One of the cool places we visited during our trip to Hawai’i was the Dole Plantation.  The grounds of this beautiful farm were luscious, well manicured and a delight to enjoy for a few hours.  There was a FABULOUS gift shop with all manner of hand-made, authentic Hawai’ian gifts as well as the “cheap” touristy baubles you may expect to find.  And of course – there was DOLE WHIP!!!!!

At the Plantation, one can get lost in the “World’s Largest Maze” – this was gorgeous – and the maze was made out of hibiscus plants!!  Also, you can tour the Dole Plantation botanical gardens (which we did not do in the interest of keeping the toddlers with us entertained) and you can also take a 22 minute train ride tour of the plantation.  Char and I did the maze (again, no toddlers – we would probably still be searching for them) and we all did the train ride!

Such beautiful gardens….and Char and Sable make it even more beautiful!

This maze was gorgeous!!!

This lei gets around!!!

The beautiful red soil of inland O’ahu seems perfect for growing not only pineapples, but also sugar cane, bananas, veggies of all sorts and fruit!  In fact, I am not sure what wouldn’t grow there!!!  The train tour highlighted many of these plants and told the story of the Dole Plantation as well as the rich history of cultivation on the island.  It was fun and informative!

This old machinery was pretty cool looking!

Banana groves

Check out that gorgeous soil!!!

Sable on the train wearing her fancy Hawai’ian gear!

Something else I noticed a lot of on the island as a whole and certainly at the Dole Plantation, was the initiative to use green energy – Dole has a small solar farm on the Plantation and I would guestimate that somewhere between 20-40% of the homes on the island also use solar energy.  I mean – why wouldn’t you????  Every home in the military communities near where my sister lives have solar arrays and businesses do as well.  I haven’t had a chance to research the incentives or company practices for solar, but I love seeing communities embrace the advantages of green energy!

Visiting the Dole Plantation was super fun day and a stop in O’ahu that I would certainly recommend for anyone!  It was easy going, informative, entertaining and worth the money for the tours we took!  I think when my family returns in 2021, we will definitely go back to the Dole Plantation!!!