Waipahu was one of Oʻahu’s last plantation towns and this outdoor museum tells the story of life on the sugar plantations. Though the village is definitely showing its age, you can still learn plenty about the lives of plantation workers on the 90-minute tour.
It starts on the hour and takes in buildings typical of an early-20th-century plantation: a Chinese cookhouse, a Japanese shrine and replicated homes of the seven ethnic groups – Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Puerto Rican and Filipino – that worked the fields. To get there by car from Honolulu, take the H-1 Fwy to exit 7, turn left onto Paiwa St, then right onto Waipahu St.
