Honolulu for first-time visitors

Must-see attractions

Honolulu's must-see roster is not what the cruise-ship brochures imply. The twelve strongest stops on a slow walk through the city run heavier on civic and ecclesiastical landmarks than on shoreline — a volcanic tuff cone and state monument framing Waikīkī, a Greek Revival palace inside the Hawaii Capital Historic District, a Gothic Revival church at 766 North King Street, a tower watching Honolulu Harbor, three cathedrals, a theatre and movie house in downtown Honolulu, the national cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, a registered United States historic place, a mausoleum in Honolulu, and a Christian congregation in the city. The list privileges landmarks that reward an unhurried visit over ones that photograph well from a tour bus. It is built for the traveller who wants to understand how Honolulu organises itself — its faith, its civic memory, its harbour, its dead, its stagecraft — and who will read a wall plaque rather than power past it. Ranked, in our view, by the strongest reason to plan an hour around.