50 Fun and Unusual Things to Do in Honolulu (Local Picks, With Prices)
I landed in Honolulu with a line cook's budget and a line cook's patience for waiting around, which meant I skipped the luau my first night and ate $4 malasadas instead. Six trips later, I've got opinions about which tours are worth your cash and which beaches you can hit for free before 7 a.m. This list is the one I wish someone handed me at the airport.
Only-Here Experiences
These are the things that don't translate anywhere else — not even to Maui.
1. Diamond Head State Monument
The crater hike everyone does, and everyone should. It's a 1.6-mile round trip on a paved-then-not path with a tunnel and a WWII bunker near the top, and the summit view over Waikiki is the real deal. Go at opening to beat heat and crowds. $5 entry, reservation required online, about 1.5–2 hours round trip.
2. Pillbox hikes above Lanikai
Two WWII bunkers on a ridge above turquoise water, a 45-minute scramble that locals do before work. No fee, no gate, just a trailhead on Kaelepulu Drive in Kailua that's easy to miss if you're not looking. Sunrise is the move — you'll have company, but it's worth it. Free.
3. Shangri La Museum tour
Doris Duke's Islamic art mansion on the water in Kahala, accessible only by guided tour booked through the Honolulu Museum of Art. It's strange and beautiful and nothing like the rest of Honolulu — tiled courtyards, a Damascus room, ocean views. Tours run a few hours including shuttle. Check current pricing and dates, roughly $25.
4. Kawaiahaʻo Church
Built from 14,000 coral slabs in the 1840s, this is Hawaii's oldest church and still holds services in Hawaiian. It's downtown, five minutes from Iolani Palace, and almost nobody stops in. Ten minutes is enough unless there's a service. Free.
5. Ghosts of Old Honolulu walking tour
I'm skeptical of ghost tours generally, but this one earns its keep by actually teaching you downtown history between the spooky bits — old execution sites, plague-era quarantine stories, missionary scandal. Good for a warm evening when the beach has lost its appeal. Ninety minutes, downtown Honolulu.
Ghosts of Old Honolulu Walking TourCheck availability on Viator →
Food and Drink
Hawaii food gets dismissed as plate lunch and poke, which undersells it badly.
6. Shave ice at Waiola
Not a snow cone — shave ice is finer, softer, and this Waikiki-adjacent spot layers it with li hing mui powder and ice cream at the bottom. Get there before 2 p.m. on weekends or wait 20 minutes. About $6–8.
7. Poke from a grocery store counter
Tourists pay $18 for poke at a sit-down restaurant; locals buy it by the pound at Foodland or Tamura's. Ahi, shoyu, limu, done. Eat it on a curb or a beach towel. Roughly $10–14 a pound depending on the day's catch.
8. Downtown food tour with five tastings
I did a version of this myself on foot over two visits and still think a guided one saves time — five stops, local context, no wrong turns into a strip mall. Good for a first full day before you know the neighborhoods. Three hours, downtown Honolulu.
Downtown Honolulu Food Tour with 5 Local Favorites TastingsCheck availability on Viator →
9. Leonard's Bakery malasadas
Portuguese doughnuts, no hole, rolled in sugar, served hot from a walk-up window in Kaimuki that's been doing this since 1952. The line moves fast even when it looks long. About $2–3 each.
10. Helena's Hawaiian Food
A James Beard Award-winning plate lunch spot that still looks like a lunch counter because it is one. Kalua pig, laulau, pipikaula — order a sampler if you can't decide. Kalihi neighborhood, lunch only, go early. Around $15–20 per person.
11. Private food tour with Secret Food Tours
For travelers who want the food tour experience without sharing it with ten strangers — small group, local-favorite stops, more time to actually talk to the vendors. Worth the premium if you're celebrating something or just hate crowds. Three hours.
Private Walking Food Tour in Honolulu With Secret Food ToursCheck availability on Viator →
12. Musubi from 7-Eleven
Genuinely — Spam musubi from a Hawaii 7-Eleven is better than it has any right to be, and it's the most honest $2 you'll spend on the island. Grab one before a hike. Under $2.
