Botanical Gardens visit suggestions for a Hawaii ( mostly Oahu ) vacation

[Nomad NYC]

Hi all,

              Next Saturday I'll be going on vacation to Hawaii ( specifically on Oahu ) for two weeks,  and I'd like to ask all of you PalmTalk folks who are in the know on suggestions on good places to visit for  palm spotting ( as I'm not the regular type of guy that travels five thousand miles just to spend a fortnight trying to relax on a hot crowded beach, sipping expensive Mai Tai's -  I simply want to spend my time looking at cool looking tropical trees  )

 Since I'll be sojourning in the Honolulu  / Waikiki area , I'm definitely going to check out the Foster Botanical Gardens and the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, and plan on renting a car to spend a day at the relatively nearby Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden. But if anyone here have any other recommended palmy places on Oahu that I should check out , please don't hesitate and feel free to tell me - I'd really appreciate it!

( in addition , I'm going to to see if I can try visiting the other Islands while I'm there, maybe sometime during my second week , specifically  Maui and the ' Big Island ' , hopefully )

Looking forward to all your responses, thanks in advance! 

[Matt in OC]

Those are solid visits and some of the most amazing gardens I’ve seen. A word of advice: you can easily spend a day at Lyon and Ho’omoluhia (especially considering travel time) so try not to short change them if you can. Foster is wonderful and can be done satisfactorily in a couple to three hours. Enjoy!

 

Oh, and definitely do the Waimea valley waterfall. A good half day plus. Amazing. 

[Kailua_Krish]

For a relatively quick walk I really like Koko Crater garden as it has most of the drylands hawaiian pritchardia and an otherwise nice collection of more arid palms.

Wahiawa botanical garden is also nice

[Nomad NYC]

On 5/21/2023 at 12:57 AM, Matt in OC said:

Those are solid visits and some of the most amazing gardens I’ve seen. A word of advice: you can easily spend a day at Lyon and Ho’omoluhia (especially considering travel time) so try not to short change them if you can. Foster is wonderful and can be done satisfactorily in a couple to three hours. Enjoy!

Thanks! I've seen pictures of them for years, now I can't wait to be there in person! As for the visiting time allotted for the gardens , thanks for the  advice! I know that Ho’omoluhia will be a day - long event, but I had no ideas that Lyon would be  as well!  And Foster being so close to where I'm staying will definitely be one of my initial authentic Hawaiian Botanical Garden visits!

( I will definitely try to check out the Waimea valley waterfall as well! )

[Nomad NYC]

On 5/21/2023 at 4:29 PM, Kailua_Krish said:

For a relatively quick walk I really like Koko Crater garden as it has most of the drylands hawaiian pritchardia and an otherwise nice collection of more arid palms.

Wahiawa botanical garden is also nice

Many Thanks for those suggestions! They are also now on my list to looksee!