26 Sights in Honolulu, United States (with Map and Images)
Legend
Welcome to your journey through the most beautiful sights in Honolulu, United States! Whether you want to discover the city's historical treasures or experience its modern highlights, you'll find everything your heart desires here. Be inspired by our selection and plan your unforgettable adventure in Honolulu. Dive into the diversity of this fascinating city and discover everything it has to offer.
Sightseeing Tours in Honolulu1. Iolani Palace
The ʻIolani Palace was the royal residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi beginning with Kamehameha III under the Kamehameha Dynasty (1845) and ending with Queen Liliʻuokalani (1893) under the Kalākaua Dynasty, founded by her brother, King David Kalākaua. It is located in the capitol district of downtown Honolulu in the U.S. state of Hawaiʻi. It is now a National Historic Landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After the monarchy was overthrown in 1893, the building was used as the capitol building for the Provisional Government, Republic, Territory, and State of Hawaiʻi until 1969. The palace was restored and opened to the public as a museum in 1978. ʻIolani Palace is the only royal palace on US soil.
2. Falls of Clyde
Falls of Clyde is the last surviving iron-hulled, four-masted full-rigged ship, and the only remaining sail-driven oil tanker. Designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1989, she is now a museum ship in Honolulu, but her condition has deteriorated. She is currently not open to the public. In September 2008, ownership was transferred to a new nonprofit organization, the Friends of Falls of Clyde. Efforts to raise $1.5 million to get the ship into drydock did not succeed. In November 2021 HDOT accepted a bid from Save Falls of Clyde – International (FOCI) to transport the ship to Scotland for restoration.
3. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated the Hawaiʻi State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. Founded in 1889, it is the largest museum in Hawaiʻi and has the world's largest collection of Polynesian cultural artifacts and natural history specimens. Besides the comprehensive exhibits of Hawaiian cultural material, the museum's total holding of natural history specimens exceeds 24 million, of which the entomological collection alone represents more than 13.5 million specimens. The Index Herbariorum code assigned to Herbarium Pacificum of this museum is BISH and this abbreviation is used when citing housed herbarium specimens.
4. Kawaiaha'o Church
Kawaiahaʻo Church is a historic Congregational church located in Downtown Honolulu on the Hawaiian Island of Oʻahu. The church, along with the Mission Houses, comprise the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site, which was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1962. In 1966 it and all other NHLs were included in the first issuance of the National Register of Historic Places.
5. Aloha Tower
The Aloha Tower is a retired lighthouse that is considered one of the landmarks of the state of Hawaii in the United States. Opened on September 11, 1926, at a then astronomical cost of $160,000, the Aloha Tower is located at Pier 9 of Honolulu Harbor. It has been, and continues to be, a guiding beacon welcoming vessels to the City and County of Honolulu. Just as the Statue of Liberty greeted hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year to New York City, the Aloha Tower greeted hundreds of thousands of immigrants to Honolulu. At 10 stories and 184 feet (56 m) of height topped with 40 feet (12 m) of flag mast, for four decades the Aloha Tower was the tallest structure in Hawaii. It was built in the Hawaiian Gothic architectural style.
6. Washington Place
Washington Place is a Greek Revival palace in the Hawaii Capital Historic District in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was where Queen Liliʻuokalani was arrested during the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Later it became the official residence of the governor of Hawaii. In 2007, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark. The current governor's residence was built in 2008 behind the historic residence, and is located on the same grounds as Washington Place.
7. Honolulu Zoo
The Honolulu Zoo is a 42-acre (17 ha) zoo in Queen Kapiʻolani Park in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. It is the only zoo in the United States to be established by grants made by a sovereign monarch and is built on part of the 300-acre (121 ha) royal Queen Kapiʻolani Park. The Honolulu Zoo features over 1,230 animals in specially designed habitats.
8. Waikīkī Aquarium
The Waikīkī Aquarium is an aquarium in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It was founded in 1904 and has been an institution of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa since 1919. The aquarium is the second-oldest still-operating public aquarium in the United States, after the New York Aquarium.
9. St Andrew's Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew, also commonly known as St. Andrew's Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church in the United States located in the State of Hawaii. Originally the seat of the Anglican Church of Hawaii, it is now the home of the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii. It is affiliated with St. Andrew's Schools, which consists of the main girls' K-12 school, the coeducational Queen Emma Preschool and a boys' preparatory school (elementary).
10. Ali'iolani Hale
Aliʻiōlani Hale is a building located in downtown Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, currently used as the home of the Hawaiʻi State Supreme Court. It is the former seat of government of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the Republic of Hawaiʻi.
11. Co-Cathedral of Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus
The Co-Cathedral of Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus is a co-cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church and its Diocese of Honolulu. Located in the outskirts of downtown Honolulu, Hawaii. The principal cathedral of the diocese remains the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace. It was named in honor of the Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus.
Wikipedia: Co-Cathedral of Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus (Honolulu, Hawaii) (EN), Website
12. Waikiki Natatorium (World War I Memorial)
The Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial is a war memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, built in the form of an ocean water public swimming pool. The Natatorium was built as a living memorial dedicated to "the men and women who served during the great war".
13. Father Damien Statue
The Father Damien Statue, also called the Saint Damien of Molokaʻi Statue, is the centerpiece of the entrance to the Hawaiʻi State Capitol and the Hawaiʻi State Legislature in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. A second bronze cast is displayed in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol, along with the Kamehameha Statue. The landmark memorializes the famous Hawaiʻi Catholic Church priest from Belgium who sacrificed his life for the lepers of the island of Molokaʻi. Father Damien is considered one of the preeminent heroes of Hawaiʻi, and was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2009. Cast in bronze, the statue depicts Father Damien in his later years after being diagnosed with the disease of those he attended. Much attention was given to the recreation of the disfiguring scars on the priest's face and his arm hanging from a sling.
