USS Arizona Memorial
Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii
This national memorial floats in Pearl Harbor above the final resting place of nearly all the sailors who perished during the World War II attack on the USS Arizona. The solemn, all-white memorial features a marble wall etched with the names of those who served onboard, and has openings to look down through the water onto the sunken battleship.
Access the memorial sight via the free Park Service shuttle boats that run according to a timed ticket schedule. While some private Pearl Harbor boat tours include shuttle tickets and round-trip transportation from Honolulu and Waikiki, they're typically not allowed to disembark at the memorial and may cruise around it.
The Park Service’s USS Arizona Memorial tour includes a 23-minute documentary, round-trip boat ride, and time at the memorial. Plan to spend about 90 minutes there. Note that the park service releases a limited number of tickets each day Booking a tour in advance is a convenient way to ensure you’ll see the memorial.
Check the weather. High winds and rough seas can cancel boat rides to the memorial.
Find restrooms at the visitor center.
The USS Arizona Memorial, visitor center, and related facilities are wheelchair-accessible.
Because timed tickets are limited to the number of seats on the boat, crowding is not an issue.
The memorial is off the coast of Ford Island in Pearl Harbor on Oahu. To reach the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center from Waikiki and downtown Honolulu, take Nimitz Highway to H-1 West and take exit 15-A to HI-99, then turn left at the fourth traffic light.
The USS Arizona Memorial is open daily year-round except on Thanksgiving, December 25, and January 1. The park service releases 1,300 first-come, first-served tickets each day starting at 7am—arrive early to secure entry. Many visitors start their Pearl Harbor experience with the USS Arizona, making morning tickets the hardest to come by.
There are four other Pearl Harbor historic sites besides the USS Arizona Memorial. The land-based USS Oklahoma Memorial run by the National Park Service; the floating Battleship Missouri Memorial, aboard which the WWII peace treaty was signed; the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park, where visitors can board and see the interior of the sub that avenged the attacks by sinking enemy ships; and the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, home to huge hangars of period aircraft.
It’s free to tour the USS Arizona Memorial and the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, but you do need to reserve your free ticket in advance. You can do this at recreation.gov. If you come as part of a tour, your operator will take care of reserving your spot.
You can reserve your free USS Arizona Memorial tickets for the on recreation.gov. The first allotment of tickets is available up to 56 days in advance, and goes live at 3pm Hawaiian time. For next-day entry, check the website for a second round of tickets released at 3pm.
No, you can’t visit the USS Arizona without a reservation and same-day tickets are no longer available. Instead, you’ll need to book tickets in advance on the Pearl Harbor National Memorial Tours page of recreation.gov, or go as part of a guided tour led by a third-party operator.
You’ll need about two hours to explore the USS Arizona Memorial. This will give you enough time to take in all the exhibits and watch a short documentary about the attacks on Pearl Harbor. That said, many visitors spend a whole day at Pearl Harbor.
The best time of day to visit the USS Arizona Memorial is first thing in the morning—you’ll be less likely to run into big crowds if you take the first tour of the day. Plus, the weather is generally cooler in the early morning.
No, parking isn’t free at the USS Arizona Memorial—it costs US$7 a day, as part of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA). Entry to the USS Arizona Memorial and the Pearl Harbor National Memorial is free of charge, but you’ll need to book in advance.
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