Pearl Harbor / Circle Island Combo Tours: Why They're Worth It

When you look at the Oahu sightseeing tour marketplace, you'll see that there's usually a theme to each tour. You'll find tours that are all about Pearl Harbor, or the so-called "memorial tours." They're aptly named because they include visits to the USS Arizona Memorial, the USS Missouri (considered to be our nation's WWII bookends), and either the Pacific Aviation Museum or the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum.

You'll also find tours that go around the island--or circle island tours. These are either the full-blown, go-around-the-island-in-one-day tours, or the more leisurely half-day tours that take you through the island's southeastern shore and back to Waikiki.

You also have other tour types such as eco-tours, Honolulu City tours, and shopping tours, but nothing is more popular than Pearl Harbor or going around the island.

It's pretty common to see tourists go on a Pearl Harbor tour on one day and then a circle island tour on the next. But for those who want to see as much of the island as possible in the shortest amount of time, nothing beats a circle island tour combined with a visit to Pearl Harbor.

Often called Pearl Harbor / Circle Island Combo tours, these activities usually include a full-blown visit to the USS Arizona Memorial and continue on a 120-mile sightseeing extravaganza of the island. Combo tours such as this not only saves you time, but is generally cheaper than going on two or more separate tours.

One drawback to this is that you only get to visit the USS Arizona Memorial and nothing else. You can't visit any of the other Pearl Harbor attractions as the tour won't have enough time to visit other sites along the rest of the tour.

Also, unlike most circle island tours that highlight either Waimea Valley or Kualoa Ranch as a major tour stop, the circle island portion of the combo tour will only take you to the most common stops around the island that require the least amount of time.

In short, you're exchanging a stop at Kualoa Ranch or Waimea Valley for a stop at the USS Arizona memorial.

To some people, that's a really good compromise.