Honolulu, HI

Kalihi institution serving Hawaiian plates since 1946 — the James Beard 'America's Classics' winner that locals defend like family. Pipikaula short ribs hung above the stove before frying are the signature order.

Family-run Hawaiian plate-lunch shop that's been making house laulau since 1947 — the Kaka'ako branch is the more accessible second-generation room. Laulau, lomi salmon, kalua pork, and poi cover the full plate.

Brick-walled Chinatown bistro from James Beard Best Chef Robynne Maii, the first native Hawaiian woman to win the award. Brasserie comforts get island-specific — smoked ono club, carbonara with local sausage, sticky bavette with a fried egg.

Modernist tasting-menu fine dining in Chinatown from chefs Anthony Rush and Chris Kajioka, with a chef's counter and an à la carte room. The kind of place where the kitchen and the wine list both reward attention.

Vietnamese-ish family restaurant from chef Andrew Le that returned to its Kaimuki farmers'-market roots in 2025 with a bigger room and outdoor street-stall seating. The phở French dip — brisket banh mi with a side cup of broth — is still the lunch order.

Tiny Kapahulu poke counter where locals settle the 'best poke' question. No frills, no extras, just shoyu ahi or spicy ahi tossed to order in a takeout bowl over a styrofoam plate.

Father-son operation in the Chinatown Maunakea Marketplace that tosses ahi, tako, and uni poke to order from fish their family processes. The Waikiki spinoff exists for convenience; locals come downtown.

Tiny sushi counter attached to a wholesale fish operation in the warehouse district near the airport — the same place that supplies many of Honolulu's hotels. BYOB and worth the drive for the toro and uni.

Tiny McCully izakaya that locals quietly hold as the best Japanese room in town. Counter seating, a small printed menu, and a daily list of specials chalked above the bar; reservations are essential.

Chinatown Thai-and-Lao kitchen on N. Hotel Street with a hidden garden patio that's the room's whole personality. Lemongrass sausage, crispy rice salads, and khao poon vermicelli curry are the regulars' orders.

Chef Ed Kenney's small Kaimuki room (on the edge of the Waialae district) running Hawaii-local ingredients through a global lens — taro pancakes, kampachi crudo, daily-changing curry. One of the city's least-pretentious smart-cooking rooms.

Local-chef-after-shift hangout serving family-style Hawaiian-Asian comfort plates on Kapahulu. Pork chops with sriracha aioli, fried rice, and beer-battered ahi belly built the reputation.

Kakaako tavern from chef Peter Merriman with farm-and-ranch Hawaii-regional plates, a wood-fired oven, and one of the most awarded Mai Tais on the island. Happy hour at the bar is the local default.

Open-air poolside Hawaiian-regional restaurant in Waikiki's Surfjack Hotel, with the rare-for-the-strip combination of local sourcing and a non-touristy vibe. Cocktails, pupus, and a daily-changing dinner plate.

Cliff-edge fine-dining seafood restaurant on Kakaako waterfront with a wraparound view of the south shore and Diamond Head. The room's reputation rests on the view; the kitchen holds its own.

33-year-old Kapahulu tonkotsu specialist, owned by the original family since 1991 and now running a deeper menu after a 2022 expansion. The signature pork-and-chicken-bone broth is the order.

Chinatown gastropub with three signature ramen bowls (Lucky, Belly, Beast) and a bar program that doubles as the late-night spot for downtown service workers. Hipper than your average ramen room.

Waikiki Thai-Laotian-Hawaiian restaurant in the Lotus Hotel that locals quietly recommend over the strip's chain options. Lemongrass pork sausages, crispy rice salad, khao poon curry — bold and herbaceous, not safe.

Kailua brunch institution with flavored pancake flights — guava, red velvet, pistachio, liliko'i chiffon — that are the dish people drive in for. Diner-style room with cottage charm.

Tiny Kailua corner brunch spot famous for liliko'i pancakes with passionfruit sauce, plus loco moco, kalua eggs, and the kind of room that fills with locals before the visitors arrive.

Modern Kailua brunch room with a tight, well-built menu — chicken and waffles, pork hash, ulu pancakes — that earned best-breakfast awards on Oahu within a few years of opening. Counter seating and pacing focused on the food.

Kailua crepe shop with a serious savory program — slow-cooked potatoes, house bacon, hollandaise — alongside sweet crepes built around tropical fruit. Bright, fast, family-friendly.

Counter-service Hawaiian plate-lunch shop with a Kailua location and a North Shore original — the Breakfast Bombers (12-hour kalua pork and egg burritos) are the famous order. Casual, fast, beach-friendly.

Open-air North Shore restaurant on Haleiwa Bay with ocean views, daily fresh catch, kalua pork sliders, and the rare combination of view-restaurant pricing with kitchen that holds its own.

1.5-mile out-and-back into and up Hawaii's most photographed volcanic crater, with 560 feet of gain on switchbacks and two tunnels. The top has a 360-degree view from Koko Head to the Wai'anae range.

1.5-mile out-and-back through a Manoa Valley rainforest to a 150-foot waterfall, with so much canopy you can hike it in light rain and stay relatively dry. The trail itself is the destination as much as the falls.