13. Rainbow Drive-In
Plate lunch institution in Kapahulu near Diamond Head, loco moco and mixed plates eaten at outdoor tables under a neon sign that's been there since 1961. Cash helps the line move. About $10–13 a plate.
Outdoors and Water
This is why you flew six hours over an ocean, so don't spend it all in the hotel pool.
14. Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve
A volcanic crater turned snorkel reef, closed Mondays and Tuesdays for reef recovery, with a mandatory orientation video before you're allowed in the water. It's crowded and still worth it — the fish life is that good. $25 entry, reservations required, best by 7:30 a.m.
15. Snorkel and turtle catamaran sail
If Hanauma's reservation system defeats you, a boat tour solves the turtle problem differently — sails along the south shore where green sea turtles feed, gear included. Good for non-swimmers too since most boats have floatation. Half day typically.
Oahu: Grand Tour Around Island with SnorkelingCheck availability on Viator →
16. Lanikai Beach at sunrise
Often called one of the best beaches in the world, and for once that's not hype — powder sand, two tiny offshore islands, water the color of a postcard. No facilities, limited street parking, so go early and walk in. Free.
17. Manoa Falls hike
A muddy, rooty, jungle-canopy walk to a 150-foot waterfall, about 1.6 miles round trip through terrain that was literally used in Jurassic Park. Wear shoes you don't love. Free, 1.5 hours round trip.
18. Beginner scuba dive off Waikiki
No certification needed — a quick briefing, then a shallow reef dive with an instructor right next to you the whole time. I was nervous and it was fine within ten minutes. Includes video of your dive, 90 minutes total.
Voted Honolulu's #1 Beginner Scuba Diving + Free Videos TourCheck availability on Viator →
19. Makapuʻu tide pools and lighthouse trail
A paved 2-mile round trip trail to a lighthouse lookout, with a side scramble down to tide pools locals call the "Toilet Bowl." Whale watching from the trail in winter is free and legitimately good. Free.
20. Surf lesson in Waikiki
Waikiki's gentle, slow-breaking waves exist for exactly this reason — it's the easiest place on Earth to learn. Small-group lessons book up, especially for sunrise slots when the water's glassiest. Check current rates and book a few days ahead through surf and adventure tours.
21. North Shore in winter
Pipeline, Sunset Beach, and Waimea Bay turn into a professional surf contest venue every winter, with waves that can hit 30 feet and a beach full of people just watching. Don't swim here then — just watch. Free to park and spectate.
Day Trips Worth the Drive
Oahu is small enough that most of these fit in a single long day.
22. Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial
The memorial itself is free with a timed ticket, but those release months ahead and sell out daily, so most people book a tour that guarantees a spot and bundles the Arizona with the Battleship Missouri or Pacific Aviation Museum. No bags allowed — travel light. Our Pearl Harbor tours page breaks down which combo makes sense.
23. Salute to Pearl Harbor Tour
A solid middle-ground option — Waikiki pickup, the memorial, and enough added context that you're not just standing in line confused. Five hours door to door, which eats a morning but not a day.
24. Grand Circle Island Tour
Nine hours around the whole island — North Shore, windward coast, the Dole Plantation, a shave ice stop, the works. It's a lot of bus time, but it's the fastest way to see Oahu beyond Waikiki if you only have one spare day. Book early in peak season.
25. Dole Plantation
Yes, it's a gift shop with a garden attached, and yes, the pineapple maze and the Pineapple Express train are corny. I still enjoyed the $7 Dole Whip float more than I expected. Central Oahu, an hour from Waikiki by car.
26. Polynesian Cultural Center
A full evening of island culture — six Pacific village exhibits, a canoe pageant, and a luau-adjacent dinner show — on the North Shore near BYU Hawaii. It's touristy by design but genuinely well done if you commit to the whole day. Check current ticket tiers; it's a splurge either way.
27. Kailua and the windward side
Fifteen minutes over the Koolau mountains from Honolulu feels like a different island — flatter light, calmer water, a real town with coffee shops instead of resort towers. Rent a car or grab a rideshare; TheBus takes longer but works. Free to explore, parking can be tight.
