USS Arizona Memorial - Honolulu, Hawaii

Visit the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. During your visit to Hawaii, take time out from the beaches to tour one of the most impressive historic landmarks within the state. The USS Arizona Memorial located in Pearl Harbor is a fascinating and moving memorial of one of the most infamous attacks on U.S. soil in history. It is the final resting place for crewmen who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941.

Several different attractions at the Memorial detail the history of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the actual attack, and the general history behind the memorial itself. There are exhibits onshore in addition to that provided at the floating Memorial.

A tour of the USS Arizona Memorial begins at the site’s Visitor Center. In order to take your tour of the Memorial, you must obtain a numbered ticket. Tickets are issued on a first-come, first-serve basis, and if you visit during peak visitation months (summer especially), there is likely to be a delay of several hours before your tour begins.

You can take advantage of the wait time before your tour to explore the resources at the Visitor’s Center. There are two theaters, a museum, and several exhibits on the Pearl Harbor attack at the Center. There is also a bookstore and a snack bar. Outside the Visitor’s Center, you can visit shoreline exhibits and the Remembrance Circle.

Guided tours of the USS Arizona Memorial begin with a short documentary film that depicts the Pearl Harbor attack. You will then take a short Navy shuttle boat trip to the Memorial, where you can than take a self-guided tour.

The Memorial is a nearly 200-foot long structure that spans the mid-portion of the sunken battleship, the USS Arizona. On your tour you’ll see the entry and assembly rooms, a central room that is used for ceremonies and observation, and the shrine room. A marble wall at the shrine contains the names of all of the crewmen killed on the USS Arizona.

If you would like to take a narrated tour of the Memorial during your visit, you can rent an audio headset. The narrated tour lasts one hour, and it includes stops at 24 destinations at the Memorial. Pearl Harbor Survivors recount their memories of the day of the tragedy during the narrated tour.

You may bring a camera or camcorder on your visit to the USS Arizona Memorial, but all types of bags that could allow for concealment are prohibited due to security measures. You can take advantage of a storage facility to safeguard purses, handbags, camera bags, backpacks and other types of bags you may normally carry.