Visiting the Dole Plantation in Hawaii: Hours, Prices, and Tour Photos!

The Dole Plantation in Hawaii is pineapple utopia. It’s the place to find all sorts of amazing foods that you never knew you needed, like pineapple popcorn and pineapple salad dressing!

These and dozens of other products can be found in the plantation’s gift shop, which offers a mind-blowing selection of pineapple-flavored concoctions.

The plantation runs various tours of the grounds. It’s a fun place to spend an hour or two and definitely one of the must-do activities on the island of Oahu.

Make sure to get your selfie in front of the main building, an impressive-looking structure that uses foliage to spell out the word DOLE in the the plants.

What are the hours for the pineapple plantation? How much do the tours cost? Read on to answer these questions and to see photos of the main highlights of the Dole Plantation!

Dole Plantation Maze and Garden Tours: Ticket Prices and Hours

In 1899, James Dole bought a plot of farm land in central Oahu. He didn’t even know what crops he would plant, but eventually he settled on pineapple, as the climate was ideal.

The Dole family eventually purchased land on Lanai and Maui as well, helping the state of Hawaii produce around 80% of the world’s pineapples at one time.

What is now the Dole Plantation began in 1950 as a fruit stand in Dole’s pineapple fields. It was expanded and rebranded as a full-blown tourist attraction in 1989 and is now the second most-popular attraction on the island of Oahu, behind only Pearl Harbor.

Visitors have the option of taking any or all of three tour experiences. One is the Pineapple Maze, which they refer to as “the world’s largest maze.” In fact, the Guinness Book of World Records even verified that title in 2008!

It’s a 3-acre maze with 2.5 miles of paths that visitors must navigate to find the exit. The maze contains around 14,000 local plants.

The maze was closed during my visit due to heavy rains, so I didn’t get a chance to put my maze skills to use. The maze takes an average of 40 minutes to solve.

The Pineapple Express is a 20-minute train tour that describes the history of pineapple growing in Hawaii and weaves through the grounds past all sorts of tropical crop fields.

It’s a little cheesy, but in a fun way. Visitors can hear narration for this tour in English, as well as Japanese, Korean and Mandarin.

I took the train tour and enjoyed it. The tour is a good way to see most of the grounds, including the fields of lemons, limes, and other crops. Note: It was raining during my tour, but they have clear tarps to hang on the side of the train to keep guests dry.

Finally, the Garden Tour is a shorter walking tour through eight gardens, which house fruits and flowers. As of this writing, the tours range from $8-13 each, so they won’t wreck your budget.

The plantation also offers a few Combo Tours that combine multiple tours and offer a few bucks’ worth of savings, so be sure to check the full price list to get the best deals. It’s $27 for the train, garden, and maze combo.

Currently, the Dole Plantation is open 9:30 to 5:30 pm daily. You may also hear folks refer to it as the Dole factory or Dole farm.

Pineapple Foods in the Dole Plantation Hawaii Gift Shop

The tours are interesting, but the real gold mine here is the gift shop and restaurant. You’ll see hundreds of pineapple-flavored items, more than you could ever imagine.

Next to the gift shop is the Pineapple Grille, where you can buy burgers, sandwiches, and desserts. This is where you find the famous Dole Whip, which is essentially soft-serve pineapple ice cream.

The Dole Whip is delicious, but I recommend not getting the chunked pineapple on top. I have a huge sweet tooth, but that ended up being too sweet for me. Plain whip with no topping would have been better.

Also, the bowls are huge, so you can easily share one with another person. I’m the world’s biggest ice cream addict and I couldn’t finish the regular-sized bowl.

Fun fact: Ben & Jerry’s actually used to make a Pina Colada ice cream with pineapple and coconut, but it didn’t sell enough, so they sent it to their flavor graveyard.

In the gift shop, brace yourself for the crazy variety of products. The products include pineapple soap, pineapple hand lotion, chili pineapple chunks, pineapple pretzel biscuit sticks, pineapple nougat, pineapple shortbread, pineapple coconut balls, chocolate-covered pineapple, pineapple syrup, pineapple mango jam, pineapple macadamia cookies, pineapple glitter candy, cotton candy, jelly beans, gummi bears, and taffy!

Check out the amazing selection of pineapple products that exist in the gift shop. Buy them all if you like!

There are so many incredibly wonderful pineapple products in the gift shop that you’ll definitely want to take a bunch of souvenirs or snacks home. Be sure to plan for that when you’re budgeting!

I bought the milk chocolate pineapple crunch and I loved them. Next time, I want to try the salad dressing and the pineapple bar soap!

Frequently asked question: Is there a Dole Plantation on Maui? No, there isn’t. Maui does have some pineapple tours, but there isn’t an actual Dole Plantation there. The only Dole Plantation is here on Oahu.