28. Deluxe Pearl Harbor and Honolulu city combo
For people who want Pearl Harbor plus a proper look at downtown — Iolani Palace grounds, the state capitol, Punchbowl Cemetery — without organizing three separate trips. Five hours, narrated, Waikiki pickup included.
After Dark
Honolulu isn't a nightlife city in the Vegas sense, but it has its moments.
29. Sunset at Magic Island
A man-made peninsula at the end of Ala Moana Beach Park with unobstructed western views and none of the Waikiki crowd. Bring a six-pack of something and a towel. Free.
30. Mauka Warriors Luau
A luau built around a specific, less-told piece of Polynesian history rather than the generic version — fire knife dancing, a real narrative, a full dinner. Luaus sell out in peak season, so this is a book-ahead item. Four hours, North Shore area.
31. Sunset dinner cruise with show
A catamaran dinner cruise off Waikiki with a Polynesian revue on board — it's a splurge, but watching the sun drop behind Diamond Head from the water is a genuinely different view than from the sand. Two hours.
32. Honolulu Haunts and Hauntings Ghost Tour
A one-hour evening walk through downtown's darker corners — plague history, an old prison site, a few genuinely unsettling stories told well. Good low-commitment evening activity that doesn't require a car or a reservation anxiety spiral. About an hour.
33. Live Hawaiian music at a hotel bar
Several Waikiki hotel lobby bars run free nightly Hawaiian and slack-key guitar sets with no cover and no minimum — the House Without a Key at the Halekulani is the famous one, with hula at sunset. Free to watch, pricey if you order a drink.
34. Night market at Kakaako
A monthly street market with food trucks, local art, and the surrounding neighborhood's enormous outdoor mural collection lit up after dark. Check current schedule since it's not weekly. Free entry.
Rainy Day and Indoor
Honolulu gets tropical downpours even in dry season — have a plan B.
35. Bishop Museum
The state's natural and cultural history museum, with the best Hawaiian artifact collection anywhere, a planetarium, and a volcano exhibit that's more fun than it sounds. Plan two to three hours. Around $25 admission, check current hours.
36. Honolulu Museum of Art
A genuinely strong Asian and Pacific art collection around a series of open-air courtyards, with a café worth lingering in even if art museums aren't usually your thing. Downtown-adjacent, a couple of hours. Check current admission.
37. Iolani Palace interior tour
The only royal palace on American soil, restored room by room after decades as government offices. The audio tour covers the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom honestly, which gives the whole visit more weight than a standard "historic house" stop. About 90 minutes, check current ticket prices.
38. Waikiki Aquarium
Small but well-curated, with Hawaiian monk seal exhibits and tanks focused specifically on reef species you'll actually see snorkeling the next day. An hour is plenty. Modest admission, check current pricing.
39. Movie at the Doris Duke Theatre
An art-house screen inside the Honolulu Museum of Art complex showing films you won't find at the mall multiplex. A good, cheap, air-conditioned hour or two when the sky opens up. Ticket price varies by showing.
Free and Nearly Free
Twenty-plus items on this list cost under $20, and a lot of the best ones cost nothing.
40. Ala Moana Beach Park
A long, calm, reef-protected beach that locals actually use, next to the mall of the same name. Better swimming than Waikiki, and free parking if you arrive before mid-morning. Free.
41. Kapiolani Park
The green space between Waikiki and Diamond Head, big enough for a run, a picnic, or just somewhere to sit that isn't sand. Sunday afternoon often brings free community events. Free.
42. Punchbowl Crater and National Cemetery
A volcanic crater turned national military cemetery with a sweeping city view from the rim — quiet, moving, and almost never crowded. Ten minutes from downtown by car. Free.
43. Walking Waikiki at dawn
Before the beach chairs come out and the catamarans launch, Waikiki at 6 a.m. is nearly empty, cool, and the best time for photos without strangers in them. Free, costs you nothing but sleep.
44. Chinatown Honolulu on foot
Herbal shops, lei stands, art galleries, and some of the city's best cheap eats packed into a few walkable blocks downtown. First Friday evenings add an art-walk energy with galleries open late. Free to wander.
45. Kaimana Beach
The quiet end of Waikiki, past the aquarium, where Hawaiian monk seals occasionally haul out to nap on the sand under a roped-off perimeter. Fewer people, same ocean. Free.