Steep 1.5-mile ridge hike above Lanikai — the 'Lanikai Pillbox' — climbing fast to two WWII bunkers with the Mokulua islets framed below. The first pillbox is a popular sunrise spot; the second is quieter.

Paved 2-mile out-and-back to the cliffside lighthouse at Oahu's easternmost point — stroller-friendly, accessible, and one of the best winter whale-watching perches on the island.

The 'Koko Head Stairs' — 1,048 old railroad ties climbing straight up the back of an extinct cinder cone. Short in distance, brutal in elevation. The summit view is the whole reward.

3-mile out-and-back rainforest trail behind the Pali Highway to a small waterfall and jumping pool, with stream crossings, mud, and a steep final descent to the water. The local default for a wet jungle hike.

Paved coastal walk from Kapiolani Park around the base of Diamond Head, with surf breaks, blowholes, and Diamond Head Lighthouse along the route. Flat, accessible, and a sunset run for Honolulu locals.

Manoa Valley botanical garden run by the University of Hawaii, with 7 miles of trails through native and tropical plant collections. Quieter alternative to Manoa Falls just up the road.

4.8-mile loop through Keaiwa Heiau State Park above Pearl Harbor, with views of the harbor, Diamond Head, and the Koolau ridge from the upper saddle. The locals' default rainy-day-recovery trail.

5-mile out-and-back climbing 1,800 feet to a summit view of the windward coast and Mokulua islets, through forested switchbacks that go from dry kiawe to upper-elevation native ohia. A real workout.

2.4-mile in-and-out through a state recreation area above the University of Hawaii, climbing a forested ridge with Norfolk pines and intermittent views of Manoa Valley. Quieter and more local than the popular trails.

5-mile flat out-and-back along the unpaved old railroad bed to the westernmost tip of Oahu, with monk seals, albatross colonies, and humpback whales seasonally visible offshore. Fully exposed and hot.

Permit-only 2.3-mile out-and-back to a 50-foot multi-tiered waterfall in the Nu'uanu rainforest above the Pali Highway — bamboo forest, river crossings, the steepest single climb a half-mile from the falls.

4.9-mile out-and-back ridge climb through eucalyptus forest to a 1,500-foot summit with both south- and windward-side panoramas. The drier alternative to Manoa Falls — locals' running trail.

Abandoned section of the original 1898 Pali Highway with a paved walking surface, ferns dripping from the cliff face, and a hidden waterfall a half-mile in. Free, easy, and the calmest Pali stop locals know.

Hawaii's state museum and the world's largest collection of Hawaiian and Polynesian artifacts, set in a stately stone building in Kalihi with a planetarium, science wing, and reproduction grass house out back. Plan a half day.

42-acre zoo at the Waikiki end of Kapiolani Park with a savanna section, Komodo dragons, and a children's discovery zone. Compact enough for a half-day and easy to combine with a beach afternoon.

Small UH-run aquarium on Waikiki's south shore that focuses on Hawaii and South Pacific marine life, with a serious giant clam program and a monk seal habitat out back. Plan an hour and a half max.

Forty-acre cultural park up on the North Shore in Laie, run by BYU-Hawaii students, with six island-nation villages, a canoe pageant on a lagoon, and a luau-plus-evening-show that's the format Hawaii visitors expect. Full day commitment.

4,000-acre working cattle ranch on the windward coast that doubles as the Jurassic Park / Lost / Hawaii Five-0 filming location. ATV, horseback, jungle expedition, and Hollywood Movie Sites tours are all on offer.

Decommissioned battleship moored at Pearl Harbor where Japan formally surrendered in 1945. The ship is huge, the guides are deeply read in the history, and the deck where the surrender was signed is preserved as it was.

Aviation museum on Ford Island at Pearl Harbor, housed in restored WWII-era hangars (one still riddled with bullet holes from December 7). Restored aircraft from the Pearl Harbor attack through Vietnam.

Walk-through WWII-era submarine moored next to the Pearl Harbor visitor center, with tight passages and the original crew quarters preserved. Adds the underwater-war dimension to a Pearl Harbor day.

Encyclopedic museum a few blocks from Iolani Palace, with strong Asian, Pacific, and European collections set around shaded courtyards. The cafe is reservation-worthy on its own.

Free state-run museum in the historic No. 1 Capital District Building downtown, focused on Hawaii-resident artists across mediums. Compact, walkable, the right size for a 90-minute downtown break.

Restored 1922 'pride of the Pacific' downtown theater with a 1,400-seat hall hosting touring concerts, hula festivals, and the occasional opera. The marquee and lobby are themselves worth the ticket.

Marine park on the windward coast with dolphin, sea lion, and turtle programs, plus interactive encounter experiences for kids who want to actually touch a fish. The view from the parking lot alone is half the trip.

Royal palace tours through the only royal palace on US soil, with restored throne room, royal residence floor, and basement gallery of crown jewels. Tours run docent-led or audio-led.

Tobacco-heiress Doris Duke's oceanfront house, built between Diamond Head and Kahala in Islamic Moorish style, now an Islamic art museum. Tour-only access; one of the most distinctive houses on the south shore.

