Here is the first of my Hawaii blog posts, and I guess I will start off with the worst attraction of the trip, which was the Dole Plantation in Oahu. I did not have a bad time at the Dole Plantation, but I was surprised of the overall tackiness of the attraction. Going to the Dole Plantation was like going to one of the overpriced, tacky shops in Niagara Falls.
The Dole Plantation is an attraction in Oahu that is all about pineapples. The site started as a fruit stand in the 1950s but grown to become a tourist attraction that sells all kinds of pineapple-related goods and has various activities. The activities you can do include exploring a large garden maze, walking through the plantation garden, and taking a 20-minute train ride through the pineapple plantation itself.
I decided to take the train ride through the plantation, and I can tell you that this was a waste of $13 USD. You take your seat on the train and the train starts moving through the plantation extremely slowly. On one side, you can see big fields of pineapples growing in the ground, and the other side has other various plants, fruits, and vegetables that the Dole Plantation is growing. While the train is chugging along, the PA is playing a recording of the story of the formation of the Dole Company and its impact on the local industry. I did not find the story all that interesting, and I almost felt like the plantation was feeding me some propaganda or something. The whole train ride felt uninteresting and lame.
The main building of the Dole Plantation was a big shop of overpriced pineapple related-goods and souvenirs. There were booths just outside the building of other vendors selling souvenirs, while the inside had a restaurant and sweets shop, where you can purchase the famous Dole Whip. Dole Whip is basically pineapple ice cream, and it was quite tasty, though I wondered if I accidentally got the lemon flavor instead.
Overall, I would not recommend going on any of the attractions at the Dole Plantation, but if you find yourself going to the North Shore in Oahu, it may be worth stopping by the shop at the plantation. Just keep in mind that the prices are even more ridiculous than usual in Hawaii.
More pictures below, though I did not even take that many because the place is that disinteresting:
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