Kualoa Ranch – Visiting Jurassic Park Hawaii

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My ultimate favorite movie is Jurassic Park. I watched it as a kid, 10 years old and was in awe. My Dad took the heat for taking me to such a disturbing movie for kids (although I loved it). So you can only imagine my child-like excitement when I found out it was possible to visit the filming location of the movie. I too could walk in the footsteps of dinosaurs, and live out my JP dreams. Jurassic Park Hawaii! Say aloha to Kualoa Ranch on Oahu.

I actually had no idea that this place existed until my friends visited on their trip to Oahu earlier in the year. When I saw their photo next to the Jurassic Park sign I begged them to tell me more since I’d just booked my trip to Hawaii.

After relentless badgering I convinced my boyfriend Jeff that this would be a great place to visit. And I’m definitely glad I did.

Where is Kualoa Ranch?

Kualoa Ranch is on Oahu, the most populated island. If like me you managed to get a cheap flight to Hawaii then you’ll perhaps fly into Honolulu. The ranch is on the same island. It’s about an hour’s drive from Honolulu, or Waikiki where we were staying. They do offer transfers for an additional cost, however we decided to take the day to drive around the island a bit in our own rental car.

If it weren’t for a rental car, I don’t think we’d have enjoyed Oahu as much as we did. We managed to get a cheap car rental at our hotel for our stay and it was a life saver. We booked our tour for mid afternoon so that we wouldn’t be rushed to get there. Our day started with a drive up the middle of Oahu to the North Shore, exploring the beautiful beaches of Hawaii, before driving along the coast to Kualoa Ranch.

What tours are available at Kualoa Ranch?

The ranch offers a number of different tours throughout the day. There are options to combine multiple tours with a lunch at the ranch to spend more time there. These are some of the most popular tours – click on each one to book!

UTV Self-Drive Tour

Ever wanted to ride one of those really cool UTVs? The Utility Task Vehicle is kind of like an ATV but can fit more people in. So if you’re traveling with your partner or family this is a great way to explore Kualoa Ranch. You’ll get to drive yourself around the ranch, checking out all the major spots. Don’t worry about getting lost, you’ll be following a tour guide so you get the tour experience with a little more independence.

Horseback Riding Tour

Saddle up and experience Kualoa Ranch in a completely unique way – by taking a slower paced horse walking tour. Spend a couple of hours riding through the lush green valley with epic views everywhere you turn. You’ll have experts with you the whole time who will also be your guides to some of the best sites around Kualoa.

Hollywood Movie Sites Tour

Any movie fan needs to take this tour. You’ll visit the sites from many a popular Hollywood movie – Jurassic Park, King Kong and Jumanji to name a few. Read below for more info about this amazing family-friendly tour.

Jurassic Adventure Tour

If like me you’re a major Jurassic Park fan then this is the tour for you. The tour focuses on the movie franchise filming sites around Kualoa Ranch. Unlike the more enclosed and larger Hollywood Movie Sites tour bus, this smaller, open air vehicle gives you a much better perspective. This might be the coolest tour in 65 million years!

Jungle Expedition Tour

Not as into the movies? More just interested in the natural environment Kualoa Ranch has to offer? The Jungle Expedition Tour is the perfect way to go deep into nature and see some of the best wilderness on Oahu. This smaller off-road vehicle will make you feel like you’re on a safari and gets to some of the most remote parts of the ranch.

ITOP TIP: book your tour early to avoid sold out options. I cannot stress this enough as tours will sell out. The tour we opted for was the Hollywood Movie Sites Tour. Sure it wasn’t as intimate a tour as the jeep tour, or as thrilling as the UTV tour, but I am happy with what we chose.

The tour is 90 minutes long and has a big emphasis on the movies that were filmed there. As a bit of a movie geek this is exactly what I wanted. I was worried that some of the other tours may not focus on this as much (another good reason to perhaps buy a tour package including more than one tour for the day).

What you need to know about the Hollywood Movie Sites Tour

The main things you should know about this tour that may not be true of some of the others:

• Great for those on a vacation budget
• Family friendly tour
• Easygoing and interactive
• Perfect for movie fans

Hawaii is not the cheapest place to visit so this tour in particular is great if you are on a budget. The Hollywood Movie Sites tour is around $50 USD per person with an optional $15 per person roundtrip transfer from Waikiki.

The 90 minute tour takes place on what appears to be a re-purposed school bus. Your bus driver is your tour guide, and they are incredibly knowledgeable and entertaining. There were plenty of kids on the tour I did, but it was just as fun for the adults who remember the movies they filmed there.

There are stops throughout the tour to get out and take pictures, and the buses have no actual glass in the windows so you don’t have any obstructions for your perfect shot. The bus takes a leisurely drive through the ranch around the various movies sites.

Speaking of movie sites, this is the tour you want if you love your movies. It’s not just Jurassic Park, but Godzilla, King Kong, 50 First Dates and TV shows like Lost were all filmed here. Love movies? Then this Disneyland & Universal post is for you.

Taking the Kualoa Ranch Movie Sites Tour

We were told to arrive about 30 minutes before our scheduled tour time. The reason was to check in and get your tickets. We had our tickets within minutes of showing up of our 3pm tour so we ended up with some time to kill. There’s a fully stocked gift shop and a cafe/restaurant on site so getting there early probably doesn’t hurt. There is a decent amount of roadwork around Oahu so make sure to plan your time well.

