Downtown Honolulu Self Guided Walking Audio Tour

Kamehameha certainly lived up to this dramatic start. His contemporaries described him as an intimidating warrior who “moved in an aura of violence.” During the 1700s, numerous chiefs battled for control of the Hawaiian Islands.

NOTE: The tour is over 1.6 miles long, with more than 23 audio stories, and takes about 1-2 hours to complete.

Buy once, use for one year! Ideal for extended visits and return trips over the next 12 months.

That’s Kawaiaha’o Church. At one time, this was the national church of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

This museum showcases items from Hawaii’s missionary period.

Originally, Kamehameha V built Ali’iolani Hale as a palace for Hawaiian monarchs. But King Kalakaua decided to convert it to government offices.

King Kalakaua returned from his world tour at the end of 1881. Hawaiians decorated the whole city and strung a grand “Welcome Home” banner across Honolulu Harbor. But as Hawaiians celebrated the return of Kalakaua, others plotted his downfall…

Remember the Reform Party? This was the mostly American political party that slowly took control of Hawaiian politics after the 1875 Reciprocity Treaty.

This statue honors a more recent figure in Hawaiian history, Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink.

Patsy Takemoto was a third-generation Japanese-American who grew up in Hawaii.

When you look at Sky Gate, what do you see? Just a collection of bendy black tubes? Maybe a simple spider web? A three-legged animal? Noguchi himself described Sky Gate as “an evocation to the skies of Hawaii.”

Prior to the construction of the Capitol Building, Hawaiians used the ‘Iolani Palace as their seat of government. You’ll see the palace soon.

This memorial honors the men and women who died in the December 7th, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor—“a date which will live in infamy” in the words of President Franklin Roosevelt.

See that two-story mansion on our right, set back from the road? That’s Washington Place, the one-time home of Queen Liliʻuokalani!

We’re standing before the Iolani Barracks. Before Dole and the Annexation Club completed their coup against Queen Liliʻuokalani, the Barracks housed the Queen’s Royal Guard.

Before us stands Iolani Palace, dating back to 1879. This is the only royal palace in the United States!

As the 1900s wore on, Liliʻuokalani gradually retreated from public life. She took up full-time residence in her home at Washington Place, where Native Hawaiians visited her constantly. To them, she never stopped being their Queen. And in turn, Liliʻuokalani never stopped loving her people. In her memoir, she wrote:

“It is for them that I would give the last drop of my blood; it is for them that I would spend, nay, am spending, everything belonging to me.”