HONOLULU · HAWAII
Big surf, deep history, the whole of Oahu.
Pearl Harbor and the Waikiki catamarans, the North Shore surf and the Diamond Head climb, the luau and the long road around the island. Every tour on Oahu, in one place.
Only here
Three things that are Oahu and nowhere else.
Snorkel trips and sunset cruises you can book in any beach town. The sunken Arizona, the birthplace of surfing and the imu-roasted luau belong to this island alone.
December 7, 1941
Pearl Harbor
You stand on a white memorial straddling the sunken hull of the USS Arizona, where 1,177 sailors and Marines are still entombed in the ship below. Drops of oil still rise from the wreck after eighty years, the black tears of the Arizona. Nowhere else puts you this close to the morning that pulled America into the war.
- 1 Salute to Pearl Harbor Including USS Arizona
- 2 Oahu: Pearl Harbor USS Arizona Memorial
- 3 Pearl Harbor Remembered Tour
Where surfing began
Surfing at Waikiki
Waikiki is the cradle of modern surfing. Duke Kahanamoku carried the Hawaiian sport to the world from these gentle rolling breaks, and the beachboys still push first-timers onto their first wave on the same long, forgiving swells. An outrigger canoe ride catches them the old way, six paddlers and a steersman calling the set.
- 1 Open Group Surfing Lesson in Waikiki, Hawaii
- 2 Oahu: Beginner-Friendly Waikiki Beach Surfing Lesson
- 3 Surfing Lessons On Waikiki Beach
A Hawaiian feast
The Luau
A whole pig roasts all day in the imu, a pit oven dug into the earth and lined with hot stones and ti leaves. Out comes kalua pork, poi and haupia, then the torches light and the hula and the Samoan fire-knife dancers take the stage. It is the oldest party in the islands, and still the best way to end a day.
See all 15 →Start here
The one tour everyone books first.
More Oahu trips are built around this than anything else on the island.
The classics
Oahu's Most Popular Tours
Pearl Harbor, the Circle Island loop, the turtle snorkel sails and the Diamond Head climb. The days most travellers come to Oahu for.
Where to begin
The days an Oahu trip is built around.
Pearl Harbor, the snorkel sails, the island loop, the luau, the Diamond Head climb and the sunset cruises. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big visit
How to do Pearl Harbor.
It sits across the harbour west of Waikiki, the memorials keep different hours and the Arizona tickets book out days ahead. Three ways to see it, depending on how deep into the history you want to go.
The North Shore
Seven miles of the world’s best surf.
From November the swells march into the North Shore and the best surfers on earth follow them to Pipeline, Sunset and Waimea Bay. By summer the same beaches turn glassy and calm, good for turtles and snorkeling. In between sits Haleiwa, all shave ice, food trucks and garlic-shrimp plates.
Read the guide: the best North Shore tours →Mask and fins
Green sea turtles and a living reef.
Oahu’s water sits bath-warm and clear, and the honu, the green sea turtles, glide right up to swimmers off Waikiki and the Turtle Canyons. Catamarans sail straight from the beach to the reef, while Hanauma Bay’s sheltered crater holds a coral garden thick with parrotfish and the little state fish, the humuhumunukunukuapuaa.
See the snorkeling trips →The loop
The whole island in a single day.
One road rings Oahu, and the Circle Island day strings the best of it together: the Pali Lookout over the windward cliffs, the beaches of the east coast, the turtles and shrimp trucks of the North Shore, the Dole pineapple fields and the Halona blowhole. Roughly 120 miles, sunrise to sunset.
Circle Island tours →Hollywood’s backlot
The valley where the dinosaurs ran.
Kualoa Ranch is 4,000 acres of jungle valley and jagged ridgeline on the windward coast, and Hollywood has filmed there for decades. Jurassic Park, Kong, Godzilla and Lost all used these slopes. Tours run by jeep, ATV and movie bus to the real sets, with a few of the props still in place.
- 1 Oahu: Kualoa Ranch Movie Sites and Ranch Tour
- 2 Oahu: Kualoa Ranch UTV Raptor Tour
- 3 Oahu: Kualoa Open Air Jungle Expedition Tour
By the water
Pick your pace on the ocean.
Oahu meets you at whatever speed you want. A slow float over the reef, a sail out to the turtles, or a cage off the North Shore with the sharks circling.
Take it easy
Sunset on calm water.A dinner cruise off Waikiki, a luau under the palms, a slow reef snorkel in the warm shallows.
Out on the water
Reefs, turtles and the open sail.Catamaran snorkel sails to the turtle canyons, the Diamond Head coast, a first surf lesson off the beach.
Full send
Cages, jet skis and big air.A shark cage dive off the North Shore, parasailing over Maunalua Bay, a skydive above the west coast.
Off Waikiki
Catamarans straight off the sand.
The beach catamarans launch right through the shorebreak off Waikiki, no harbour and no transfer. Sail out for an hour of snorkeling over the turtle grounds, or hold a mai tai through the sunset as Diamond Head turns gold. The crews have worked these same waters for generations.
See all 21 catamaran sails →By place
Oahu, coast by coast.
Honolulu and Waikiki for the base. Pearl Harbor for the history. The North Shore for the surf. Diamond Head for the view. Kualoa for the green windward valleys. And the road that ties them together.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Snorkel if you want the turtles. Catamaran if you want the sail. Surf if you want the Waikiki rite of passage. Helicopter, sunset cruise, shark cage or luau.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time on Oahu? Here is a long weekend that hits the island’s essentials without a wasted hour.
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