14. Thomas Square
Thomas Square is a park in Honolulu, Hawaii, named for Admiral Richard Darton Thomas. The Privy Council voted to increase its boundaries on March 8, 1850, making Thomas Square Hawaii's oldest city park. It is one of four sites in Hawaii where the Hawaiian flag is allowed to fly alone without the United States flag.
15. Ala Moana Beach Park
Ala Moana Beach Park is a free public park on the island of Oahu, U.S. state of Hawaii, located between Waikiki and downtown Honolulu. This 100-acre (0.40 km2) park has a wide gold-sand beach that is over a half-mile long.
16. Hawaii Mission Houses Museum
The Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives in Honolulu, Hawaii, was established in 1920 by the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society, a private, non-profit organization and genealogical society, on the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Christian missionaries in Hawaiʻi. In 1962, the Mission Houses, together with Kawaiahaʻo Church, both built by those early missionaries, were designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark (NHL) under the combined name Kawaiahao Church and Mission Houses. In 1966 all the NHLs were included in the National Register of Historic Places.
Wikipedia: Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives (EN), Website
17. The Liljestrand House
The Liljestrand House at 3300 Tantalus Drive in Honolulu, Hawaii, was designed by Vladimir Ossipoff for Betty and Howard Liljestrand, a doctor and nurse who had bought the hillside site overlooking downtown Oahu in 1948. Completed in 1952, the house "was perhaps Ossipoff's most intricate as well as his most widely publicized domestic commission." After it was featured in House Beautiful magazine as a Pace Setter House in 1958, it attracted hundreds of visitors in organized weekly tours. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
18. Saint Augustine Catholic Church
Saint Augustine by the Sea Catholic Church is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church of Hawaiʻi in the United States. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Honolulu and its bishop; it is staffed by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Located at 130 Ohua Avenue, adjacent to Kalākaua Avenue in Waikiki, Saint Augustine by the Sea ministers primarily to visitors, as Waikiki contains the highest number of domestic and international visitors in the State of Hawai‘i.
Wikipedia: Saint Augustine by the Sea Catholic Church (EN), Website
19. Moanalua Gardens
Moanalua Gardens is a 24-acre (97,000 m2) privately owned public park in Honolulu, Hawaii. The park is the site of the Kamehameha V Cottage which used to be the home of Prince Lot Kapuāiwa, who would later become King Kamehameha V. It is also the site of the annual Prince Lot Hula Festival, and the home of a large monkeypod tree that is known in Japan as the Hitachi tree.
20. Lili'uokalani Botanical Garden
The Liliʻuokalani Botanical Garden is a city park and young botanical garden located on North Kuakini Street, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. It is one of the Honolulu Botanical Gardens, and open daily without charge.
21. United States Army Museum of Hawaii
The U.S. Army Museum of Hawaiʻi (HAMS) is housed inside Battery Randolph, a former coastal artillery battery, located at Fort DeRussy Military Reservation. The battery was transformed into a museum in 1976. The museum's collection contains some World War II armor pieces, an AH-1 Cobra helicopter, and small arms indoors, as well as the battery itself. The battery's main guns were scrapped prior to the inception of the museum.
Wikipedia: U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii (EN), Heritage Website
22. Saints Peter and Paul Church
Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic church in Honolulu, Hawaii. The church belongs to the East Honolulu vicariate of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, and serves the Ala Moana, Ala Wai, Kapiolani, Kewalo, and McCully districts of the city.
Wikipedia: Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church (Honolulu) (EN), Website
23. Manoa Valley Inn
The John Guild House, now known as Manoa Valley Inn, at 2001 Vancouver Drive in Honolulu, Hawaii, was purchased in 1919 by John Guild, a Honolulu businessman. It had been built four years earlier by Iowa lumber dealer Milton Moore and has been refurbished and restored several times over its lifespan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
24. Alfred Hocking House
The Alfred Hocking House at 1302 Nehoa Street in Honolulu, Hawaii was built in 1903 for Alfred Hocking, founder of the Honolulu Brewing and Malting Company. It was designed in Queen Anne style architecture by E.A.P. Newcomb, a nationally known architect newly arrived in Hawaiʻi, in partnership with the much younger but well-connected local architect C.W. Dickey. It was listed on the Hawaiʻi and National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
25. Dillingham Transportation Building
The Dillingham Transportation Building was built in 1929 for Walter F. Dillingham of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, who founded the Hawaiian Dredging Company and ran the Oahu Railway and Land Company founded by his father, Benjamin Franklin Dillingham. The building was designed in an Italian Renaissance Revival by architect Lincoln Rogers of Los Angeles, who also designed the Hawaii State Art Museum (1928). It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and restored by Architects Hawaiʻi Ltd. in 1980.
26. Hawaii State Art Museum
The Capitol Modern Museum, formerly named the Hawaii State Art Museum, is a small art gallery located on the second floor of the No. 1 Capitol District Building in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. Long known as HiSAM, the museum is operated by the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.
Wikipedia: Hawaii State Art Museum (EN), Website, Opening Hours
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Disclaimer Please be aware of your surroundings and do not enter private property. We are not liable for any damages that occur during the tours.