Honolulu travel guide

Top 10 sights in Honolulu

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

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   1

   USS Missouri

   The last battleship the United States commissioned, completed in 1944, on whose forward deck Japan signed the surrender on 2 September 1945. She is moored at Ford Island facing the Arizona memorial, so the beginning and the end of the Pacific war are in one view.

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   2© Frank Schulenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Waikiki

   A beachfront district on the south shore of Honolulu, once a swamp of taro fields and a retreat of Hawaiian royalty, filled in from 1928. Its gentle surf break is where surfing was taught to visitors from the 1900s by Duke Kahanamoku and the beachboys.

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   3© Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America · CC BY-SA 2.0

   ʻIolani Palace

   The only royal palace on American soil, built for King Kalākaua in 1882 with electric light installed before the White House had it. Queen Liliʻuokalani was tried and imprisoned upstairs after the 1893 overthrow; the quilt she sewed in that room is displayed.

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   4© LFL16 · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Honolulu Museum of Art

   The largest art museum in Hawaii, founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke around thirty courtyards and galleries, with a very strong Asian collection — including the Japanese prints James Michener gave it. The Shangri La estate of Doris Duke is toured from here.

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   5

   USS Arizona Memorial

   A white memorial spanning the sunken hull of USS Arizona, marking the remains of 1,102 of the 1,177 men killed aboard her on 7 December 1941. Oil still seeps from the wreck; the boat trip is free but timed tickets are effectively required.

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   USS Bowfin

   A Balao-class submarine of 1942 that made nine war patrols and sank a Japanese transport carrying evacuated Okinawan schoolchildren, an incident her museum does not hide. She is moored beside the Pearl Harbor visitor centre and is walked through end to end.

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7. 

   7© User:Stan Shebs · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Bishop Museum

   The Hawaii state museum of natural and cultural history, founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop for his wife Bernice Pauahi, the last of the Kamehameha line, to hold her family heirlooms. It has the world's largest collection of Hawaiian and Polynesian material, plus a volcano gallery.

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   8© blahedo · CC BY-SA 2.5

   Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace

   The Catholic cathedral of Honolulu, dedicated in 1843 and among the oldest cathedrals in continuous use in the United States. Father Damien, who cared for the leprosy patients on Molokaʻi and was canonised in 2009, was ordained here.

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   9

   Honolulu Zoo

   A seventeen-hectare zoo in Kapiʻolani Park, and the only zoo in the United States founded on a monarch's land grant — King Kalākaua's. It holds over 1,230 animals, with a Hawaiian section for the nēnē goose and other endemic species.

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    10

    Aloha Tower

    A ten-storey clock tower of 1926 at the harbour, the tallest building in Hawaii for four decades and the first thing arriving passengers saw in the boat days. Its four clock faces each carry the word Aloha, and the observation level is free.

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Popular tickets & tours in Honolulu

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   1© Cleared as filed at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

   A national cemetery inside Punchbowl Crater, opened in 1949, holding over 53,000 graves — most of them Pacific war dead, including the war correspondent Ernie Pyle. The lookout at the rim takes in Honolulu and Waikīkī.

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   2

   Washington Place

   A Greek Revival house of 1847 in the Capitol district, where Queen Liliʻuokalani lived and was placed under arrest during the 1893 overthrow of the kingdom. It served as the governor's residence from 1922 to 2008 and is now a museum.

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   3© Hakilon · CC BY 3.0

   Lanikai Beach

   A beach at Kaʻōhao on the windward coast near Kailua, whose name means heavenly sea, facing the twin Mokulua islets offshore. Its sand is unusually fine and there is no parking, which is what keeps it quieter than Waikīkī.

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   4© Ash Carter · CC BY 2.0

   Pearl Harbor National Memorial

   A national memorial covering the Pearl Harbor sites — the Arizona memorial, the visitor centre and the associated waters — established as a distinct park unit in 2019. Entry is free but the boat to the memorial needs a timed reservation, released online in advance and in a small batch the day before.

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   5© Puneet Abbott · CC BY 2.0

   Byodo-in Temple

   A 1968 replica of the Phoenix Hall at Byōdō-in in Uji, built in the Valley of the Temples on Oʻahu for the centenary of Japanese immigration to Hawaii. A nine-metre Amida Buddha sits inside, with the Koʻolau cliffs directly behind.

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   6© Daderot. · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii

   The royal mausoleum in Nuʻuanu, called Mauna ʻAla, fragrant hills, holding the Kamehameha and Kalākaua dynasties. It is one of the few places in Hawaii where the Hawaiian flag flies alone without the American one beside it.

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   7© Hawkins Biggins · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Downtown Honolulu

   The historic and governmental core of Honolulu, holding the palace, the state capitol, the supreme court and the mission houses within a few blocks. It was the seat of a kingdom, a republic, a territory and a state in turn.

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   Chinatown

   One of the oldest Chinatowns in the United States, settled from the 1850s by workers who left the sugar plantations, and burned twice — in 1886 and in 1900, when a fire set deliberately against plague got out of control. Its markets, lei stands and galleries fill about fifteen blocks.

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   9© Don Ramey Logan · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Aliiolani Hale

   A building of 1874 designed as a palace but used from the start as the government offices and courts of the Hawaiian kingdom, and now the state supreme court. The overthrow of the monarchy was proclaimed from its steps in 1893; the gilded Kamehameha statue stands in front.

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    10© Mark Miller · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Kawaiahaʻo Church

    A Congregational church of 1842 built from 14,000 blocks of coral cut by hand from the reef, and the church of the Hawaiian monarchy — Kalākaua was crowned and Liliʻuokalani worshipped here. It is part of the Hawaiian Mission Houses National Historic Landmark, designated in 1962.

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