Destination Information - Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Honolulu is on the south shore of Oahu; it dominates the island, and the city's government administers all of Oahu. The island itself is a volcanic mass divided into sections by two separate mountain ranges. Both ranges run northwest to southeast: the Waianae Range on the western side of the island, and the Koolau Range to the east. The Koolau separates the city of Honolulu and its hotel-choked neighborhood of Waikiki from the windward side of the island and the towns of Kailua and Kaneohe. Travelers can take one of three tunnels — Pali, Likelike or the H-3 freeway — to cross from one side to the other. Between the two mountain ranges is a central plain. To the south of this plain is Pearl Harbor; to the north is the legendary surfing area known as the North Shore.

Honolulu's neighborhoods have distinctive identities. The office buildings of downtown Honolulu are just north of Honolulu Harbor. To the east of downtown is Waikiki, which is bordered by Diamond Head. Makiki Heights, to the north of downtown, surrounds the Punchbowl, a crater that is the home of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Inland from Waikiki is lovely, rainy Manoa, where you will find the University of Hawaii. Farther east are Hawaii Kai and Kahala, both known for their expensive homes.

The history of Honolulu is really the history of Oahu. The island was an independent fiefdom controlled by a succession of Polynesian chiefs until the 1780s. That's when the ambitious king of Maui, Kahekili, conquered Oahu and killed its chief — his own stepson — in a bid to enlarge his territories. After Kahekili's death, his sons battled one another for control of the islands. This division made it easier for the now-legendary Kamehameha I to conquer all of the Hawaiian Islands. With the help of Westerners with firearms, Kamehameha's troops took Oahu in 1795 in a rout that ultimately forced the defenders to flee to the mountains behind Honolulu and over the cliffs at Nuuanu Pali. His court was set up in Waikiki, then moved to Honolulu in 1809.