I know when we found out we were going to visit Oahu, Hawaii that I wanted to go to see the Pearl Harbor historic site which is a National Memorial and includes the USS Arizona Memorial. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a singular event in a series of many events that led to America’s involvement in World War II which had an incalculable impact on this country and the world. I knew that we needed to visit this place of memorial, so even though we were staying on the North Shore of the island we took a day to drive down to Honolulu and visit Pearl Harbor.

What You Will See at Pearl Harbor

There is a lot you can do and see in the Pearl Harbor area, I, of course, would have liked to have seen everything, but given our limited amount of time there we only did the things that were part of the National Park service. Even so that required several hours of time.

The first key is to arrive early at Pearl Harbor to get in line to get tickets for the boats out to the USS Arizona Memorial. The tickets are free, but there are only 1300 tickets issued per day, and they are timed, so you want to arrive as early as possible to secure your spot. We arrived just before opening and there was already quite a line, but by the time it opened the line was much longer.

We spent our time before our boat tour walking around the grounds where there are a number of statues and memorials. Then when our turn came we went into a theater first to watch a film about the events of Pearl Harbor, and then we went on the boat from there.

Normally the boat, which is operated by the Navy, will take you to the USS Arizona Memorial, but while were there the memorial was closed to the public because of safety concerns with dock. The dock has since been repaired and is open to the public again. From the memorial you are able to look down into the water and see the remains of the Arizona. We were just able to sail out around the memorial and down battleship row.

After we came back from the boat trip we did the two museums that are at the National Park visitor center. One of them talks about events leading up to Pear Harbor and the other talks about the event itself and the aftermath. I found these museums really helpful in understanding the events. If you get boat tickets later in the day you could do the museums before going on the boat tour.

Sum Up

There is a lot to see and do at the Pearl Harbor historic site. Even if you just do the free things like we did there is plenty to keep you busy. There are also several other paid museums that you can visit as well as touring the USS Bowfin nearby. The main key is to arrive early and be prepared that Pearl Harbor is a difficult site emotionally, this will not be the sunny happy part of your Hawaii vacation, but it might be the most important part.