I’ve talked so often about the cultural exchange that comes with travel that I sound like a broken record. However, I’ve been gifted the opportunity to live abroad in various locations for one year at a time. I will not waste that gift. While it’s amazing fun to see all the famous sights and check them off my bucket list, learning about the culture that I’m immersed in is equally important to me. I would want someone to do it for me, after all. Iolani Palace in Honolulu on the island of Oahu is both. It is an occasion to check something off your Hawaii bucket list and it also represents a moment of critically important education.
Iolani Palace – Worth the Visit
I love historic home tours anyway, so visiting Iolani Palace in Honolulu was always on my Hawaii list. I read Hawaii’s Story by Queen Lili’uokalani, and consequently, couldn’t wait to see the pretty building and understand better the history I had read.
Iolani Palace is the only royal palace in the United States. However, if you think about that fact and take the line of thought one step further, you’ll inevitably say to yourself, “Why does the United States have a royal palace?”
The answer is simply this: The United States of America forced a sovereign nation to relinquish its own independence and then absorbed it. Hawaii became a US territory (by annexation) in 1898 and a US state in 1959.
Location & Tickets
The palace is in downtown Honolulu, so depending on where you are staying it is either extremely convenient or slightly less convenient. I was staying downtown, so for me, it was a 5-minute walk from my hotel. If you are on Waikiki beach, however, it will be more like a 30-minute bus ride. There is very limited parking, so I do recommend public transportation.
Purchase tickets on their website in advance. Typically, just a couple of weeks in advance is enough time to secure a place. However, in January (2026) on my first visit to Honolulu, I was out of luck because a special annual rally was taking place on the grounds, so the palace was closed to the public. In planning for my second visit to Honolulu in February, I was able to secure two tickets with ease. We paid $28/person for a self-guided audio tour. There are also several types of guided tours available, but each type is available on specific days of the week, so read carefully.
Know before you go: There is no flash photography permitted inside. Bags are also not allowed inside, though there is a place for you to check a bag/bagpack if you need to. You will be provided with little protective booties to wear over your shoes.
The Building
King David Kalakaua had the Iolani Palace built between 1879-1882. He was so fascinated by the invention of electric lights that he spent his own funds to have them installed in the palace. It was one of the first royal palaces in the world to have electric lights (four years before the White House). His bedroom even has a telephone that allowed him to call downstairs to his staff. Overall, the Hawaiian people were educated and literate. At any given time, between 80% and 90% of their population could read. King Kalakaua was fluent in Hawaiian and English and was a voracious reader. In touring his rooms upstairs, visitors can see his library and music collection. He and his sister, Queen Lili’uokalani, were gifted musicians and are credited with writing many musical compositions.
The central staircase in the palace captured my heart immediately. I took umpteen zillion photos of it. It was constructed of Hawaiian Coralwood and accented with woods from California and the Pacific Northwest.
From King Kalakaua to Queen Lili’uokalani
King Kalakaua visited President Grant in 1874, supposedly making him the first reigning monarch to visit the United States. In 1881, the King was the first monarch to travel around the world.
Unfortunately, while on a trip to San Francisco in 1891, he became ill and died. He and his attendants sailed for home, but with no way to communicate with Honolulu, his family and subjects were unaware of his passing. In fact, it wasn’t until they saw his approaching ship rounding Diamond Head draped in black that they realized they had lost their monarch.
His sister became Queen after his death. Today, throughout the palace, there are royal clothes on display from several of the monarchs. A few years ago, several groups worked together to recreate a couple of the historic gowns worn by the female monarchs. These recreations are accented with ostrich feathers or peacock feathers. Queen Kapi’olani wore the blue gown in London to Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. See one of Queen Victoria’s homes here. Queen Victoria had requested that guests wear clothes that represented their native culture. Therefore, Queen Kapi’olani chose to wear the blue gown because it incorporated featherwork, which was unique to Hawaiian royalty. To say the gowns are stunning is quite an understatement.
A Very Brief History
During the time King Kalakaua was in power, a meeting of anti-royalists led, in part, by Sanford Dole (from the pineapple company) and Peter Cushman Jones (from the sugarcane plantation industry) forced King Kalakaua to sign a new Constitution. Known as the Bayonet Constitution (because of the threat of violence if he didn’t sign), this document forced the King to dismiss his cabinet and stripped him of much of his authority. It also allowed foreigners to vote in Hawaiian political matters as long as they met two conditions. They needed an income of $600 or had to own taxable property of at least $3000. This excluded two-thirds of the residents. The second condition was that they had to speak English and a European language (which ruled out the high Chinese population).
During her reign, Queen Lili’uokalani wanted to strengthen the political power of the Hawaiian monarchy. Unfortunately, there were political and business interests working against her. There were several petitions by native Hawaiians requesting that the Queen’s absolute right to rule be restored. But the financial and political foes from the mainland proved too strong. In 1895, a group of royalists tried to restore her to power. They failed, were arrested and tried for treason. They were all sentenced to death.
Queen Lili’uokalani was arrested and sentenced to 5 years in prison and hard labor. However, she gave up the throne in exchange for the lives of the captured royalists. Her sentence was subsequently reduced to house arrest in one room of Iolani Palace. Her imprisonment in that room lasted for 8 months. Eventually, the new government paroled her and she traveled to Washington DC to encourage President Cleveland to end the provisional government (which was led by Mr. Dole from the pineapple industry) and restore her right to rule. She was not successful and in 1898 President McKinley in a joint resolution with Congress annexed Hawaii into the United States.
The Throne Room – Two Uses
The beautiful throne room on the first floor of Iolani Palace was the location of many important events (some happy & some sad) in Hawaiian history. Monarchs were crowned, balls hosted, and more. Tragically, Queen Lili’uokalani’s trial (some say kangaroo court) took place in this room as well.
Final Thought
Having toured palaces throughout Europe, my husband and I both walked away with the same impression of this place. Iolani Palace wasn’t anything like any European palace we have seen. While many European palaces are ostentatious and gaudy, Iolani Palace is not. Yes, it is elaborate, of course. However, it gives the impression of a restrained elegance that projects understated beauty and good taste. To illustrate what I mean by this, review the pictures in this post and then look at the photo below that I took in 2024 at a palace in Wurzburg, Germany.
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