Honolulu: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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Hawaii was an independent kingdom, recognised by Britain, France and the United States, with its own constitution, its own flag and embassies abroad. On the seventeenth of January 1893 a group of American and European businessmen, backed by US marines landed from a ship in the harbour, deposed Queen Liliuokalani. The United States formally apologised for it a hundred years later, in 1993. This walk is six blocks and it is the whole story. Two hours.

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A short history of Honolulu

The Polynesians who reached the Hawaiian Islands by canoe called this bay "Honolulu", the sheltered bay. In the early 19th century Kamehameha I united the islands, and merchant ships and whalers began to anchor here. In 1845 Kamehameha III moved the kingdom's capital here, and in 1882 ʻIolani Palace was opened, the only royal palace on what is now United States soil. In 1893 Queen Liliʻuokalani was overthrown by American businessmen, and in 1898 the islands were annexed by the United States. On 7 December 1941 the Japanese bombed nearby Pearl Harbor, and in 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state, with Honolulu as its capital.

The ten best sights in Honolulu

1
Iolani Palace
The only royal palace on American soil. It had electric light and telephones before the White House did, and Queen Liliuokalani was imprisoned in an upstairs room here after the monarchy was overthrown in 1893.
2
Kawaiahao Church
Built from 1836 out of fourteen thousand coral slabs cut by hand from the reef, each weighing about half a tonne. Hawaiian royalty were crowned and buried here.
3
Aliiolani Hale
Built as a palace and used as a courthouse instead. The overthrow of the kingdom was proclaimed from its steps in 1893, and the Kamehameha statue stands in front of it.
4
Kamehameha Statue
The first casting of this statue sank off the Falklands in 1880 and a second was made. The first was later recovered and both exist, which is why there are two.
5
Hawaii State Capitol
Designed as the islands themselves: the chambers are volcanic cones, the columns are palms, the pool around it is the ocean, and the roof is open to the sky.
6
Washington Place
The house where Queen Liliuokalani lived for most of her life, including the years after the overthrow. She wrote Aloha Oe and died here in 1917.
7
Mission Houses
Three buildings from the 1820s, including a frame house shipped around Cape Horn in pieces. The printing press here produced the first written Hawaiian.
8
Honolulu Hale
The city hall of 1929, built in Spanish mission style with an open courtyard, and anyone can walk into it.
9
Honolulu Museum of Art
Thirty thousand works around six open courtyards, with the largest collection of Asian and Pacific art in the state. Free on the first Wednesday.
10
Shangri La
Doris Duke's house of Islamic art on the cliff past Diamond Head, built from 1937 and filled with work she bought over sixty years. Entry by booked tour only.

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What is an audio walk?

Tours in Honolulu →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Honolulu:

Free walking tours in Honolulu

The Kingdom

Iolani Palace · The only royal palace on American soil. King Kalakaua built it in 1882 with electric light and telephones installed before the White House had either. After the overthrow Queen Liliuokalani was tried for treason in her own throne room and held for eight months in an upstairs bedroom.
Aliiolani Hale · Built as a palace and used as a courthouse instead because the kingdom needed one more. The overthrow was proclaimed from its steps on the seventeenth of January 1893, and the state supreme court still sits in it.
Kamehameha Statue · Kamehameha unified the islands by force between 1795 and 1810. The first casting of this statue sank near the Falkland Islands in 1880 and a replacement was made; the original was later salvaged and sold back, which is why two exist.
Kawaiahao Church · Built between 1836 and 1842 from about fourteen thousand coral slabs, each around half a tonne, cut from the reef by divers with hand tools. Kings were crowned here and the graveyard holds members of two royal families.
Washington Place · Liliuokalani's own house, where she lived before and after the overthrow and where she died in 1917. She wrote Aloha Oe, and she refused to the end to accept that the kingdom had legally ceased to exist.
Hawaii State Capitol · Opened in 1969 and designed as a model of the islands: the two chambers are volcanic cones, the columns are palm trees, the reflecting pool is the Pacific, and the central court is open to the sky because the islands have no roof.

Waikiki and the Crater

Waikiki was a wetland of fishponds and taro fields that fed Honolulu, and the Ala Wai canal was cut in the 1920s to drain it for hotels. Almost all of the sand on the famous beach has been brought in since. This route is the beach, the park a king gave the public, and the crater above it, which the US Army fortified in 1908. Three hours and one climb.

Waikiki Beach · The natural sand supply was cut off when seawalls and hotels were built, so the beach has been artificially replenished since the 1920s — much of the sand has come from elsewhere on Oahu and once from California. It is a maintained beach, not a natural one.
Duke Kahanamoku Statue · Duke won Olympic gold in 1912 and 1920, and took surfing to Australia and California on tours. In 1925 he pulled eight men alive out of a capsized boat off Newport Beach using his surfboard, and police forces copied the method.
Moana Surfrider · The first hotel in Waikiki, opened in 1901 when there was almost nothing else here. The banyan in its courtyard was planted that year and a weekly radio show was broadcast live from under it to the mainland from 1935.
Kapiolani Park · King Kalakaua gave this land to the public in 1877 and named it for his wife. It is the oldest public park in Hawaii, and it was a horse racing track before it was a park.
Waikiki Aquarium · Opened in 1904 and the second oldest public aquarium in the United States. It was the first place anywhere to breed the chambered nautilus, an animal whose shell design has not changed in five hundred million years.
Diamond Head · Leahi in Hawaiian, from the shape of a tuna's dorsal fin. British sailors named it Diamond Head in the 1820s after mistaking calcite crystals for diamonds. The army cut the trail, the tunnel and the spiral stair in 1908 for a fire control station, and the crater has never fired a shot.

