Explore Honolulu

Kawaiahaʻo Church in downtown Honolulu was built in 1836–1842 from about 14,000 blocks of coral cut from the reefs, to a design by the missionary Hiram Bingham. Hawaiian monarchs worshipped and were crowned here, and the tomb of King Lunalilo stands in the churchyard. The Congregational church still holds Sunday services, partly in Hawaiian.

Aliʻiōlani Hale, completed in 1874 opposite ʻIolani Palace, was the government building of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and now houses the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court. Inside, the King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center explains the islands' legal history. In front stands the gilded statue of Kamehameha I by Thomas Gould, draped in flower lei on 11 June.

The Hawaii State Capitol, completed in 1969 behind ʻIolani Palace, was designed by John Carl Warnecke with Belt, Lemmon & Lo to evoke the islands. The two legislative chambers are cone-shaped like volcanoes, the columns recall palm trees, and a reflecting pool surrounds the building like the ocean. Its central courtyard is open to the sky.

Aloha Tower is a clock tower and lighthouse on Pier 9 of Honolulu Harbor, opened in 1926 to guide ships into port; its four clock faces carry the word ALOHA. Rising about 56 m over ten storeys, it was long the tallest building in Hawaiʻi. The tower stands within the Aloha Tower Marketplace, whose waterfront walk is open to visitors.

The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific lies inside Punchbowl Crater, Puowaina, an extinct volcanic cone above downtown Honolulu. Opened in 1949, it is the resting place of service members of the Second World War, Korea and Vietnam. The Honolulu Memorial's Courts of the Missing list the names of those never found, among them 18,095 missing of the Second World War.

Waikīkī Beach is the run of sandy beaches along Honolulu's south shore, about 3 km long between the Ala Wai harbour and Kapiʻolani Park, with Diamond Head at its eastern end. Hotels such as the Moana of 1901 line the sand. Its gentle reef breaks are where many people learn to surf, and outrigger canoes take visitors out onto the waves.

The national memorial commemorates the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor of 7 December 1941, in which more than 2,400 Americans were killed. Its visitor center holds two museums on the road to war and the attack. A Navy boat takes visitors to the USS Arizona Memorial, built in 1962 over the sunken battleship where most of her crew still lie.