Billed as the largest open-air shopping centre in the world, Ala Moana Center in Honolulu is a vast retail destination set between the city's downtown and the famous beaches of Waikiki. Opened in 1959, just days before Hawaii became a state, it gathers hundreds of stores, restaurants and services across several breezy, partly open levels, and ranks among the highest-grossing malls in the United States. The centre rose on what had been swampland on the edge of the city, an ambitious gamble that .....

Standing watch over Honolulu Harbor, the Aloha Tower is a historic lighthouse and landmark that for decades greeted everyone arriving in Hawaii by sea. Completed in 1926 and topped by a great four-faced clock, the slender tower welcomed generations of passengers stepping off ocean liners, its name a warm island greeting spelled out for all to see, and it remains one of the most recognisable structures on the waterfront. For many years the tower was the tallest building in Hawaii, a beacon visib.....

The world's most famous jazz brand set up two blocks from Waikiki Beach. Blue Note Hawaii opened on 14 January 2016 inside the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort at 2335 Kalakaua Avenue, with Kenny G and ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro splitting the opening run - a pairing that announced the club's double mission of international headliners and Hawaii's own greats. The room took over the showroom where the Society of Seven had performed for four decades, transformed by a 3.5-million-dollar renovatio.....

An emergency became a homecoming when University of Hawaii football moved onto its own campus for the first time in half a century. The Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex at 1105 Lower Campus Road in Manoa opened in 2015 as a 4,100-seat practice, soccer, beach volleyball and track facility, named for the Honolulu developer and philanthropist whose foundation has been one of the university's great benefactors. Its life changed in December 2020, when structural corrosion forced 46-year-old Aloh.....

Rising 232 metres above the southeastern shore of Oahu, this volcanic tuff cone is Hawaii's most recognisable natural landmark, its distinctive profile visible from virtually every elevated point in Honolulu and Waikiki. The crater was formed approximately 300,000 years ago in a single explosive eruption that lasted only days, as rising magma encountered shallow groundwater and coral reef, producing a phreatomagmatic blast that deposited ash and limestone fragments in the ring shape visible toda.....

America's third-oldest continuously operating community theatre performs on the slopes of a volcano. Diamond Head Theatre at 520 Makapuu Avenue in Honolulu traces its lineage to 28 April 1915, when a troupe called The Footlights staged Pinero's The Amazons at the old Honolulu Opera House with a cast of prominent citizens. The Footlights grew into the Honolulu Community Theatre in 1934 - mission: community service through the art of theatre - and in 1952 found a permanent home in the aging movie .....

A short stroll from the sands of Waikiki, the Hard Rock Cafe Honolulu brings the international chain's music-themed dining to the heart of Hawaii's most famous resort district. Set on Beach Walk amid the hotels, shops and restaurants that crowd the area, it offers visitors a familiar, upbeat experience wrapped in island touches, blending the brand's global identity with a distinctly Hawaiian sense of place. True to form, the cafe is filled with rock-and-roll memorabilia, signed guitars, stage o.....

Newspapers called it "The Pride of the Pacific" when it opened - and it is now the last surviving historic theatre still operating in Honolulu. The Hawaii Theatre, at 1130 Bethel Street on the edge of Chinatown, opened on 6 September 1922 as the flagship of the Consolidated Amusement Company: 1,760 seats of Beaux-Arts opulence with Corinthian columns, Roman arches and lavish ornament, later crowned with its famous Art Deco marquee and vertical neon sign. Designed by architects Walter Emory and .....

To get in, you walk through a 24 Hour Fitness, up the stairs and across a parking lot toward a glowing sign that still says Hawaiian Brian's - and behind it waits 21,000 square feet of pool tables, dartboards and live music. HB Social Club, at 1680 Kapiolani Boulevard near Ala Moana in Honolulu, is the city's great all-purpose night-out warehouse, operating since the mid-1980s. Locals knew it for decades as Hawaiian Brian's - a billiards hall and dive bar dating to 1983 that settled at the Kapi.....

Standing in the heart of downtown Honolulu, Iolani Palace holds the singular distinction of being the only official royal residence on American soil. Completed in 1882 for King Kalakaua, it served as the seat of the Hawaiian monarchy until the kingdom was overthrown in 1893, and it remains a powerful symbol of Hawaiian sovereignty, identity and the islands' deep history as an independent nation. Architecturally the palace is a marvel of its age, built in a distinctive style its designers called.....