11 real sites worth the drive — the state capitol, battlefields, monuments, and founding-era landmarks — each with why it actually matters, not just a pin on a map.
Pearl Harbor National Memorial
Honolulu, HI
The USS Arizona still rests in the harbor where she was sunk on December 7, 1941.
Get Directions →USS Missouri Memorial
Honolulu, HI
The battleship where Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945.
Get Directions →Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum
Honolulu, HI
A museum in World War II hangars on Ford Island, whose windows still show bullet damage from December 7, 1941.
Get Directions →USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park
Honolulu, HI
A World War II submarine launched one year after the Pearl Harbor attack and nicknamed the "Pearl Harbor Avenger."
Get Directions →Hawaii State Capitol
Honolulu, HI
An open-air Honolulu capitol designed to evoke the islands: cone-shaped chambers for volcanoes, columns for palm trees, a reflecting pool for the ocean.
Get Directions →ʻIolani Palace
Honolulu, HI
The palace of Hawaii's last monarchs, completed in 1882 and the only royal palace in the United States.
Get Directions →Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park
Hōnaunau, HI
A place of refuge where Hawaiians who broke sacred law could be absolved, with a restored temple and carved images.
Get Directions →Kalaupapa National Historical Park
Kalaupapa, HI
The isolated peninsula where people with Hansen's disease were exiled from 1866, served by Saint Damien and Saint Marianne Cope.
Get Directions →Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site
Kawaihae, HI
A great stone temple built by Kamehameha I in 1790–91 on the path to uniting the Hawaiian Islands.
Get Directions →National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
Honolulu, HI
The "Punchbowl," a national cemetery in an extinct volcanic crater, with memorials to the missing of World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
Get Directions →King Kamehameha Statue
Honolulu, HI
A gilded bronze of Kamehameha I, who united the islands, facing ʻIolani Palace and draped in flower lei every June 11.
Get Directions →Hawaii has 11 sites on our list: Pearl Harbor National Memorial, Hawaii State Capitol, USS Missouri Memorial, ʻIolani Palace, Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, Kalaupapa National Historical Park, and more — spanning military/veteran sites, state capitols, historic sites, national cemeteries.
Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Honolulu. The day that brought America into WWII. Oil still rises from the wreck. Pay your respects.
Yes — An open-air Honolulu capitol designed to evoke the islands: cone-shaped chambers for volcanoes, columns for palm trees, a reflecting pool for the ocean. A government building built to look like the place it governs, not a copy of Washington.
ʻIolani Palace, Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, Kalaupapa National Historical Park — hands-on history that works for a family day trip.
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