Kilauea Visitor Center & Museum

Top choice in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park

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Stop here first on your visit to Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Extraordinarily helpful (and remarkably patient) rangers and volunteers can advise you about volcanic activity, air quality, road closures, hiking-trail conditions and how best to spend however much time you have.

Interactive museum exhibits are small but family-friendly, and will teach even science-savvy adults about the park's delicate ecosystem and Hawaiian heritage. All of the rotating movies are excellent. Pick up fun junior ranger program activity books for your kids before leaving.

Check the outdoor signboards by the entrance for upcoming daily and evening talks, ranger-led hikes and other activities guaranteed to enhance your visit. A well-stocked nonprofit bookstore inside the center sells souvenirs, rain ponchos, walking sticks and flashlights. Wheelchairs are free to borrow. There are also restrooms, a pay phone, and a place to fill up your water bottles.

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

  • Smoke plumes from the Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.

    Kilauea

    1.48 MILES

    Kilauea volcano lies at the center of activity in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The unassuming bump on Mauna Loa's southeast flank would be easily…

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    Halemaʻumaʻu Crater

    1.64 MILES

    The original Halemaʻumaʻu Overlook off Crater Rim Dr was closed in 2008 due to volcanic activity and the very real threat of death. For the next decade,…

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    25.9 MILES

    Beyond the nearly omnipresent green sea turtles basking in the sun, or the rare hawksbill turtles that lay their eggs here (be careful where you walk),…

  • Petroglyphs in lava rock at Pu'uloa along Chain of Craters road, in the Volcanoes National Park. 1200494920 ancient, archeology, art, artwork, carving, chain, civilization, craters, culture, draw, drawing, hawaii, hawaiian, heritage, hill, historic, history, icon, indigenous, island, landmark, lava, loa, long, message, national, native, old, outdoors, park, petroglyph, polynesian, pu'u, pu'uloa, puu, puuloa, road, rock, sacred, spiritual, states, stone, symbol, travel, tribal, tropical, united, usa, volcano, writing

    Puʻu Loa Petroglyphs

    12.9 MILES

    The gentle, 1.3-mile round-trip to Puʻu Loa (roughly, 'hill of long life') leads to one of Hawaiʻi's largest concentrations of ancient petroglyphs, some…

  • Liliuokalani Park, Hilo, East Coast.

    Liliʻuokalani Park

    23.79 MILES

    Arguably Hilo's most beautiful spot, these sprawling Japanese gardens are perfect for picnicking. Named for Hawaii's last queen (r 1891–93), the 30-acre…

  • Akaka Falls, Hamakua Coast, Waimea Reagion.

    ʻAkaka Falls State Park

    29.99 MILES

    The island's best ‘tourist waterfall’ is found at this outstanding, family-friendly park. Walk the paved path counterclockwise, on a loop that traverses…

  • This is a shot of the Kilauea Volcano from the Kilauea Overlook in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, this is a panoramic shot of the caldera of the large Volcano on the south side of The Big Island of Hawaii 1488714858

    Kilauea Iki Overlook

    1.32 MILES

    When 'Little Kilauea' burst open in a fiery inferno in November 1959, it filled the crater with a roiling lake of molten rock fed by a 1900ft fountain…

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Nearby Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park attractions

1. Volcano Art Center

0.08 MILES

Near the Kilauea Visitor Center, this sharp local art gallery spotlights museum-quality pottery, paintings, woodwork, sculpture, jewelry, Hawaiian quilts…

2. Sulphur Banks

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A wooden boardwalk weaves between misty, rocky vents stained chartreuse, yellow, orange and other psychedelic colors by tons of sulfur-infused steam…

3. Steam Vents & Steaming Bluff

0.71 MILES

Creating impressive billowing plumes in the cool early morning, these vents make a convenient drive-up photo op. Hot rocks below the surface boil…

4. Niaulani Campus

1.19 MILES

On the edge of an old-grown ohia forest, this campus of the main Volcano Art Center gallery in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park showcases spillover and…

5. Kilauea Iki Overlook

1.32 MILES

When 'Little Kilauea' burst open in a fiery inferno in November 1959, it filled the crater with a roiling lake of molten rock fed by a 1900ft fountain…

6. Puʻu Puaʻi Overlook

1.33 MILES

Pu'u Pua'i (Gushing Hill) formed when cinder and ash spewing from the 1959 Kilauea Iki fountain was carried southwest on the wind, piling on the rim and…

7. Kilauea

1.48 MILES

Kilauea volcano lies at the center of activity in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The unassuming bump on Mauna Loa's southeast flank would be easily…

8. Lava Tree Molds

1.61 MILES

Near the start of Mauna Loa Rd, there's a turnoff to some neglected lava tree molds – deep wells that formed when lava flows engulfed the rainforest and…