Visiting Oahu? Check Out the Dole Plantation!
When you think of educational discovery tours in Oahu, your first thoughts probably go to the Pearl Harbor Tour. But no visit to Oahu is complete without exploring the educational discovery tours available on the Dole Plantation.
The Dole Plantation Tour takes visitors through the working plantation that also serves as the historical site where James Drummond Dole expanded the local fruit into one of Hawaii’s biggest exports and a staple for many US households.
In the centuries following the discovery of the new world, sailors returned to New England and displayed the exotic fruit on their porch to show that they were home and ready to visit with friends. This transformed pineapples into a well-known symbol of hospitality. Pineapples became a centerpiece of luxurious American banquet dinners and even George Washington grew them in his hothouse at Mount Vernon.
It’s unknown when and how the first pineapple arrived in Hawaii. In fact, they’re referred to in Hawaiian as “halakahiki” or foreign fruit. Several sailors and adventurers are credited with raising crops, but it was the Dole company that brought pineapples to national attention.
Visitors to the Dole Plantation can participate in a number of educational discovery tours that explore this rich history in ways that are fun, interactive and memorable.
The Dole Plantation features the world’s largest garden maze, which sprawls across three acres and contains almost two and a half miles of paths. The maze is one of only a handful of permanent garden mazes in the United States and contains 14,000 beautiful Hawaiian plants.
Visitors can also ride the Pineapple Express across the plantation’s beautiful landscape, getting a unique glimpse inside a working plantation while taking in the many gorgeous sights the area has to offer.
The Plantation Garden Tour takes visitors through the plantation’s eight gardens and offers a colorful glimpse of the many other crops raised in and exported from the plantation and other sites in Hawaii. These include cacao plants, coffee plants, and other tropical marvels.
The Dole Plantation features some of the most popular guided tours in Oahu. If you get a chance to visit Oahu, don’t miss the chance for you and your children to explore its many engaging features!