What Happened Here

Two events sit on this island that the rest of the world knows by name. The first is the attack on Pearl Harbor on the seventh of December 1941, which killed two thousand four hundred and three people in under two hours and brought the United States into the war. The second is less known: the internment that followed, and the Hawaiian regiment that fought in Europe while its families were held behind wire. A full day, and the memorial is a cemetery, not a monument.

Pearl Harbor Visitor Center · Free, and it begins with the Hawaiian name of the harbour: Puuloa, and later Wai Momi, the water of pearl, for the oysters that once grew here and were gone by 1930.
USS Arizona Memorial · The ship was hit at eight-oh-six in the morning and sank in nine minutes with one thousand one hundred and seventy-seven men aboard. More than nine hundred are still inside. Oil still rises from the wreck at a few drops a day, eighty years on.
Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum · On Ford Island, in hangars whose windows still carry bullet holes from the strafing. The control tower that broadcast the warning that this was not a drill has been restored.
Punchbowl · A crater the Hawaiians called Puowaina — the hill of sacrifice — where those who broke kapu were executed. It now holds more than fifty thousand graves, including Ernie Pyle and many of the dead from Pearl Harbor who could not be identified.
Bishop Museum · Founded in 1889 by Charles Bishop to hold the heirlooms of his wife, the last direct descendant of Kamehameha. It is now the largest collection of Hawaiian and Polynesian material anywhere, including feather cloaks that took hundreds of thousands of birds.
Nuuanu Pali · In 1795 Kamehameha's army drove the defenders of Oahu up this valley and over the cliff. Hundreds went over the edge, and when the road was cut in 1898 about eight hundred skulls were found at the base of it.

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Getting to Honolulu and getting around

Daniel K. Inouye Airport · Six kilometres west of downtown, and the rail line from it opened in stages from 2023 — the first public rail in Hawaii, and it took fifteen years.
Aloha Tower · Built in 1926 and the tallest building in Hawaii for four decades. Passenger ships docked beneath it and the whole city came down to meet them on Boat Day.

Cheap eats in Honolulu

Eight counters where Honolulu eats standing. The food here is the plantation: sugar and pineapple companies brought workers from Japan, China, the Philippines, Portugal, Korea and Puerto Rico, and the plate lunch — two scoops of rice, macaroni salad and a meat — came out of the lunch tins those workers traded from. Nothing on this list is a resort restaurant.

KCC Farmers Market · Saturday 7:30 to 11 · cash helps
Leonard's Bakery · Open from six · expect a queue
Chinatown · Mornings only · closed by two
Honolulu Fish Auction · From 1am · visitors may watch
Ward Village market · Saturday morning
Kalihi · Lunch · cash in most places
Haleiwa · Afternoons · forty minutes out
Kakaako · Evenings · busiest at the weekend

Museums in Honolulu

Bishop Museum · Ticketed · allow three hours
Iolani Palace · Book ahead · shoe covers required
Honolulu Museum of Art · Closed Monday and Tuesday
Shangri La · Booked tours only · from the museum
Mission Houses · Closed Sunday and Monday
Queen Emma Summer Palace · Open daily · small ticket
Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum · On Ford Island · shuttle from the centre

Parks and gardens in Honolulu

Kapiolani Park · Free · always open
Ala Moana Beach Park · Free · lifeguards all day
Foster Botanical Garden · Small ticket · open daily
Lyon Arboretum · Booked entry · closed Sunday
Puu Ualakaa · Free · gates close at sunset
Manoa Falls · Small parking fee · take shoes you can ruin
Magic Island · Free · the best sunset in town

Things to do in Honolulu with kids

Waikiki Aquarium · Open daily · an hour is enough
Honolulu Zoo · Open daily · mornings are cooler
Hanauma Bay · Book online · closed Monday and Tuesday
Kailua Beach · Free · parking fills by nine
Dole Plantation · Open daily · forty minutes out
Polynesian Cultural Center · A full day · closed Sunday
Kualoa · Book the tour ahead

Nature and day trips near Honolulu

Hanauma Bay · Booked entry · closed Monday and Tuesday
Makapuu Point · Free · no shade at all
Waimea Bay · Summer for swimming · winter to watch
Banzai Pipeline · Winter · do not swim
Waimea Valley · Ticketed · the money stays in the valley
Kaena Point · Two hours each way · no water
Koko Crater · Free · go at dawn

Live music in Honolulu

Kuhio Beach hula · Free · check the evenings
Royal Hawaiian Hotel · From sunset · expensive and worth once
Kakaako · Monthly · check the date
Chinatown · Thursday to Saturday
Honolulu Museum of Art · Some Fridays · check the programme
Ala Moana Center · Most days at one · free
Kapiolani Park · Sunday afternoons · free

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Frequently asked questions about Honolulu

What is there to see in Honolulu?

The top sights in Honolulu are Iolani Palace, Kawaiahao Church and Aliiolani Hale. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Honolulu?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Honolulu without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Honolulu?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Honolulu, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The Kingdom.

How do you get to Honolulu and get around?

The main ways are Daniel K. Inouye Airport and Aloha Tower. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Honolulu, and for how much?

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