Pearl Harbor Tickets

“Pearl Harbor” on a visitor’s itinerary is really five places. The Pearl Harbor National Memorial is the free part: the Visitor Center, its two museums, the park film, and the boat out to the USS Arizona Memorial. The Battleship Missouri, the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and the USS Bowfin are run separately and charge admission.

Only one of those sells out, and it is the free one. Book the Arizona reservation first, then build the rest of the day around your boat time.

Child prices are for ages 4 to 12. Children under 4 are not allowed aboard the Bowfin. Parking is $7 for the day and covers every site.

1. Make a Recreation.gov account now. Not at 2:59 p.m. on release day. Save your card to the account.
2. Count back 56 days from your date. That is when your first chance opens, at 3 p.m. Hawaiʻi time. The table below converts it.
3. Be logged in on Recreation.gov by 2:55. Recreation.gov says the whole day can be reserved within minutes of release.
4. Add every person. Up to 10 per account per day, and the park says to include infants and small children.
5. Save the QR code. It arrives by email as a PDF. You scan it at the Ticket Validation Desk.

Take a morning boat. The first ones of the day are the quietest, the Navy runs no boats between noon and 1 p.m., and a morning Arizona slot leaves the afternoon for the Missouri. Programs run on time: the time on your ticket is when the boat leaves the dock, and late arrivals can lose their seats to the standby line.

Plan to arrive an hour before your boat. Parking, the bag check and the walk to the theater take longer than people expect, and the 23-minute park film is worth watching before you go out. It is no longer part of the Arizona program; it plays separately at a quarter past and a quarter to each hour.

If you are fitting Pearl Harbor into a short trip, our guide to how many days to spend on Oahu and the 5-day itinerary show where it sits in the week.

Visitors without a reservation, or who missed their time, can still reach the memorial for free through the Standby Callback.

1. Find the tablets in front of the Audio Tour booth.
2. Enter your name, phone number and party size. A text comes back with your SB number.
3. Wait for the second text. When your number is called, line up in the Standby Callback line at the theater.

The park is clear that it is not guaranteed. On a busy day the callback can take several hours, and during spring break, summer, Thanksgiving and winter break, standby may not be offered at all. Treat it as the backup, not the plan.

Tour companies are barred from the public ticket pool. Authorized operators book from a separate commercial allocation on Recreation.gov that opens 12 weeks out, four weeks before the public window. That is how a tour from Waikiki can still sell Arizona seats after the public release is gone.

Read the fine print before you book one. Some tours say outright that Arizona tickets are not guaranteed, and some fall back to the standby line a few times a year. If the Navy cancels boats for wind or a mechanical problem, the $1 fee is not refunded, and at least two of the biggest Waikiki tours say they do not refund either. Our Pearl Harbor tours comparison lays out which tours include what.

The Battleship Missouri is the one to add if you pick only one. General admission includes a 35-minute guided tour, and the ship never sells out. The Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum fills two World War II hangars on Ford Island and suits anyone into aircraft. The USS Bowfin is a World War II submarine next to the Visitor Center, the only paid site you can walk to.

The Passport to Pearl Harbor is $99.99 for adults and $49.99 for children. It covers all three plus the Visitor Center audio tour and one VR experience, over one day or two in a row. Bought separately, the same set is $121.96 per adult, so the Passport saves about $22. It only pays off if you will actually see all three. With the Arizona program on top, most visitors run out of day after two.

The Missouri and the Aviation Museum are on Ford Island, an active military base. You cannot drive or walk there. A free shuttle loops from the Visitor Center every 15 to 20 minutes from 8 a.m., and staff can ask for ID on board, so bring a driver’s license, or a passport if you are visiting from abroad.

• Bags. Nothing bigger than a small wallet or clutch. Clear bags are fine. Purses, backpacks, camera bags and diaper bags go into storage near the entrance, which costs $7, or $10 for oversize luggage.
• Strollers. Allowed up to the boarding area but not on the boat or the memorial. Bring a baby carrier.
• Parking. $7 for the day, paid by card by scanning a QR code on the lot signs. One payment covers every site.
• Navigation. Put “1 Arizona Memorial Place, Honolulu” into your map app. Searching “Pearl Harbor” can send you to the base gate instead.

From Waikiki it is about 45 minutes by car. Our guide to getting to Pearl Harbor from Waikiki compares driving, TheBus, rideshare and shuttles.

The Visitor Center is open daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. It closes on Thanksgiving (November 26 this year), Christmas and New Year’s Day. The Navy runs the boats, and it cancels trips for high winds, rain, mechanical problems and dock repairs, sometimes on the day.

December 7, 2026 is the 85th anniversary of the attack. The park has not yet published its plans for the day. Check the park’s website this fall before you plan a visit around it.