Dole Plantation

Since Sunday was her only full weekend day here, we decided to make a day out of visiting the North Shore. We started by going all in at the Dole plantation and doing the train ride, garden, getting dole whip, and pineapple maze.

Well, we actually started by running into construction on the main highway there and having to take a detour. I was really nervous we’d need to go the long way around, but it was a short portion and we got on the highway a bit later. It was a bit serendipitous because we encountered a couple rainbows. (Erin believes this was all part of the plan 😉 ) (p.s. these are all Erin’s photos from her phone, RIP SD card)

I swear the plantation opened at 9am, so we aimed to leave the house at 8am. I was having a slow morning, and then there was a detour, so we ended up arriving at 9:15am. Which was perfect, because Dole doesn’t actually open until 9:30am. We were first in line for the train, which can have waits up to 2 hours. It was pretty rainy in the morning, but again we timed it perfectly up to this point to be in the car or on the train. Later it rained when we were in the garden for a bit.

The train lasts about 20 mins. Here’s us in the garden in front of a full blossomed hibiscus plant.

I would say if I were to go back with Brian, we do the train and dole whip and call it a day. Each activity costs money. They have a combo pass and I think it was $23, but not really necessary to get the full experience. The dole whip was SO GOOD. I think it has been under hyped. I definitely will be returning just for dole whip.

Fun things we learned: Pineapples don’t ripen any further after being picked. It can take almost two years for one plant to produce a pineapple. Dole bought the island of Lanai to grow pineapple.

So happy I knocked this off the bucket list, even if my SD card crapped out while taking pictures.