Reviewed by: Ron and Gayle Colby
This tour was booked as a surprise to me by my husband, Ron, and our daughter on the occasion of my 70th birthday, along with a two-week vacation to Hawaii. I have long wanted to see the USS Arizona Memorial, as my father and stepfather were both in the armed services during World War II. The tour is given by a sharp US Navy crew and the dignity and remembrance of our gallant fighting men of all armed service branches is preserved. There are always some in the tour group, usually under 30, who haven't a clue as to what the horrors of war are; their actions echo their folly. The Royal Star drivers were knowledgeable and humorous when appropriate. The tour on the USS Missouri was given by Marc and you would've thought he was there as he described the battleship's statistics and history. The reality of what war does to people who are in it, no matter what side they are on, was once again brought home. I am so glad this was arranged by my thoughtful family. It took awhile for me to
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Bob
Visiting Pearl Harbor was the main reason I wanted to go to Hawaii. This tour was Superb!!! Nick was our tour guide, and he was so good at showing us everything and telling us things that you'd never find otherwise. I absolutely recommend this tour and, if I ever go back to Hawaii, I will go on it again.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Mike B
Our travel agent suggested this tour as a great way to see Pearl Harbor and downtown Honolulu, and she was right on the money! Our guides were friendly and very informative sharing lots of detail, Pearl Harbor was moving and very special, and the USS Missouri was impressive. This is a great tour, though you spend a lot of time on the shuttle while going through Honolulu
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Mr. Anonymous
The tour to Pearl Harbour and the US Arizona was very interesting and educational. We are not Americans and were impressed at the objectivity apparent in the various museums and displays. The Arizona Memorial is moving, all the more so as it is still leaking oil and we are forced to remember that it is something real, not a recreation or imagined scene.
Our guide, Frank, was personable and full of stories and information. He was fun!
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Sheri Scribe
Our tour guide Patty was terrific! She had the task of trying to get a busload of tourists stay on schedule. She was patient and kind even when she should have been frustrated with the people who were consistently late for everything from pickup to meeting up with the rest of the group when assigned, but you would never know it! Due to some of the group being late we were not able to stop and see everything that was on the schedule. Patty did drive us by the sites but we could not stop and take pictures and explore. I guess that is part of being in a tour.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Mr. Anonymous
This was the best tour to start out a trip to Oahu. It let you see what all the island has to offer so you can decide what you want to go back and see more of.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: mama d
Everyone should experience this tour sometime during their life. The memorial is a tragic, yet holy and beautiful tribute to our fallen military who died so suddenly on Dec. 7, 1941.
The tour operator was very informative and treated everyone like family. The downtown tour was full of history and tidbits shared by our driver, "Cousin Jerry", a full blooded older Hawaiian gentleman.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Feb72011
Tours are only as good as it's tour guides and Kenn was good. Travelling with 3 generations of women, I was able to sit back, relax and let Kenn do his magic. A Morgan Freeman like masterpiece, The women, mother, wife and niece, were bringing up his name long after the tour ended. The 11 hours passed by quickly. Well worth the money. Mahalo
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Gary
I have booked all my Pearl Harbor Tours over the years with Hawaii Activities and have always had a great day. This was a new tour being offered and I thought that it would be the perfect tour that would allow me to visit four major WWII sites in one full comprehensive day. It met all of my expectations and then some. The actual tour was very informative and moving. Our driver/guide, Francis, did a fantastic job during a day filled with problems. First, the bus was running late with all the different pick-ups and it didn’t reach my hotel until a half-hour after my scheduled pick-up time. Then we had to meet another bus and transfer all those people to our bus. This made us later yet and put us right in the middle of the slow moving rush hour morning traffic. When we finally got to the Arizona Memorial we were running behind. Then when it was our turn to finally enter the movie room, the electricity went out in the entire Visitor Center. We had to skip the movie and head right
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Friends |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Jes
The 6 of us were in Hawaii at Christmas 2009. Our ages ranged from 60 down to 5. We enjoyed this tour & "owboy" was great. He was so knowledgable & definetly had a sense of humor. He treated everyone of us like very good friends. We all felt really special. He gave us many tips of beating the crowds & best seating areas at the Arizona Memorial. We were taken to many great places all around the island. It was nice to be able to get out of the vehicle to actually stand on the beaches & get wet. The Mac Nut Farm had free tasting. YUM... We witnessed a pineapple carving at the Dole Plantation. We saw new pineapple fields & a religious shrine area. The tops of the cliffs gave us awesome sights. We even saw some whales playing out in the ocean along with watching the blow hole. Cowboy even gave my grandaughters some very cute young coconut souveniors that he picked up & made faces/heads out of. He explained many different features of the islands including a lot of history to help us understa
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Mr. Anonymous
Our guide (Hana) was wonderful. He made the entire tour worth it. The Pearl Harbor part of the tour is very moving. And the sites of the Island were just amazing. Even got to see them making a movie about the girl that was surfing and lost her arm to a shark a few years ago. The movie will be called "Lone Surfer".
