Honolulu Audio Tours

Honolulu sits 2,045 nautical miles from the California coast, which makes it the most isolated large city in the United States and one of the most isolated anywhere. Indigenous Hawaiians first settled the area in the 11th century and named the harbour 'sheltered bay,' which is still an apt description. In 1845, King Kamehameha III moved the Hawaiian Kingdom's capital here from Lahaina, and the city began its long transformation into a Pacific crossroads. The 'Iolani Palace, completed in 1882, remains the only royal palace on American soil, and it has electricity installed before the White House did.

December 7, 1941 is woven into the city's geography.

Pearl Harbor, where the Japanese attack killed 2,403 Americans and pulled the United States into World War II, lies just ten kilometres west of downtown. The USS Arizona Memorial sits directly above the sunken battleship, still leaking oil into the harbour, and the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl Crater holds the remains of 53,000 veterans. Walking around Honolulu, you encounter these histories at odd moments, around corners from surf shops and lei stands.