Kauaʻi Museum — Attraction in Kauai

I’d like to first give a shout-out to the OUTSTANDING staff at this museum. They were very kind and informative. I lost my sunglasses somewhere in the museum and when I asked the cashier if they found any she was very proactive about calling the other employees and took down my phone number in case they found them. Luckily, they found the sunglasses and called me before we left the parking lot! You don’t get that kind of hospitality and genuine helpfulness everywhere you go, so it was much appreciated!

We’re a properly nerdy museum family so we were excited to stop by and take in some Kaua’i history here. The museum is housed in a historically significant building representing an attempt to blend traditional western architectural features with local Hawaiian forms and materials. The collection is diverse and thorough, including artifacts from pre-colonization Hawaiian history right up through Kauai’s rich surfing tradition. Our teenage daughters seemed a little bored at times, but they enjoyed a few things and hopefully picked up on some of what makes Hawaiian culture special.

We also found a good podcast about Hawaiian history (not affiliated with the museum) called Offshore that helped supplement some of our Hawaiian cultural education. One we really liked (season 4, episode 4) explored the invention and propagation of the steel guitar: a significant Hawaiian contribution to many types of American music.

This museum isn’t huge, so you can speed run it if you need a quick fix or spend an hour admiring the intricacies of local hat weaving practices like I did (sorry kids). Definitely go and support your local cultural institution if you need a little break from the sun...

Visiting a museum on a Hawaiian vacation?!?! Well, what else are you going to do on rainy day? It looks small from the outside, but the museum is packed with lots of stuff, lots of information, and lots to read! It's all very interesting, but like most history, its written by the winners not the losers. Most of the "history" was presented in a very white-washed 1960s-1970s style perspective.

-They say King Kamehameha "united" the Hawaiian Islands. That's another way of saying he was a warmonger and murderer whom killed anyone whom opposed his supreme role. Thousands of native Hawaiians dead.

-The Sugar Plantations seem to be glorified. How much deforestation, loss of wildlife habitat, land evictions, and native vegetation destruction occurred for sugar?

-Glorification of Plantation workers..."Mom, Dad, when I grow up I want to work on a sugar plantation under the hot Hawaiian sun, low wages, and little prospect for growth!" - No One Ever

-The "great" Captain Cook allegedly "discovered" Hawaii. Just FYI: Humans were already there centuries before these white colonists showed up, and Captain Cook was another murderer, kidnapper, and looter. Glad the natives eventually got sick of this evil imperialist and killed him off, on Valentine's day in fact!

-The Hawaiians were basically forced to give up their land's for America's Imperialists. All the historical try to make it sound as if it was a team effort.

Interesting museum overall, just needs to brought up to at least 1990s standards, maybe even...

Must stop for those who love history. It is a small museum and took us about an hour and a half just reading and viewing the beautifully kept artifacts. You park behind the museum (front faces the street.) And enter from the front, pay admission at the gift shop. $15 per adult and $10 for (12-17 yo I believe.)

They have an exhibition in the back courtyard area that closes at 3pm so we rushed there to view for 15 min before moving back into main museum.

There were so many photos and articles to read, too bad we arrived in the afternoon. But interesting fact I didn't know was the German immigrants who had their own school in Kauai. And the Russian immigration as well.

They had the surfboard exhibition with photos and tidbits of famous surfers. They had a Paniolo section and even furniture from the 1800s on display. It was like stepping back in time.

My keikis loved reading about King Kaumuali'i including how he was kidnapped and forced to marry by Queen Kaumualu after King Kamehameha I died. Loved that! Definitely didn't read about it in our history textbooks growing up.

The portraits of the Monarchs along the wall and artifacts were beautiful and a sight to see. There was a handmade miniature statues of all the monarchs that was donated by a family. It was exquisite with the fine details.

Definitely make this a stop on your visit to Kauai! The gift shop had a great selection also. We bought a couple hats that was made of Koa wood....