Best Stuff to do at Kualoa Ranch?

[kboo]

We did a half day with Best of Kualoa and then the ATV Raptor tour. We bought our own lunch at the cafe/restaurant there. I'm glad we did it in that order because the Raptor tour is the best, and it was wonderful to finish with that! We went on a pouring rainy day (@Anal Annie I wonder if we were there the same time, lol) and we got sort of wet on the Best of Kualoa tour, tried some poi and smoked fish, etc. It's sort of like a guided bus/tram ride with a few stops to take pictures, sample some food, and see tropical fruit plantings. It was educational and I enjoyed it, but the rain did put a little damper on it. You do visit a movie set that's on the water and get an overview of the Ranch and what it does.

The ATV tour - costs the same if you let a guide drive or if you drive yourself. I knew DH and I would be backseat-driving each other no matter who drove, so we picked the option for the guide to drive and: best decision ever. If you drive yourself you have to concentrate on driving, keeping up, and keeping your eyes on the road. you get out around 5x (?) to hear the tour guides give a little overview, take pictures, etc. When your are either leading or the caboose with a guide (we were leading), it was like having a private tour guide for the entire drive. We learned so much. Also, the guides are so familiar with the trails so they knew when to gun it (and make it fun) and when to take things slow. Note - you need to be belted in, wear a helmet (can't remember if we had goggles/classes?) and they gave us gaiters for the dust. It was rainy, so there was no dust, but lots of water/mud splashing around. We stopped at many of the movie locations but not all of them, and we could see the e-bike and horseback tours at various times. I would not recommend this for someone who is prone to back or neck pain, and I think there's a minimum age and they don't allow pregnant women on it - it can get rough. On a rainy day, we still got rather wet in the covered ATV, but it was a lot better than being on an ebike or a horse!

Doing those 2 tours and leaving about 1.5 hours for lunch in between was a solid 7:30am - 3pm day once you include driving 45 minutes each way to get there. We would have stopped at other places except it was Easter Sunday and raining so some places were closed and it was too cold to visit a beach.

 

[J-Dog]

DW and I did the surf and turf. Missed out on the atv ride as it got booked up. The first was the farm tour which was surprisingly enjoyable. Movie site tour was so beautiful but seem to run out of time at the end. Didn't get to fully immerse in the last movie prop site. Also there was lots of live cattle and had to watch your step. The best of all was the secret island. The boat ride across the pond was amazing. Docked at the 50 first dates site. Then we took a group row boat to the middle of the ocean and swam on the sand bar!

Highly recommend the surf and turf. The buffet was included in the price and better than expected.

We did the best of this past May and it was a lot of fun for my husband and I. Saw the ATVs scooting around and they looked like they were having fun too. I am not a horseback rider so I wouldn't have even considered it Have fun with whatever you choose.

We did a half day with Best of Kualoa and then the ATV Raptor tour. We bought our own lunch at the cafe/restaurant there. I'm glad we did it in that order because the Raptor tour is the best, and it was wonderful to finish with that! We went on a pouring rainy day (@Anal Annie I wonder if we were there the same time, lol) and we got sort of wet on the Best of Kualoa tour, tried some poi and smoked fish, etc. It's sort of like a guided bus/tram ride with a few stops to take pictures, sample some food, and see tropical fruit plantings. It was educational and I enjoyed it, but the rain did put a little damper on it. You do visit a movie set that's on the water and get an overview of the Ranch and what it does.

The ATV tour - costs the same if you let a guide drive or if you drive yourself. I knew DH and I would be backseat-driving each other no matter who drove, so we picked the option for the guide to drive and: best decision ever. If you drive yourself you have to concentrate on driving, keeping up, and keeping your eyes on the road. you get out around 5x (?) to hear the tour guides give a little overview, take pictures, etc. When your are either leading or the caboose with a guide (we were leading), it was like having a private tour guide for the entire drive. We learned so much. Also, the guides are so familiar with the trails so they knew when to gun it (and make it fun) and when to take things slow. Note - you need to be belted in, wear a helmet (can't remember if we had goggles/classes?) and they gave us gaiters for the dust. It was rainy, so there was no dust, but lots of water/mud splashing around. We stopped at many of the movie locations but not all of them, and we could see the e-bike and horseback tours at various times. I would not recommend this for someone who is prone to back or neck pain, and I think there's a minimum age and they don't allow pregnant women on it - it can get rough. On a rainy day, we still got rather wet in the covered ATV, but it was a lot better than being on an ebike or a horse!

