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| The shuttle buses take you over the bridge in the background to Ford Island where Battleship Missouri, the USS Oklahoma Memorial, and Pacific Aviation Museum are. |
This is where you book your tickets to:
Arizona Memorial (marks WW2 start)
- Free or $7.50 for narrated tour
- First come, first serve; can reserve online in advance (with $1.50 fee)
- Get there early
- Video provides context, then boat to the memorial
- Don't forget to view the free museum exhibits nearby at some point
- Admission includes submarine self guided tour and museum entrance
- Free audio guide option greatly enhances the experience but requires much more time
- Accessible directly from Visitor Center
- Choose between excellent 35 minute guided tour, audio self-guided tour (45-120 min), explore on your own, or 75 minute more intimate and strenuous Heart of Missouri Tour for an additional fee (closed shoes required, 10 people max)
- Accessible by shuttle bus only unless you have base access
- Has snacks like shave ice and gift shop
- Easily spend 2-4+ hours here
- Don't forget to see the Oklahoma Memorial in front!
- Located outside Battleship Missouri entrance on Ford Island
- Accessible by shuttle bus only unless you have base access
- Visit this and the other on-base attractions at the same time, or just visit this ($3 shuttle ride, cash only for this small purchase)
- Very well designed, but park officials will be quick to tell you "it's just a memorial - there is no ship."
- Military aviation museum in two hangars
- Historic Hangar 37 has museum displays showcasing the kamikaze crash landing on Niihau, Amelia Earhart (who landed at Wheeler in 1937), Cornelia Fort and women war-time pilots, and others
- See bullet holes in the windows and aircraft from 1940s at Historic Hangar 79, which is filled with many different aircraft
- Consider paying $10 more for the Aviator's Tour, a behind the scenes docent guided tour, or the B17E Swamp Ghost Tour (tour of "intact and unretired" WWII B17E bomber)
- Audio tour option is free and enhances the experience but requires much more time
- Has restaurant and gift shop
- Accessible by shuttle bus only unless you have base access
Points of interest accessible for free from the Visitor Center include:
- Contemplation Circle
- Attack Museum
- Road to War Museum
- Arizona gift and book shop
- Snack shop
- Bowfin gift store
- Bowfin snack shop (hot dogs)
- USS Parche conning tower (modern subs do not have deck weaponry that WW2 subs have)
- Evolution of torpedo design, and more!
There is overlap in what the gift shops offer, but each differs slightly. Arizona: good book selection, handy souvenir reusable bags. Bowfin: rare stamps on an inconspicuous lower shelf. Missouri: salvaged teak decking pieces. Aviation: Aviation related stuff. One of these has DeNeen Pottery mugs.
There are packages that include the Arizona and one other major attraction or include everything. If you choose to see everything in one visit*, get there when it opens at 7 am, do the Arizona and Missouri (includes Oklahoma) first, then Aviation Museum (since it is the next bus stop from Missouri), and Bowfin after since the latter closes later than the former.
It is arguably impossible to see it all in one day. I recommend focusing at most on just two attractions. Everything here is worth seeing. It takes multiple trips to see it all. Ideally, you could make a day out of each.
If you only have time for one, the Arizona Memorial would be it.
Buses stop at Missouri/Oklahoma first, Aviation Museum second, and then return to the Visitor Center. Particularly if you are seeing everything in one visit, stop at the Missouri first then Aviation Museum to minimize waiting. Lines are long and the sun is hot so you don't want to make more than one trip around.
No bags allowed (gift shops have nice souvenir reusable bags for ~$4 to hold all the pamphlets they hand you or you have the option of checking your bag, but the lines to do this can be long).
Bring water (check restrictions first, may be better to buy water there). USS Utah accessible by military only (ask about requirements). Kama'aina rates available.
Highly recommend Colonel Charles A. Jones' book "Hawai'i's World War II Military Sites..." to those interested in Oahu's WW2 sites.
*For visitors that want to see it all, the Passport to Pearl Harbor provides admission to all attractions for two days in a consecutive 7 day period, plus audio tour of the Arizona Memorial (but don't forget to engage the on-site staff in discussion; they are a wealth of knowledge). Cost is $65/adult, $35/children 4-12. Two days is a more reasonable amount of time to see everything.
I do not see a kama'aina rate for the Passport and wasn't offered one. Therefore, if you live on Oahu, I recommend visiting 1-2 attractions/day and making multiple visits. Total cost for basic kama'aina admission to all attractions (not including audio tour of Arizona) is $45, which is less than the Passport and this way you can spread the cost out over time and get the most out of each visit.
Pearl Harbor through history
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| Pearl Harbor ca. 1910. Photo credit: Hawaii State Archives. |
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| Pearl Harbor ca. 1920 to 1930. Photo credit: Hawaii State Archives. |
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| Pearl Harbor December 1941. Photo credit: Hawaii State Archives. |