Free outdoor hula and Hawaiian music shows on the sand at Waikiki Beach, multiple evenings a week year-round. Half-hour performances anchored by a torch lighting ceremony at sunset.

Self-guided Chinatown bar crawl — Bar Leather Apron, Tchin Tchin!, Skull and Crown — through restored 1900s buildings and back-alley speakeasies. The First Friday gallery walk runs once a month with bars and galleries open late.

Saturday morning farmers' market at Kapiolani Community College, with 70+ vendors selling Hawaii-grown produce, prepared food, and ahi poke. The locals' Saturday breakfast outing.

Chinatown food hall and Asian-grocery market with 25 stalls — Filipino, Vietnamese, Chinese, Hawaiian — and produce on the wet-market floor. The lunch food court runs at neighborhood prices, not tourist prices.

Open-air mall on Ala Moana Boulevard — Hawaiʻi's flagship shopping center with stage performances in the central courtyard (hula daily at 1pm), a food court that doubles as a poke-and-plate-lunch survey, and the only Foodland Farms with a serious poke case.

Small Mānoa Valley heritage site built around the restored Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau (the only intact pre-contact heiau in urban Honolulu) and a native-plant garden. Reservation-only tours, low-key and educational.

The only royal palace on US soil, built in 1882 by King Kalakaua and electrified four years before the White House. The basement gallery houses the crown jewels and the rooms upstairs are restored to the day the monarchy was overthrown.

Free National Park site covering the USS Arizona Memorial, the visitor center, and the harbor where Dec 7, 1941 played out. The boat ride to the memorial above the sunken Arizona is the emotional center of the visit.

The two-mile stretch of sand that everyone has seen in postcards, anchored by Diamond Head at one end. Crowded, yes, but the surf is genuinely beginner-friendly, the swimming is safe, and sunset on the sand still works.

Reef-protected white-sand beach on the windward side with two small offshore islets (the Mokuluas) framing the view. Twenty-five minutes from Waikiki, but feels like a different island.

Volcanic-crater bay turned protected snorkel reef on the southeast coast, with hundreds of fish species in chest-deep water inside the inner reef. Reservation system caps daily visitors, which is exactly why it still works.

Sacred Hawaiian valley on the North Shore with a 1.5-mile paved walk through 5,000-plant botanical garden ending at a waterfall pool you can actually swim in. Cultural sites along the path keep the history present.

Cliff-edge viewpoint above Kailua on the Pali Highway with thousand-foot drops and the windward coast laid out below. The trade winds here are famously fierce — you can lean into them and stand up straight.

Quietly excellent encyclopedic museum a few blocks from Iolani Palace, with strong Asian, Pacific, and European collections set around shaded courtyards. The cafe runs a serious local chef rotation that punches above its museum-cafe weight.

The 760-foot volcanic crater that anchors Waikiki, with WWII bunkers along the rim and a 360-degree summit view over the south shore. The trail and the crater landform itself are the attraction.

Former plantation town on the North Shore turned surf-and-galleries main street, with restored 1900s storefronts, the Surf Heritage and Culture Center, and a low-key beach park at the harbor. The town is itself the destination, not a stop on the way to somewhere else.

Hawaii's oldest Christian church, built in 1842 from 14,000 hand-cut coral blocks quarried by divers from the offshore reef. The royal pews and adjoining cemetery are open to the public during daylight hours.

Downtown 14-acre botanical garden with trees planted in the 1850s — many on the state's Exceptional Trees register. The Bo tree from Sri Lanka and the giant Quipo are the centerpieces of a quiet midday escape.

Mile-long sheltered beach park between Waikiki and downtown, where locals actually swim. A protected reef keeps the swim area calm; Magic Island at the east end is the sunset jog spot.

Locals' bodyboarding beach on the southeast coast with a shore break that breaks directly on the sand and has injured a generation of visitors. Beautiful in short doses, dangerous in the water if you don't know what you're doing.

Roadside lava-tube blowhole on the southeast coast that shoots seawater 30 feet up when the swell is right. Photo stop on the standard southeast loop; underrated as a winter whale-watching perch.

National cemetery in the bowl of an extinct volcano crater above downtown, holding 53,000 veterans of conflicts going back to WWI. The Honolulu Memorial at the summit overlooks the city and the Pacific.

Two WWII bunkers on a ridge above Lanikai, with the Mokulua islets framed below. Sunrise hike is the morning ritual; the second bunker is quieter than the first.

150-foot waterfall in a rainforest canyon above Honolulu, reached by a muddy 1.6-mile out-and-back through massive bamboo and ginger groves. The forest setting is the destination as much as the falls.

1848 New England-frame mountain retreat of Queen Emma and Kamehameha IV, restored by the Daughters of Hawaiʻi. Koa furniture, royal portraits, and a covered lanai on the Pali Highway ten minutes outside downtown.

Three preserved early-1800s missionary buildings downtown — the 1821 Kamehameha-era Frame House (the oldest western-style building in Hawaiʻi), the 1841 printing-press building, and a cemetery. The historical counterweight to the royal-palace tour.