The beach cottage at Elizabeth & Lee's home is a special find. It's in the back of their lot behind the main house, so the beach is not really visible from the cottage, but the beach is 50 steps away and easily the best beach on the entire island. The cottage itself is wabi-sabi chic: perfect in an imperfect way. If you're looking for deluxe accommodations, this is not the place, but if you want a real escape from the crowds - no tourists, no hotels, and the cleanest, most swimmable beach on the island - this is an amazing find. We stayed here for a week with our two kids (ages 6 & 9) and it was perfect for us. The snorkeling just off the beach is incredible, the water is usually calm, the "turtle pond" (really an ancient fish pond) provided a lovely protected place for our kids to swim. A sea turtle even visited the pond on our last day there so we got a chance to swim with it! The birds next door squaked at odd hours of the night, and the cottage backs up to a main road that gets some occasional noisy traffic, but with kids who are heavy sleepers and we adults taking advantage of the earplugs provided, we all slept well. The bed is a queen bed - wish it was a king but the mattress was good and the linens were comfortable. The pull-out sofa works fine for elementary age kids and younger. Indoor shower is modest on space but pressure was good and had plenty of hot water. There's also an outdoor shower with heated water, the kids loved using that and it was perfect for after the beach. The fully screened front porch lets in a bit of rain occasionally but is relaxing and gets a lovely ocean breeze. Little geckos on the wall - we saw 2-3 a day, our kids were entranced! Tons of books and board games in the cottage to use. There's a TV but we didn't turn it on and the kids never even asked to watch anything, which says a lot about the magic of this place. Waimanalo is a locals-only spot, but just 15 minutes from Kailua (Whole Foods & Target, lots of restaurants) in one direction and Hawaii Kai (Costco & more restaurants) in the other direction. Honolulu is just 30 min away - we popped in there a few times to do touristy things. North Shore is more of a day trip - 60-90 min away - we did that once to hike & swim Waimea Falls but decided the North Shore beaches couldn't hold a candle to "home" (which we were already calling the cottage after a few days). Can't wait to get back to this slice of paradise!