Honolulu holds the only royal palace on American soil, a kingdom overthrown by American businessmen in 1893, and the harbour where the United States entered World War II. Three days trace that arc from Polynesian voyagers to statehood.
Founded 1889 by Charles Bishop for his wife Princess Bernice Pauahi, last of the Kamehameha line. Hawaiian Hall's three koa-wood floors hold feathered capes, the Kū war god images and Cook-era artefacts. Open 9:00-17:00, closed Tuesdays.
A 16th-century healing temple in the hills above ʻAiea, where kahuna lapaʻau trained in herbal medicine. The lava-rock walls still enclose the compound, and medicinal plants grow labelled along the perimeter. Gates 7:00 to sunset.
Kamehameha I's forces drove O'ahu's defenders up Nu'uanu Valley in the 1795 battle that unified the islands. From Round Top the whole invasion route reads as one landscape: Waikīkī landing beaches, the valley mouth, the cliffs beyond.
Built 1836-1842 from 14,000 coral slabs cut by hand from the reef, this was the Hawaiian Kingdom's national church. Portraits of 21 monarchs line the rear gallery; Lunalilo's tomb stands by the gate. Hawaiian-language service Sundays 9:00.
Completed 1882 for King Kalākaua with electric light before the White House had it. After the 1893 overthrow Queen Liliʻuokalani was tried for treason in the throne room and imprisoned upstairs for eight months. Open 9:00-16:00, closed Sundays.
The 1883 bronze stands opposite the palace outside Ali'iōlani Hale, the kingdom's court building where the Committee of Safety declared the monarchy ended on 17 January 1893. The judiciary history centre inside is free.
Hangar 37 survived the December 7 attack; Hangar 79's window glass still carries strafing holes from Japanese fighters. Aircraft include a Zero recovered from the Aleutians and the Stearman in which George H. W. Bush trained. Open 9:00-17:00.
Set inside Pūowaina crater, an ancient site of sacrificial burial, the cemetery holds 53,000 graves from three wars and the Courts of the Missing listing 28,000 names. War correspondent Ernie Pyle lies in section D. Gates close 18:30.
The 1821 Frame House is O'ahu's oldest standing wooden building, shipped in pieces around Cape Horn. The printing house holds the press that produced the first Hawaiian-language books and, later, the kingdom's constitution. Tuesday-Saturday 10:00-16:00.
Rebuilt in brick after the Board of Health's 1900 plague fire escaped control and burned 38 acres. The blocks around Hotel and Maunakea streets kept their 1900s shopfronts, herbalists, lei stands and the 1922 Hawaii Theatre.
Doris Duke built this cliff house in 1937 after a honeymoon through the Islamic world, filling it with Iranian tilework, Syrian interiors and Moroccan ceilings. Tours depart from the Honolulu Museum of Art by shuttle, Thursday-Saturday.
Hānaiakamalama was the mountain retreat of Queen Emma and Kamehameha IV from 1857. The koa furniture, the cradle of Prince Albert who died at four, and Emma's feather cloaks remain in the rooms where the family used them.