Which Pearl Harbor Tour?

[J-Dog]

We are rookies to Aulani and to Hawaii, and are heading there in a few months. We are planning on doing all the "touristy" stuff, and Pearl Harbor will be a must-do.

However, when I look at the Pearl Harbor website, I see 11 different tours (not counting the ones with transport from other islands). They appear to range anywhere from about $50 per person to over $200 per person. They all seem to include the USS Arizona memorial, but some include the USS Missouri, some include a "Honolulu City Tour", and a few other things. I'm interested to know whether the other stuff is worth it, or if it's just "filler" so the tours take longer and therefore charge more money...

So, I guess I have 2 questions:

1) Has anyone done/recommend a specific one of these tours?

2) Is pick-up from Ko Olina worth it? We will have a rental car, but would still be willing to pay for pick-up if, for example, parking near the USS Arizona is difficult.

Any advice? Thanks very much.

 

[Twilghtsprkle]

What website are you looking at? Entry to Pearl Harbor is free. I don’t think you are looking at the National Park services site.
https://www.nps.gov/perl/planyourvisit/permits.htm

 

[lilsonicfan]

Is this the site you're looking at? https://www.nps.gov/perl/index.htm This is for the National Park Service-run memorial which runs the visitor center, USS Arizona memorial, and the Ford Island bus tour which is relatively new - I read a review of it at some point but can't find it now, anyway, it's the way to reach some of the previously inaccessible memorials.

The USS Missouri and the Bowfin / Submarine Museum are run separately, here are their websites:
https://ussmissouri.org/#
https://www.bowfin.org/

When we went, we had a rental car so we just drove there ourselves. There was plenty of parking; it was free then but I thought I read that they might be charging soon, not sure. We paid the $1 to reserve USS Arizona spots ahead of time so as not to stand in line. We had planned to do the USS Missouri afterward but the kids ran out of steam so we didn't get there... you dont' have to buy those in advance or anything.

 

[J-Dog]

I was referred to this website:

https://pearlharbor.org/

I was assuming the ".org" meant that this was the "official" Pearl Harbor tour website. But maybe I'm wrong?

Thanks for any help.

 

[J-Dog]

Is this the site you're looking at? https://www.nps.gov/perl/index.htm This is for the National Park Service-run memorial which runs the visitor center, USS Arizona memorial, and the Ford Island bus tour which is relatively new - I read a review of it at some point but can't find it now, anyway, it's the way to reach some of the previously inaccessible memorials.

The USS Missouri and the Bowfin / Submarine Museum are run separately, here are their websites:
https://ussmissouri.org/#
https://www.bowfin.org/

When we went, we had a rental car so we just drove there ourselves. There was plenty of parking; it was free then but I thought I read that they might be charging soon, not sure. We paid the $1 to reserve USS Arizona spots ahead of time so as not to stand in line. We had planned to do the USS Missouri afterward but the kids ran out of steam so we didn't get there... you dont' have to buy those in advance or anything.

Thanks very much for the advice. Sounds like an Aulani pick-up is not worth it, if parking is easy.

 

[Twilghtsprkle]

I was referred to this website:

https://pearlharbor.org/

I was assuming the ".org" meant that this was the "official" Pearl Harbor tour website. But maybe I'm wrong?

Thanks for any help.

Nope, that’s run by an LLC. .Org means nothing, anyone can register a website as one. Pearl Harbor is part of the National Park service, so it falls under .gov which is only for government entities.

 

[J-Dog]

Nope, that’s run by an LLC. .Org means nothing, anyone can register a website as one. Pearl Harbor is part of the National Park service, so it falls under .gov which is only for government entities.

Okay. Thanks for the info.

Since I was referred to this website based on their reputation, I guess I will re-word the question:

Does anyone think that the guided tours on https://pearlharbor.org/ are worth it? If so, which one?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Okay. Thanks for the info.

Since I was referred to this website based on their reputation, I guess I will re-word the question:

Does anyone think that the guided tours on https://pearlharbor.org/ are worth it? If so, which one?

Pearl Harbor is very easy to do on your own. No tour necessary.

 

[J-Dog]

Pearl Harbor is very easy to do on your own. No tour necessary.

Thanks!

 

[Anal Annie]

We've always just made our reservation times and driven on our own - we have done just the Arizona memorial alone on a couple of trips and we added the USS Missouri 2x & the Bowfin 1x. I think those 2 tours are worth doing at least once. If I were to choose between those 2 I would do the Missouri. As with most tours in Hawai'i we tend to book pretty early before it gets too hot. The Missouri can get really hot - bring water!!

 

[J-Dog]

We've always just made our reservation times and driven on our own - we have done just the Arizona memorial alone on a couple of trips and we added the USS Missouri 2x & the Bowfin 1x. I think those 2 tours are worth doing at least once. If I were to choose between those 2 I would do the Missouri. As with most tours in Hawai'i we tend to book pretty early before it gets too hot. The Missouri can get really hot - bring water!!

Great advice! Thanks very much

 

[cgattis]

Thanks very much for the advice. Sounds like an Aulani pick-up is not worth it, if parking is easy.

