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Iolani Palace
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16 reviews for Iolani Palace
The remodel is amazing. As noted by other yelpers, take the guided tour. As a resident of Hawaii I loved the rich history and background that the palace has to the state.
Side note: Walk or drive by the palace at night, the lights around palace are kind of creepy, but cool.
I'd call this one of the must-sees of Oahu. It's both historically and architecturally significant.
It's been maintained and restored beautifully: you'll only wonder why you need to wear protective slippers for a few moments after you get inside and see the mirror-like shine of the wood floors.
Most of the rooms are on the tour and contain original furniture; there are reference photos to compare past and present. Careful inspection of them will reveal how much attention to detail has been observed by the volunteer caretakers of the palace.
The tour is split into two parts; a self-guided portion covers the basement which is more of a museum. It features display cases of small items such as jewelry and other personal effects. The guided portion is basically the rest of the building, with an extensive history lesson of the Hawaiian monarchy (as well as the sad tale of how the islands were annexed) . Vacationers will learn a great deal from this; I imagine residents already know.
The guided tours leave every fifteen minutes; I recommend the :15 or :45 tours, as they're underutilized. I saw a 10:00 tour leave with about twenty guests; my 10:15 tour (which I walked up for; no reservations necessarily needed) including me and the guide, were four. Definitely a bonus if you have questions to ask.
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For those who have never been here, you really have to check this place out. It's the only royal palace in the United States and it's an amazing piece of architecture filled with history. You wear special slippers throughout the building so as not to damage the beautiful, pristine wood floor. The voice-guided tour is worth the price as you'll learn all about the royal family that lived in the palace before the monarchy came to an end.
I feel like I know at least a little bit about most states in the US - the gold rush of 1849 in California, the Louisiana Purchase, the battle of The Alamo in Texas, etc., but besides pineapples and sugar, I didn't know very much about Hawaii...it was its own kingdom before joining the Union as a state, so I knew there was a lot of history behind that. Touring this place really gave me some great insight into Hawaii's history and I also left with a better appreciation for cultures and governments from all over the world.
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I don't know how anyone can give less than 5 stars to a historical and symbolic building that once housed the monarchs that ruled the Hawaiian islands and proclaimed Hawaiian sovereignty.
If you're in the mood for something different on Oahu (something other than the traditional luau party or Zippy's meal), check out Iolani Palace. Here, you will learn all about the history of the Hawaiian kingdom before the U.S. took over and Hawaii lost its autonomy to statehood. Okay...okay...I'll stop with all the activism now...
But, seriously...check it out. I recommend the self-guided audio tour for $12. You can arrange for a docent-led tour, but be sure to call in advance for reservations or at least get there early.
Be prepared to put on a pair of booties (hospital-style) so that you don't scratch up or mess up the finely polished wood floors inside the Palace. Also, no cameras allowed inside, although you can take all sorts of pictures outside in front of the Palace.
Visiting Iolani Palace was one of my highlights during this last trip because I got to learn something valuable about the Hawaiian people, history and culture.
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We entered the building through the basement. They recently installed a wheelchair lift on the side of the building. We were escorted through the security station and up a service elevator.
We joined the group on the back side porch, where we were given a brief intro. Unfortunately, no photography inside. We got the self guided audio tour and it was very informative on Hawaiian monarchy.
We used the same elevator to go upstairs. Visitors are only allowed to use the elevator to go to the second floor because they want to preserve the amazing staircase. To go down to view the artifacts in the basement, we had to tell one of the guides, so he could key it in.
Kewl factoid: In the King's library, on the large table there is an original Webster dictionary signed by Webster given as a gift!!
Any visit to Honolulu must include a mandatory stop at `Iolani Palace, the only royal residence in the United States.
The palace once symbolized Hawaiian sovereignty, power, and progress. Today, the palace reminds us of the grandeur of the Kingdom of Hawaii while juxtaposing the violent relationship between American businessmen and the vulnerable monarchy.
Interestingly, King Kalakaua installed electricity in the palace even before electricity was introduced into the White House. Additionally, he installed other high tech gadgetry such as flushing toilets, bath tubs, and 200 gallon hot water tanks. At the time, Honolulu also had the most telephones per capita than any other city in the world! Queen Liliuokalani (last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii) was also imprisoned within these palace walls--her own home--during the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
As a kama`aina, you'll get in FREE usually on the first Sunday of each month. We spent about 3.5 hours here first enjoying a 45 minute docent guided tour of the palace, then marveling at a wonderful collection of artwork, jewelery, and other royal paraphernalia in the basement gallery.
In college, I lived in a dorm apartment building named after Queen Liliuokalani, but I never understood her story nor why she is so revered until I visited Iolani Palace. This is a "must-do" for tourists to Oahu who want to understand more about Hawaii's troubled past and the genesis of today's questions of sovereignty and self-determination.