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Mr. Anonymous
What a tremendous pleasure it was to be on this tour. The guide, Greg was very good at his job. Loved it. Helps to know what to come back to investigate further and come back we will.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Mr. Anonymous
Great tour! Kenn was an awesome tour guide.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Friends |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Meg Amor
This Home of the Brave tour was absolutely fantastic. We looked at a lot of tours but this one sounded the most interesting. And it certainly out to be so.
From start to finish our brilliant tour guide Olav told us fascinating and riveting information on the Pearl Harbour attack - a lot that we didn't know! He is a mine of information and as a tour guide he was one of the best I've ever been on a tour with. Great easy style, marvellous interesting information, and a good sense of humor. He got everyone organized without any fuss or muss and was fun to be with.
What this man doesn't know about Pearl Harbour - I wouldn't think is much. He had pictures and played big band music, clips, and riveting information on all sorts of levels, fun, factual, historical, the spies, the politics, the battle. Very very good.
I would highly recommend this tour. Nice smallish group - about 20 people and it was easy. Loved this tour. Excellent leader and well worth the money. Thanks
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Shayna
I have always had great respect and admirsation for the men and women of our armed forces, but attending the tour of Pearl Harbor increased that exponentially. I had tears in my eyes at the USS Arizona Memorial. The aren't words to describe the experience of learning what happening to all of those men on December 7, 1941. After we left the memorial we went on the Circle Island tour. As a first time visitor to Hawaii, I was in awe of the beauty this island possesses. The staff on the tour was great! Kanoelani and Ken were amazing, insightful, friendly, and very informative. They made a GREAT tour spectactular!!!
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Friends |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Mr. Anonymous
This was our first trip to HI. I definitely recommend this tour! They were prompt in picking us up, the guide was funny and informative and we hit all the highlights of Oahu. It was great to get an overview of what the island had to offer. We really enjoyed ourselves!
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Bob Johnson
My 16yr old son and I really enjoyed our tour. Our guide "Nick" added so much to the tour. Nicks knowledge of the tour facts and the history involved were incredible! Nick lead us on a fantastic journey of information. We were totally taken care of and treated like family! I highly recommend this tour to anyone considering it! On behalf of my son and I, thankyou Hawaii Activities! P.S. Thanks Nick!
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Dave Anderson
The only thing I would say is get there early, but it was the finest experiences I have had. We got to see what we wanted to see and I went to Ernie Pyle's marker. I went to Indiana University and the Joun Bldg is named for him.
Peace and Freedom
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Ken
Keloni our tour guide was not only knowledgeable, but very personable. Within moments she was calling all 18 of us by our first name. Impressive! the tour gave us enough info as to where to visit during our vacation. Two thumbs up.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: VMJTexas
A wish of a lifetime fulfilled. No disappointments here.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Oregon Traveler
I looked at several sites trying to decide which tour to use for our Pear Harbor Tour and chose using Hawaiian Activities because they provided the best description of the tour companies. It was easy to book on-line and when I called to ask what time the bus would pick us up at the hotel, the customer service agent immediately called the company to find out. That to me is service so I booked with them. Booking before you arrive on the island makes life so much easier because everywhere you look, there are tours being promoted and it can be confusing.
The company I chose did a marvelous job. Our coach was clean and air conditioned and the driver/tour guide was marvelous. He told us so much about the history of Hawaii that his narration brought so much more value to the tour. The same applied to the tour guide we had for the USS Missouri. He brought the signing of the armistice with General McArthur, the Allies and the Japanese to life in ways no history book can.