I’ll jump in here for a PSA. Don’t leave any valuables in your car there, and if you must, lock them in the trunk before you arrive. That’s a fairly hot spot for smash and grabs, and one DIS’er had it happen to her. But I’d definitely drive my own car if I had one; nothing difficult about it. Enjoy the memorial; it’s a very worthwhile visit.

 

[J-Dog]

I’ll jump in here for a PSA. Don’t leave any valuables in your car there, and if you must, lock them in the trunk before you arrive. That’s a fairly hot spot for smash and grabs, and one DIS’er had it happen to her. But I’d definitely drive my own car if I had one; nothing difficult about it. Enjoy the memorial; it’s a very worthwhile visit.

Thanks so much for the expert insight! That's something that I probably would have never even thought about.

 

[monsterkitty]

I’ll jump in here for a PSA. Don’t leave any valuables in your car there, and if you must, lock them in the trunk before you arrive. That’s a fairly hot spot for smash and grabs, and one DIS’er had it happen to her. But I’d definitely drive my own car if I had one; nothing difficult about it. Enjoy the memorial; it’s a very worthwhile visit.

I would like to add that don't leave anything in the car anywhere you travel on the island. Every tourist spot we visited on our last trip had glass everywhere from smash and grabs.

As for Pearl Harbor, I highly suggest also doing a tour of the Missouri. We have done the guided tour that you pay for at the Missouri and they take you in places you cannot go without the tour.

 

[Winston Wolf]

If you're paying more than $1 per ticket, then you're overpaying. You can book them through the recreation dot gov 7 weeks out. Mark your calendar.

 

[regul8ter18]

We just got back from our trip on 4/21/23, and we used:

https://www.pearlharbortours.com/oahu/

It was so hassle-free. We were at the Hilton Waikiki Village. It was an early 40th-anniversary tip for my parents and mom said no Disney, but don't worry we got a day visit into Aulani, LOL. They picked us up, and we skipped the stand-by lines since the tour group set all that up, we got the package that included the Missouri Tour and I would also say that is a must. Our Guide was a blast. Personally I liked it because I was the driver all week and it was nice to have a break.

If we ever go back I would go to Pearl Harbor again and do the all day tour that includes all the museums. Granted if we did that package it would probably be just my dad and I, cause the rest of our group aren't that into history.

If do go on your own get there early. Our tickets were for 8:30 am and by the time we got the boat back from the memorial the main area was packed.

I will say out of everything we did swimming with the sharks was my favorite.

 

[J-Dog]

We just got back from our trip on 4/21/23, and we used:

https://www.pearlharbortours.com/oahu/

It was so hassle-free. We were at the Hilton Waikiki Village. It was an early 40th-anniversary tip for my parents and mom said no Disney, but don't worry we got a day visit into Aulani, LOL. They picked us up, and we skipped the stand-by lines since the tour group set all that up, we got the package that included the Missouri Tour and I would also say that is a must. Our Guide was a blast. Personally I liked it because I was the driver all week and it was nice to have a break.

If we ever go back I would go to Pearl Harbor again and do the all day tour that includes all the museums. Granted if we did that package it would probably be just my dad and I, cause the rest of our group aren't that into history.

If do go on your own get there early. Our tickets were for 8:30 am and by the time we got the boat back from the memorial the main area was packed.

I will say out of everything we did swimming with the sharks was my favorite.

Thanks so much for the info! I will check them out for sure.

I am more than willing to pay for a guided tour rather than go by ourselves and being clueless for cheap, assuming that the tour is worth the cost.

EDIT: Was the swimming with sharks part of one of the Pearl Harbor tours? Or was this something completely separate that you did?

 

[Micca]

Just got back from our Aulani trip a couple of weeks ago. Pearl Harbor tour was really good. We did the audio/walking tour where you listen to a presentation through headphones, it was really well done. Admission was free, I think there was a nominal fee for the headphones. We also had a rental car and made the drive from Aulani with no problems.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I am more than willing to pay for a guided tour rather than go by ourselves and being clueless for cheap, assuming that the tour is worth the cost.

I have nothing against guided tours per se. I will say that if you don't do any tour at all, and just book the $1 reservation fee for the Arizona Memorial, there is still a ton of information, pictures and exhibits to look at in the Visitor Center to learn from. We also had a guide (former veteran?) at the Arizona itself giving information to anyone who wanted to hear.

The tours offered here may also be of interest https://www.recreation.gov/ticket/facility/233338

And here's the link for the Ford Island bus tour https://www.recreation.gov/ticket/facility/10089185

 

[regul8ter18]

Thanks so much for the info! I will check them out for sure.

I am more than willing to pay for a guided tour rather than go by ourselves and being clueless for cheap, assuming that the tour is worth the cost.

EDIT: Was the swimming with sharks part of one of the Pearl Harbor tours? Or was this something completely separate that you did?

Swimming with the sharks was not part of the Pearl Harbor tour. My dad and I did it on our last day, and it was the most affordable thing we did the whole time there. They were Galapagos sharks

https://sharktourshawaii.com/