Because of how quick it was to get our tickets and not really seeing anyone else, I wondered how we were going to fill this big school bus. But before you could blink a huge line formed ready to get on the tour. Not sure where everyone came from, but it was full.

Now I mentioned before the whole no windows thing. Sounds great in theory except Hawaii is also pretty tropical and not averse to the odd heavy shower of rain so the window seat can get a little wet if like for us it’s a cloudy day. TOP TIP: have something to cover your camera just in case.

The history of Kualoa Ranch

All seated on the bus, our tour guide who insisted we call him Uncle Leonard drove us towards the ranch, away from the visitor center. Uncle Leonard was delightful and informative with just the right amount of Dad jokes mixed into his tour. It kind of felt like a family road trip. He started by telling us how the Ranch became what it is today.

The 4000 acre ranch was originally a sacred place to the Hawaiian people. An American doctor, Dr. Gerritt P. Judd, purchased a piece of the land in 1850 from the King at the time. He and his family purchased more of the land since then and now the Ranch is still owned and managed by the family.

The condition the King set when selling the land was that it would not be sold or developed and as such the land is sustainably used even now. When a production company films on Kualoa Ranch, they always break down the set and take away whatever they brought in. The only exceptions are the few pieces the family choose to keep there as part of the tours which are not detrimental to the environment.

WWII bunker on-site

A more modern piece of history is that during the Second World War, Kualoa Ranch became a military airfield occupied by the U.S. military. Our first stop on the tour was the West-facing bunker which is now used to store a ton of movie memorabilia. Although the entrance to the bunker was filled with vintage inspired wartime recruitment and informational posters.

The bunker is the perfect place to showcase some of the movie history of the ranch including posters and stills from its more famous flicks. This was our first taste of movie history as we were led deep into the bunker passing posters for Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor and Jumanji.

Some of the saved movie props, which apparently keep the Styrofoam business booming, are on display also. The bones from Kong: Skull Island. The polar bear model from Lost (the bunker was used in the TV show for those who remember it, as the Dharma Initiative station).

Between the original Jurassic Park, and the two new Jurassic World movies, dinosaurs were represented early on in our tour. Making velociraptor friends is easy to do, and you can check out one of the vehicles from the new Jurassic World movie (Chris Pratt not included).

Driving into the ranch

As the sky turned stormy looking and the ocean waves below crashed into the rocks, it was pretty easy to feel like we were at the beginning of a Hollywood movie. While some people might be disappointed it wasn’t beautiful blue skies, I was secretly over the moon at how atmospheric it was, given the reason for my wanting to visit in the first place.

We got back into the bus and continued along the outer road, finally driving into the Ranch’s Jurassic Valley (I know!!!). The background of the mountains and the stormy skies made it feel like every monster movie that was ever made at this ranch was coming to life. It was so cool!

We drove past the plantation areas of the ranch where they grow bananas and other tropical fruits. As we arrived in the valley area we saw one of the horse trek tours riding through.

Then we started to see things that didn’t quite look like they belonged in the ranch. The movie props left behind. An Easter Island statue from the National Geographic Live show. A bunch of straw huts that form a village. The remains of a footprint from Godzilla. Nothing out of the ordinary at all, right?

Remember to take a reusable water bottle with you on your travels, like this one from FastTech

The Jurassic Park sign and tree

Our next stop was the one I had been waiting for. I’m not ashamed to say I wore my Jurassic Park t-shirt especially for this day. Fan girl much?! The Jurassic Park sign was set up next to, in Uncle Leonard’s words, possibly the most famous dead tree in Hawaii. That would be the tree that Dr. Grant and the kids hide behind during the “flocking” of the Gallimimus dinosaurs when running from the T-Rex. That’s right, I know all the dinosaur names. Surely you can’t be surprised at this.

Our tour guide was happy to take pictures of us together, and I took a dozen more. We also took the time to take pictures of the valley itself all around us. We didn’t get rushed back onto the bus, and Uncle Leonard made sure everyone got their photos. It’s weird to think that a movie sign could be the highlight of the day but if you’re a movie fan like me, I think you’ll understand.

Kualoa Ranch movie sites and views

The rest of the tour was just as fun and interesting. We saw the golf course Hurley built in Lost. The road where Adam Sandler took out a penguin in 50 First Dates. The graveyard of Kong’s predecessors including giant ape skull. Not something you see every day.

Taking a slow drive back through the ranch we saw some of the cattle and livestock that are housed there. We were constantly in awe of the beautiful views in the valley and around the ranch. The place was so unbelievably green, and we were surrounded by impressively imposing mountains whose peaks were lost in the clouds.

Captivating Kualoa Ranch

Kualoa Ranch is more than just about movies. But if you like your Hollywood blockbusters, then it’s a great place to visit. It’s also the ideal place to see a piece of real Hawaii, to get out of Waikiki/Honolulu and really see Oahu. I would definitely go again, and next time I would take one of the other tours.

Perhaps the ATV tour, or the horseback riding tour. Those tours are a little more intimate, less people and less of a tour feel. Plus they include fun activities. Not that the bus tour wasn’t fun, it was. As an introduction tour, and a tour on a budget it was perfect for what we wanted on our trip. I’m also really glad I got to see where my favorite movie was made.

If you’ve enjoyed this post leave a comment or share using the social media buttons below. Have you visited Kualoa Ranch? What tour did you do?