Running tour · Honolulu

Harbour to the Palace

1.5 mi run

Open in Stride Stories

The stories on this route

1. Aloha Tower

   Look up at the white tower at Pier 9, and find the word ALOHA, cut in big block letters into the tenth-floor balcony.

2. King Kamehameha Statue

   Look at the king on his plinth: dark brown, with gilded garments, and a spear in one hand. This is Kamehameha the First. And he's the second try. The first cast was shipped in 1880, and on the way its ship sank near the Falkland Islands. Honolulu ordered another with the $12,000 insurance money.

3. Kawaiahaʻo Church

   Look at the walls of Kawaiahaʻo Church. They're coral: almost 14,000 coral rocks. Hawaiian divers went three to six metres under the sea to chisel out each block with hand tools, from a reef off Oʻahu's south coast. Each slab weighed about a thousand pounds.

4. Hawaiʻi State Capitol

   Look at the columns around the Capitol. The architects meant the parts of this building to stand for things in Hawaiian nature. The columns are coconut palms, and they come in eights, for the eight main islands. The pools around the building stand for the ocean. The two cone-shaped chambers are volcanoes.

5. Washington Place

   Look at the house with verandahs on both floors. Captain John Dominis, a wealthy American trader, began building it in 1844. In late 1846 he sailed for China and was lost at sea, just as the house was nearly finished.

6. ʻIolani Palace

   Look at the palace, with its wide verandas and corner towers. This is ʻIolani Palace, the only royal palace on US soil. It was home to the last two rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaii, King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani.

Stories researched October 2026 · every fact checked against a source