigenous perspective. 

Chief of War, which debuted on Aug. 1, is meant to get people to “start to see Hawai‘i in a different light,” co-creator Thomas Pa’a Sibbett told T+L. Sibbett admitted that they’re hoping “there’s an evolution in how tourism presents itself in the islands because there’s been a traditional way—and it was always set up this way—where Hawaiians are the host.”

“There’s a host culture where people come in and they’re catered to and taken care of, where really the evolution here can be more how do tourists come and be involved in what it is that we’re doing? How can they come and be active participants in the growth, whether it’s agriculturally based or culturally based?” Sibbett continued, “That’s really where the evolution of our conversations are going, and really what Hawaiians are wanting to be a part of. We want to make sure that the tourism industry can continue, but that it becomes a more collaborative process.”

In that vein, there are things Momoa wishes more people understood about Hawai‘i. He explained, “We are America, and there’s a lot of things that have happened to our culture. I think from an Indigenous point of view, a lot of things have happened, and we’re really trying to have that identity, bring back a lot of our arts and our culture.”

“I don’t think a lot of people know that we were a kingdom and that we were royalty and that we had electricity in our palace before the White House did, that we had our own currency,” the Mananalu founder added. “This is American history, and I think a lot of people don’t know that.”

Momoa, who co-created the Apple TV+ series and also served as an executive producer, remarked that all visitors to Hawai‘i “may not have a sense of what we are, what we came from,” but Chief of War is “going to show them what our culture is.” 

“It’s an exciting time, and I think it’s just going to bring more love and more aloha back here, and we’re going to get even greater stories,” Momoa said. “I think there’ll be a flood of Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) stories coming.”