Bishop Museum in Honolulu, HI

One of the truly unique parts of Hawaii is its history and culture as this collection of islands in the vast Pacific Ocean. While I loved seeing and experiencing the natural part of Hawaii, the history of Hawaii and greater Polynesia is equally amazing to see and experience when you are here. Our last day on Oahu was our cultural and historical day with visits to the Bishop Museum and the Iolani Palace, and I highly recommend both in that order. The Bishop Museum is a massive collection of venues that educate on history, science, art and even sports. To truly see all of it, you would need a week, so with only 90 minutes we focused on the museum core, which was the Hawaii and Polynesian Halls, the original idea of Charles Reed Bishop the husband and surviving holder of his wife's, Bernice Pauahi Bishop (Kamehameha descendant), family collection of Hawaiian royal family heirlooms and historical items. If you want to learn about the Kingdom of Hawaii (1790-1890), this is the best place. We arrived at the Bishop at 9:00 when it opens with few others and had the pick of parking places. We had bought our tickets online (20% discount), so we walked straight into the massive, historic stone building staring at the entrance and the Kahili Room which was very interesting. Here you are introduced to Hawaiian royalty from Kamehameha through to Queen Lili'uokalani and the overthrow of Hawaiian independence. Not only do you get to see pictures and belongings of each monarch but each unique Kahili, feather standards that were used to represent that individual monarch. We then climbed the stairs for a quick tour of the Pacific Hall, former Polynesian Hall, to learn about the great Pacific and its islands as well as about the people who first made the trip across the ocean to settle Hawaii. It was very interesting explaining about the different groups that inhabit the Pacific, their similarities and differences, as well as how they travelled from island to island eventually making it to Hawaii, really the last settlement of the Pacific. We then briefly visited the Picture Gallery that does have some great landscape paintings of Waikiki as well as snow and lava at the top of Mauna Loa. Finally, we came to the most impressive part of the museum the Hawaiian Hall. It is 3 stories of facts and artifacts lining the exterior of a covered open courtyard. On the floor sit ancient historical Hawaiian structures like a Heiau, religious temple, and Hale, historic grass house. However, what grabs you attention first is the 40' of space above the courtyard that sits like an open aquarium with a whale, tiger shark, sea turtles, fish and an eagle ray suspended it in as if they were floating just offshore in 40' of water. The galleries on the exterior extend 3 stories and present the history of Hawaii from the first landing of people to the end of the Monarchy as you rise from bottom to top. I will say we started on the top floor which is all the Hawaiian Royalty as were had seen the Kahili Room and were going to the Iolani Palace. All of it was super interesting an amazing even if we just skimmed the bottom two floors. Yes, it cost $30.00 each and yes, we only spent 90 minutes there, but it was so worth it. The museum is extensive and amazing, and you will learn so much about Hawaii. I highly recommend a visit, and it is great to combine with the Iolani Palace. If you choose to spend a day learning about Hawaii's history, I recommend 2-3 hour morning at the Bishop, lunch and an afternoon visit to the Iolani. If you only have half a day, I recommend 90 minutes at the Bishop, an 11:00 or 11:15 at the Iolani, then lunch with the afternoon for other activities. Either way do the Bishop first and start at 9:00 AM when it opens.

If you want to immerse yourself in Hawaiiana, this is the place. The exhibits are fascinating. My one complaint is that the lighting is low so it was difficult to read some of the explanatory text accompanying the exhibits. Also, note that they charge for parking which is over $18 when you add the service fees. You can only do this with your phone and for non-phone people like us we found that to be challenging.