Doing those 2 tours and leaving about 1.5 hours for lunch in between was a solid 7:30am - 3pm day once you include driving 45 minutes each way to get there. We would have stopped at other places except it was Easter Sunday and raining so some places were closed and it was too cold to visit a beach.

Thanks so much to everyone for the input.

I'm still back to square-one, because all of the tours sound like they are worth doing, and we can't decide. Maybe we should just do more than one tour, but will have a 5-year-old in tow, and not sure that she will be able to handle a full day there. At least, not without us paying for it in tired-tantrums afterward...

 

[Great3]

Yeah, you really can't go wrong with any of the tours. Just pick one and enjoy. And yeah, I wouldn't do all day with a 5-year-old in tow either. That makes the decision(s) a little harder.

Great3

 

[kboo]

Maybe we should just do more than one tour, but will have a 5-year-old in tow, and not sure that she will be able to handle a full day there. At least, not without us paying for it in tired-tantrums afterward...

Our youngest was 7. I would just do the ATV ride along (guide drives you). She rode in the front seat between Dad and our driver (Annabelle, who knew so much about everything!!) ODD (11 yo) and I sat in the back. Our 7yo had a great view, she felt safe, and empowered to ask our guide questions and tell her to gun it when we were about to drive though a puddle (it was rainy). She felt sad about missing horseback riding (too young) but got to see the horses at the base area where all the tours depart. I thought she'd be interested in the tour with the food, but a) it was raining, b) she was not impressed with her first tastes of poi or smoked/dried fish (go figure! lol), c) the movie locations were all movies that our 7yo had not seen or heard of.

If the weather were great, the beach day would have appealed to me more, but I figured we were already paying a lot to have a nice beach at Aulani, and there is limited refundability if the weather is bad (I would check this if you are considering a beach experience there - all the horseback riding and ebike tours went out on our rainy day and I would not have been happy to be in the rain that day...)

ETA: we did "Kualoa Grown" tour, not "Best of Kualoa" before lunch and the ATV tour. Sorry - I was confused because I had been considering Best of Kualoa but decided to do the ATV tour instead. My decision process was: Best of Kualoa is a gentler ride and includes lunch, but will be a full day at the Ranch. So it's definitely a better $/hour price, but you may not want so many hours once you factor in travel time to/from Aulani.

We did a 2/3 day with the ATV tour last, and finished around 2pm. 7yo fell asleep in the car on the way back to the resort. If we had not had a 1.5 hour break for lunch (which I recommend if you're doing more than 1 tour, the earliest we would have been done would be around lunchtime.

If we had done the tours in reverse order (knowing what I know now), my 7yo would have had a tantrum on the Kualoa Grown tour.

Things that looked fun for next time, when our kids are older: zipline, horseback riding tours.

 

[lilsonicfan]

We did the ATV tour and had a great time, my kids are all over 10 though. We did the drive yourself option which was perfect for us. We arrived early to check in and thus were the very first car after the guide. It was most definitely dusty, gaiter or no, but well worth it. I sort of think some of the movie sites/tour info is a bit forced ... here are the remnants of where such and such was filmed ... but there was no denying the absolute beauty of Oahu that you get to see so much of on this tour.

 

[Ashleynoelle123]

We did the zipline tour and the horseback ride and loved BOTH! Zipline definitely being our favorite.

 

[amberwc]

We did the zipline tour and the horseback ride and loved BOTH! Zipline definitely being our favorite.

I think you're the first I see mention the zipline. Doing a zipline is high on my 13 YO list, but low on my 80 YO dad. Is it good for all ages?

 

[Ashleynoelle123]

I think you're the first I see mention the zipline. Doing a zipline is high on my 13 YO list, but low on my 80 YO dad. Is it good for all ages?

It did not require much athleticism at all! We had folks well into their 60s and 70s on our zipline excursion. Also, the ranch has so much to offer that if your dad doesn't want to zipline I'd imagine he can certainly find something to do for the hour or so.

 

[thecbco]

DH and I also did the ziplining tour followed by horseback riding. It was a perfect way to spend the day seeing a large portion of the ranch. Both activities, ziplining and horseback riding, were new to me, and I was able to do them without any issues. I'd highly recommend either or both of those activities.