Museums

The island of Hawaiʻi is home to an alluring variety of museums, from Huliheʻe Palace, a seaside residence for Hawaiian royalty two centuries old, to ʻImiloa Astronomy Center, a state-of-the-art planetarium and science center bridging the exploration ethos of Hawaiian voyagers and today’s astronomers. In addition to art, cultural artifacts and exhibits about the history and science of the island of Hawaiʻi, these museums help us to understand the island’s place in the world and contributions to it.

Learn about the rise and fall of sugar production at the Hawaiʻi Plantation Museum, and see how early Hawaiians lived at the Lyman House Museum. Drink in the culture behind Hawaiʻi’s coffee industry at the Kona Historical Society. And experience the island’s ever-changing natural environment at the Pacific Tsunami Museum and Mokupāpapa Discovery Center for Hawaiʻi’s remote coral reefs (currently closed, scheduled to reopen in June 2022). Visiting these and other island of Hawaiʻi museums will allow you to take a step back in time, or get a glimpse of the future.