Hawai'i Maritime Center

Lonely Planet review

Near the Aloha Tower, the Hawai'i Maritime Center is a great place to get a sense of Hawaii's history. The museum covers everything from the arrival of Captain Cook to modern-day windsurfing.The center is home to the 60ft Hokule'a, a double-hulled sailing canoe constructed to resemble boats used by Polynesians in their sea migrations.

Hokule'a has made voyages from Hawaii to the South Pacific, retracing the routes of the early Polynesian seafarers, using only traditional methods of navigation, such as wave patterns and the position of the stars. Another maritime explorer at the center is the 266ft Falls of Clyde, the world's last four-masted four-rigger. Built in 1878 in Glasgow, the Falls first carried sugar and passengers between Hilo (Big Island) and San Francisco, then oil, and finally was stripped down to a barge. Just before she was to be sunk to form part of a breakwater off Vancouver, a Hawaiian group raised funds to rescue and restore her. Visitors can stroll the deck and explore the cargo holds of this National Historic Landmark.Displays on early tourism include a reproduction of a Matson liner stateroom. The cruise-ship company needed a place to bed their passengers so they built Waikiki's Royal Hawaiian and Moana hotels in the early 1900s; the two hotels were sold to Sheraton in 1959, just before tourism became a booming industry.