46. Waikiki Trolley hop-on hop-off
Not glamorous, but at this price it's a legitimate budget alternative to renting a car for a day of hitting Diamond Head, Ala Moana, and Kahala without parking stress. Two-hour loop, hop off wherever.
With Kids
Hawaii is an easy sell to kids; the logistics are the hard part.
47. Honolulu Zoo
Small by mainland standards but shaded, walkable, and right across from the beach, so you can split a morning between animals and sand without moving the car. Modest admission, check current prices, two hours is plenty. Plan with our Honolulu with kids itinerary if you're stacking a full day.
48. Turtle snorkel for families
Boat-based snorkel trips with flotation gear and shallow sites are the easiest way to get kids face-to-face with a sea turtle without the Hanauma Bay reservation scramble. Half-day, gear included, good for ages 6 and up generally.
49. Kuhio Beach tide pools
A shallow, wall-protected stretch of Waikiki beach that's basically a natural kiddie pool, with free hula and torch-lighting shows some evenings. No entry fee, lifeguards on duty. Free.
Something Different
A last handful for people who've done the obvious already.
50. Oahu helicopter tour
The most expensive thing on this list and, I'll admit, worth it once — waterfalls, crater rims, and the whole windward coast from the air in a way no road trip replicates. Book well ahead since seats are limited. Check our helicopter and air tours page for current departure points.
How to plan it
- Days needed: three days covers Waikiki, Diamond Head, and one day trip; a week lets you add the North Shore and a slower pace. See our Honolulu in 3 days itinerary or the one-day version if you're just passing through.
- Where to base yourself: Waikiki, for the walkability — beaches, food, and most tour pickups are within a few blocks.
- Getting around: TheBus is cheap and covers most of the island if you're patient; a rental car is faster for North Shore and windward trips; tours solve Pearl Harbor's parking and security headaches entirely.
- Book ahead: Pearl Harbor memorial tickets, luaus in peak season, and helicopter flights — all three sell out days or weeks out, not hours.
- Budget a mix: stack free beaches and hikes against one or two paid splurges like a sunset sail or helicopter flight rather than paying for everything.
| Activity type | Typical price range | Book ahead? |
|---|---|---|
| Pearl Harbor tour | $50–120 | Yes, essential |
| Circle island tour | $80–150 | Recommended |
| Snorkel/catamaran | $40–110 | Recommended |
| Luau | $100–180 | Yes, especially peak season |
| Helicopter tour | $250–450 | Yes, essential |
| Beach days, hikes, tide pools | Free–$25 | No |
Overrated, in my opinion: the big commercial luau circuit that treats the show like a conveyor belt — pick a smaller or history-focused one instead. Underrated: Chinatown on a weekday morning, which gets zero hype and delivers more real Honolulu per block than most of Waikiki. For the full range of bookable tours, our Honolulu tours page is organized by type if you want to compare before committing.
Questions people ask before going
Is Honolulu expensive compared to other US beach cities?
Yes, noticeably — flights, hotels, and groceries all run higher than mainland averages because so much gets shipped in. You can offset it by eating where locals eat (plate lunch counters, grocery poke) and mixing free beaches with one or two paid tours rather than paying for everything.
How many days do I actually need in Honolulu?
Three full days covers the essentials — Diamond Head, a beach day, and Pearl Harbor — without rushing. A week lets you add the North Shore, a day trip around the island, and some slower mornings, which is honestly the better pace.
Do I need a rental car?
Not if you're staying in Waikiki and sticking to the south shore — it's walkable and TheBus covers the rest. You'll want a car or a tour for North Shore, windward beaches, and anywhere TheBus takes two transfers to reach.
When should I book Pearl Harbor tickets?
As soon as your dates are fixed, ideally weeks ahead. The free memorial tickets release on a rolling schedule and go fast, and tours that bundle guaranteed access sell out in peak season too — check current ticket release details before you land.
What's the best time of year to visit?
Spring and fall are the sweet spots — warm weather, fewer crowds, better prices than summer or the winter holidays. Winter brings big North Shore surf and whale watching if that's the draw, but expect more rain and higher hotel rates.