One of our friends who lives in Hawaii recommended that we go and visit the Dole Plantation as it is the second most-visited tourist attraction in the state of Hawaii. The plantation is located near Wahiawa in the central part of the island of Oahu which is on the North side of Hawaii.
We have been told that it originally operated as a fruit stand beginning in 1950 and the Dole Plantation opened to the public as Hawaii’s “Pineapple Experience” in 1989. Today, they state that the Dole Plantation is one of Oahu’s most popular visitor attractions and welcomes more than one million visitors a year.
So we started our day after breakfast. We went there with two of our friends and their daughter.
It took us around 45 minutes to get there and it was a pleasant drive. It looked really busy as parking was almost full and we could see many tourist buses. At the front of the building there is a big sign and also on the front lawn they used different plants to spell out DOLE. As tourists do, we took some photos in front of the building.
From there we went inside through the gift shop and joined a long queue to purchase their famous Dole Whip. Dole Whip is a pineapple-flavored soft serve and it is served many different ways – in a cup, in a cone, with cherry or pineapple topping, or floating in a glass of fresh pineapple juice.
We decided to buy the kids their own ice-cream which was a big mistake as the serving was so big that not even the adults finished their ice-cream. I thought one serve would easily feed 3 adults but then I could see people around us who were eating bigger serves than ours.
After the ice-creams we decide to go on their most popular attraction, a 20-minute train ride aboard the Pineapple Express. Tickets are $10.50 per adult and $8.50 for children ages 4-12. Children under 4 are free.
We waited around 10 minutes in the queue for our turn. Once on board, the train took us through two miles of plantation scenery while a recorded voice narrates the history of Dole and provides information about many tropical fruits and plants.
As we travelled slowly through the plantation, we could not only see the pineapple plantation but we saw the equipment used to harvest pineapples, as well as other products grown at Dole Plantation, such as coffee, lime, lemon, bananas, sugar cane etc.
Chhori really liked the train and when another train passed us, she got really excited.
As we got closer to the end place, Chhori fell asleep on my arms. So we skipped the tour of the gardens and the maze. 
There was also a nice pond with lots of Koi fish where you could get fish food to feed them.
On our way out, we passed through the gift shop where I could see lots of souvenir, food products, jewelry, accessories, clothing, toys etc.
Overall, we liked our trip to Dole and I recommend the trip if you have half day while you are in Hawaii.
Take care,
M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO
nepaliaustralian 