We visited Kualoa Ranch twice during our trip to Oahu. The area was very beautiful, especially for a private ranch. The owner of the ranch used the funds of the tours to maintained the ranch as a sanctuary.
I picked 2 tours for our trip. Our first tour was the Grown Farm Tour in the morning. I used our Go City Pass to reserve our tour. First, you have to go to their website. The cost starts at $54.95 for adult and $41.83 for kids. Go City will give you a promo code which will bring the cost down to $0. The ranch charges $1 per person to reserve which are then refunded back to your credit card after the tour.
I received several emails confirming my reservations. They also asked me to send my Go City QR code the day before the tour to expedite the check in process.
The check in process was a breeze. I went in there and showed my ID and they printed out my ticket for our group. We got lucked out because there were only 2 other groups in the tour. It wasn’t long until we were in the trolley for our first of the three stop.
During our first stop, we saw some birds native to the islands, my favorite being the red crested cardinal. We also saw some native farming process for both plant and fish. During our stop we sampled some poi, smoked fish and pineapple. Our stop has a great view of the Kualoa Mountain Ranges.
Our next stop was all about the large man made fish pond that were maintained my the ranch. It was pointed out that several movies were shot there, like 50 first dates. I don’t recognize the rest. It was of course beautiful. During this stop, we get to sample a Macadamia Nut and we have to open it ourselves. It was my first time seeing a macadamia nut in a shell. Apparently, you need a special tool to open it. It was delicious and tasted very buttery.
Our last stop was to see more of the farm and also the place they shot Jurassic World. This ranch is actually very famous because of all the movies that were shot here, most famous is probably the original Jurassic Park. We sampled some cocoa and again it was my first time eating eat. It’s like eating rambutan because you don’t really eat the beans. MBP enjoyed it. I find it too slimy.
We then went back to the welcome area, just in time for lunch. Overall, I enjoyed this tour. The movie tour is so popular but this tour actually has some sites as well without the crowd. There were plenty of time for the kids to run around and chase the birds.
The next tour we took also in Kualoa Ranch is the Secret Island Tour. Since we are using our Go City Pass, we have to go on a different day. It works well for our schedule. We took a more scenic route to go to the ranch on our way. We also picked the best day because it rain just the day before that. The Secret Island Tour was probably my favorite activity that we did in Oahu. Similar to Grown Tour, I made a reservation in advance and was charged $4. The $4 was refunded on my credit card on the day of the tour. They asked us to checked in at 11AM as the bus will leave at 11:30. Similar to Grown Tour, I received an e-mail asking for my Go City Pass which I sent a day before. This must be a popular time because there was a line to checked in. Once I got my pass, we sat down on one of the benches to eat our pack lunch. We also changed to our swimsuits and put on our sunscreen.
The tour was running late and there were probably 60+ people. It was a bit crowded waiting in line. We took a bus to the pond and took a 10 minute boat ride to the island. The ride gave us a great view of the mountain. It was really cool. Once we got there, a guide showed us the bathroom, changing room and told us the do’s and dont’s — really common sense for everyone. We also signed up for a boat tour to see some turtles. Once we got there, the kids went to the ocean right away. There were plenty of sand toys for the kids. There were also plenty of shelter, volleyball court, horse shoe, ping pong table and corn hole. MBP played it all except for the horse shoe. When it was time to board the boat, we saw a spectacular view and about 10 or so turtles. They’re like showing off! It was really cool. Back on the beach, Mr. MMD and I also tried stand up paddle boarding and we took the kids on a kayak ride. We didn’t go far, but it was really cool to get to do all these water activities. MBP also watched some family play beach volleyball. He apparently kept score for them. We stayed there until 3PM and were the last one to board the boat back.
As I said, this was probably my favorite activity. The beach was calm and the island gave us plenty of opportunities to do some water activities. It also never felt crowded.
Overall, I definitely recommend visiting Kualoa Ranch. I can’t speak for their other tours but I enjoyed the Grown Farm Tour and the Secret Island Tour.
