Dole Plantation, Hawaii | Worth a visit? | FULL GUIDE

Описание: Is visiting the Dole Plantation in Oahu, Hawaii worth it? This video is a full tour of the Dole Plantation Train, Dole Plantation Garden, and yes, can't forget the Dole Whip! Spoiler Alert: I would not recommend adding the Dole Plantation to your Hawaii Travel Itinerary... at least as a full of half day stop. It was too expensive for how below-average it was maintained.
If you've visited the Dole Plantation in Oahu, Hawaii, let me know in the comments your experience!

0:00 Welcome to Dole Plantation
0:52 Gift Shop
1:37 Getting Tickets
2:09 Train: Pineapple Express
3:22 Pineapple Fields!
4:16 Dole Whip
5:20 Jim Dole Fun Facts
5:54 Garden Tour
7:32 Conclusion - Is it worth visiting?




Script:

Before we begin, my favorite fun fact is that Jim Dole once bought the island of Lana'i and it became the world's largest pineapple plantation.
But that was back in the early 1900s, today, spoiler alert, we would
NOT recommend the Dole Plantation as a highlight on your Hawaiian vacation. There was a lot that .. well.. frankly wasn't good. The story
of James Dole was great.. but it's an overpriced tourist trap now. Ok, now let's begin and see why...
.....
Like any good business, you start by entering the gift shop, and this is a large gift shop and it has ADORABLE items. Usually I'd save the gift shop part of the video for last, but there were at least three distinct parts of the gift shop and you have to walk through all of it to get to the pineapple whip and the main grounds, so through the gift shop we begin.
lots of cool and unique things in the gift shop, from chocolate bars to stuffed pineapples, t-shirts, hats, anything you can put a pineapple logo on.

There were options for combo tickets, it was $18.75 for the train/garden
combo ticket. But wait... and I literally mean wait.. because that first line to the train was only one part of the line, they then move you to a secondary
waiting area The train's design was really cute, and however cool it may look, the ride felt like an advertisement because of the songs they kept playing of a Hawaiian band. The songs were good, but they essentially said "please buy this CD in our gift shop" instead of "if you like this song, it is available for purchase." The audio narrator was also hard to hear.
You get to see plants like bananas, avocados, breadfruit, cocoa, coffee, but they didn't seem well maintained. We finally made it to the pineapples!
Harvesting pineapple is difficult with machinery, so it's still done by hand. The first crop takes 18–20 months to be ready for harvest. The next crop takes another 15 months.Planting them isn't any easier as it is done by hand as well! A working pineapple plantation will plant between 27,000 and 33,000 plants per acre. The soil here is incredibly red because it's decomposing volcanic ash, filling the soil with oxidized iron.. and it will stain your shirt.
Off the train and time for Pineapple whip before the garden tour.
there are two sides to the Cafe so remember to pick the less busy side

My favorite part was reading about Jim Dole, who arrived in Hawaii
in 1899. He bought 61 acres and the timing was perfect as the process of canning food was perfected and he could now send fresh pineapple over long distances. He opened their first cannery in 1901 At that time, pineapple was considered a desirable exotic fruit but few westerners knew what to do with one. So between advertising recipes and holding contests, canned pineapple was popularized. For nearly 70 years, the island of Lana'i supplied more than 75% of the world’s pineapple, becoming widely known as the “Pineapple Island.” By 1930 once the business became a worldwide success, he employed about 3,000 permanent and 4,000 seasonal employees.

The gardens were... not extensive... It needed to be free for how small it was and some of these plants I literally saw while waiting outside of Pearl Harbor... so they're not all that unique. All the old equipment was rusting away quickly too it seemed.

Ok let's brighten it up by some photos of the Hawaiian plants.

Conclusion:
I don't highly recommend making this a half day excursion, but rather a short stop on the way to north shore. Hawaii has much more to offer, such as our stop tomorrow at Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling! Subscribe for
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