I will def
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Mr and Mrs B.
My husband and I had the honor of meeting 2 of the 5 remaining Pearl Harbor War Veterans. This was truly an HONOR.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Travelers from PA
First time to Hawaii, this definitely was a must see. Our tour guide was very informative, he himself served in the military. He kept us on schedule, we had no long lines to stand in to receive our tickets, our guide received the tickets directly from the booth for our entire group, allowing us to enter promptly. The tour of Pearl Harbor was a very solemn reminder of the cost that has been paid to sustain our nation's freedom. Enjoyed the tour of the USS Missouri, the ship is massive, tour guide did a wonderful job pointing out the facts and point of interests on the ship. The tour of the Pucnchbowl & downtown was just as good. Our guide again shared alot of interesting facts & info. Well worth the time.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Max
The tour was what you'd expect about the Pearl Harbor experience. Our driver was exceptional! He was really friendly, helpful, and went beyond our expectations. At one point as I was talking to my wife on the cell phone (in Fl), I gave him the phone and he talked to her. When the Punchbowl visit was closed for some reason, he took us to another location to enjoy. He offered to drop us off at the swap meet and come back for us at a later time, which wasn't even a part of our tour. Our hotel wasn't a designated drop-off point but he took us there and dropped us off there anyway. I'd definitely book with this company again!
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Wally F
Our group thoroughly enjoyed this excursion. Our tour guide/bus driver, Garfield, was amusing and extremely knowledgeable. The bus was very comfortable.
We recommend this excursion to anyone interested in seeing the WWII sites at Pearl Harbor as well as the Punchbowl Cemetery.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Families |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Bruce
Arizona part was incredible. Missouri tour a little disappointing since my dad served on the ship & I wanted to know more. Tour kind of rushed us thru. Need more time on the MO & less time in Punchbowl.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: 20th Anniversary
Five Star all around. Dennis was brimming with knowledge and provided much entertainment for the entire tour. Tour was whole day but worth it. Being in a small coach was immeasurably better than a large coach. Plenty of stops and time at each stop. A great way to drive and see whole Island to plan where you might want to rent a car and go back to. For limited time visitors this tour takes you everywhere and can provide you with the information and taste of Oahu. It made seeing Pearl Harbor the easiest way to attend without having to stand on forever lines for a ticket. Visits to Dole, Mac Nut and Coffee, provided many free samples to decide flavors and excellent prices to buy those gifts for home. We even got great cheap T-shirts at the Sunset Beach. Sightseeing, History and Shopping all in one package! Leave the driving to those that know the Island and enjoy a fun day.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Mr. Anonymous
Our tour driver had 20 years experience and was a fantastic person and very knowledgeable. The tour guides that took over at the various sights were top notch.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Couples |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: Nancy
Excellent Tour. Our guide, Leo C., was very entertaining and informative.
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
Reviewed by: The Metcalf Family
We took the Pearl Harbor tour with the Missouri. Sandy was our tour guide and she was fantastic! Very nice, fun and entertaining, plus knowledgeable. The bus was really big and comfortable (not like most of the yucky shuttles) and Sandy drove around Waikiki effortlessly. Amazing!
The Arizona Memorial is a must-see, although it is not exciting so kids are easily bored. On the other hand, the tour of the Missouri is great for all ages. We did the audio tour with the iTouch device, and my 13-year-old thought it was like an adventure to find the next location. We were able to explore and listen at our convenience.
The Punchbowl was closed for Memorial Day, but Sandy took us to Pal"i lookout, which was a beautiful sight and the drive up was very informational too.
Overall, a terrific tour that we are so glad we did and the price was VERY affordable. Many of the tours I saw were way over-priced, as I cannot see what they could offer over the tour we took.
We were much
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Packages: | Test Package |
Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Posted on: | 2013/01/03 |
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Reply from activity provider
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Aloha Meg,
Thank you for joining us on Home of the Brave Tours. Olav has been with our company for many years now. We are so proud to have him be a part of our team. Your positive reviews continue to inspire us to keep doing what we do best - making history come alive. Thank you so much!
Aloha,
Janet Tomlinson
Home of the Brave Tours