Take the $12 tour - it's not worth it just to see the basement museum and it should be sufficient to take the audio tour without the guide in case you're pressed for dollars. Give yourself some time to view the items on display in the basement. They are the crown jewels of the Hawaiian kingdom, and they'll give you the shivers.
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Beautiful, serene, elegant, and all those Archetectual Digest words that make you green with envy. But if you've got a Hamilton or two, you can pretend you live in a palace and play house with the Hawaiian Monarchy for a couple of hours.
You have to say one thing about Hawaiians...they love their women rulers! Queen Lili`uokalani lived at Iolani Palace after her monarchy was overthrown. It's the only royal residence in the U.S., if you don't count Hyannis Port in Massachusetts. Gotta love that Jackie O.!
Poor sista was stuck in that place like a P.O.W., and she refer ed to it as her prison, a place that was once precious and joyful but then destroyed her spirit with every moment that passed. Sad.
The Queen was a bad ass, btw...she kicked some serious boo-tay, and tried her best to keep her Hawaii intact. The man, however, took her down...she did not go without a fight, y'all.
She's also the composer of that great song, Aloha 'oe...the one that you hear when you step off the airplane and onto Hawaiian soil. Multi-talented monarch, strong woman of substance, and a sad reminder of what happens to tough bitches in America, if left vulnerable for even a second.
Queen Lili`uokalani and Martha Stewart...I salute you!
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Pretty good as far as self-guided audio tours go, if you're into that kind of thing. I think this was right for me (I prefer not to go at the pace of a guided tour). The audio tour was very very thorough, so at times it seemed a bit too much; I kind of wanted to get a move on.
Otherwise, it is very educational and worth the $12. You will learn about the history of Hawaii, and if nothing else, learn how to pronounce all the long street names and learn about the people for whom they were named.
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I'm sure the rest of the palace is beautiful. Just that I took the 'cheap' tour and only had access to the basement with some rooms that displayed some of the royal jewelry, furniture, china and the royal headgear.
You have to watch the video before entering the palace to get a brief history of the place and Hawaii's past monarchy. It's sort of sad. Chalk it up to the haoles to mess up a beautiful thing (Hawaii back in the day) when it was fine without them.
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My airport shuttle driver recommended touring Iolani Palace. When hanging out of the beach wasn't an option because of constant rain I decided to take his advice.
The Palace was built in 1882 by King Kalakaua. His sister Queen Lili`uokalani also lived (and for a time was imprisoned) there. Restoration began in the 1970s and today the Palace is a great place to learn more about the rich history and heritage of Hawaii.
I highly recommend taking the audio tour -it's well done and provides a lot of background information not just about the Palace but about Hawaii generally. While the Gallery-only tour is half the price at $6 don't be tempted by it as you won't get to see the inside of the Palace that way.
Iolani Palace is a special treasure and well worth an hour or two away from the beach.
NOTES:
Street parking is fairly easy on weekdays around the Palace, bring change to feed the meters.
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We did the self guided audio tour. Was well worth it. It was very thorough probably too much so. Skipped a couple parts because it was taking too long. At the very least check out the grounds and the basement level which is free. Parking is either in their lot or on the street both of which you have to feed a meter. The meter rates are better at the inside lot. No photograpy is allowed inside which really sucks.
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We took a tour of the Palace while we were in HI. They herded you into this room to watch a video first (geez, there's a lot of video watching in HI. The snorkeling place also made us watch a video). We were then guided to the Palace where we got little paper booties to wear.
The palace is really nice and the floors were sparkly. I actually enjoyed the tour!
Kinda sad that most of the furniture is gone. The history is sad, too. But the information is worth having, if only so you can keep your eyes open for some of the long-lost furniture from the Hawaiian Royal Palace.
And the paper booties you have to wear while inside are the shit!
This is a place to visit when one is also in the vicinity of the Hawaiian church and the old missionary village, i suppose. The tour guide said that this is the only official Royal Palace in the 50 states of our (dis)united states. Beautiful dark wood and interior evokes it's Victoria age. I believe we wore some paper booties to protect the floor and the tour guide wore a prapa moomoo---aloha sistah..
Kamehameha and Princess Lilikulani, are major names one finds in Hawaii in respect to the elders... but it is a sad history in the annals of Hawaiikai.
The only royal palace on US soil, it was the home to Hawaii's monarchy before annexation. You can cheap it up and look around the basement for like 6 bucks, but if you go it's worth paying a little bit more for the 90 minute tour, or at least the audio tour. You have to wear denim booties over your feet to avoid scuffing the floor, and you feel kinda watched over by the attendees, the house is beautiful, but a lot of the rooms are very sparsely decorated. Still it's another good cultural stop in the middle of Honolulu, but parking is extremely limited and meters on the street are $0.25 for 10 minutes!
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