Visiting Pearl Harbor: Bags, Timing and Traveling With Kids

Know this one before you leave your hotel. The National Park Service does not allow “any bags, packages, or containers that offer concealment” bigger than 1.25 by 2.25 by 5.5 inches: purses, handbags, backpacks, fanny packs, camera bags, diaper bags and luggage. In practice that means nothing bigger than a small wallet or clutch. Clear bags are fine. The ranger tip on the Arizona Memorial program page is blunt: “Bring a clear backpack to carry your items.”

What you can bring, per the park’s safety and bag rules:

• Clear plastic bags where everything inside is visible, “similar to those allowed at football games.”
• Wallets and clutches within the size limit.
• Medical equipment bags for equipment that won’t fit in a clear bag.
• Pouches fixed to a stroller or wheelchair.
• Food and water, as long as they are not concealed in a package. Only water is allowed in the theaters, museums, Navy boats and on the memorial.

What stays behind: knives of any size, including pocket knives and multitools; firearms and other weapons; pepper spray, mace, tasers and stun guns; skateboards, bicycles, e-bikes and Segways; balloons; aerosol cans; alcohol; and glass containers, except baby food jars and tempered-glass water bottles. Smoking is not allowed anywhere on the Visitor Center grounds or at the memorial.

Bag storage. The Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum (the USS Bowfin) runs a storage facility near the Visitor Center entrance: $7 a bag, or $10 for oversize luggage. One fee covers your whole day, since the storage serves all the Pearl Harbor historic sites. Storage hours are not published, so don’t plan on a late pickup without asking when you drop off.

Security. Every permitted bag is inspected or tagged as screened. The park doesn’t publish how screening works or how long it takes, which is one more reason for the hour-early rule. If you are adding Ford Island after the memorial, the Pearl Harbor Historic Sites family itinerary says to leave extra time between programs for the shuttle and security.

The Recreation.gov ticket page for the USS Arizona Memorial gives two times that matter: arrive at the park 1 hour before your reservation, and check in at the theater 10 minutes before it. The program itself is 45 minutes. The Visitor Center is open daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and programs leave every 15 minutes from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with a lunch break from noon to 1 p.m.

The 23-minute park film is separate from the program and optional. If your hour allows, it is a good way to spend part of the wait.

The best time to visit Pearl Harbor is the morning, outside school holidays. The Park Service names spring break, summer, Thanksgiving and winter break as the busy periods, when standby seats may not be available. Pearl Harbor Historic Sites, the operators’ joint site, says that arriving by 7:30 a.m. “means calmer grounds and shorter lines.” Visiting in early December? Our Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day guide covers the 85th anniversary week.

How long the day runs. The hour before, the 45-minute program and a walk through the free galleries fill a morning. Add the Battleship Missouri, the USS Bowfin and the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and it becomes a full day. Our Pearl Harbor Passport guide has the time each paid site takes and whether the combined ticket saves you money. Our guide to getting to Pearl Harbor from Waikiki compares driving, TheBus and rideshare.

There is no dress code on any Park Service page. The park’s advice is to check the forecast and “bring sun protection, water, and comfortable clothing, as many exhibits are outdoors.” Hawaii is warm year round.

• Sunscreen and a hat, on before you arrive.
• Closed-toe shoes if you are boarding the ships. Pearl Harbor Historic Sites strongly recommends them for the walking and the uneven surfaces on the Missouri and the Bowfin. It is advice, not a rule.
• Pockets. With nothing bigger than a small wallet allowed, pockets or a clear bag carry your phone, sunscreen and keys.

Reservations. Every person needs an Arizona Memorial reservation, infants and small children included. Our tickets guide walks through booking.

The Arizona Memorial program. Recreation.gov describes it as “a solemn and sobering experience, even for those who were not alive when the attack occurred.” You ride a Navy boat out to a memorial built over a sunken battleship, and the shrine room lists the names of the 1,177 men lost aboard her. The Park Service publishes no age guidance for the program. You know your kids; judge by how they do with quiet and stillness for 45 minutes.

The USS Bowfin. Children under 4 are not allowed aboard the submarine, for safety reasons. They can still visit the Bowfin museum and its outdoor exhibits, so a family with a toddler can split up or skip the boarding.

Strollers. They are welcome on the grounds but only as far as the Arizona Memorial pre-boarding area at the theater. They are not allowed on the Navy boats or the memorial, so bring a baby carrier. A diaper bag counts as a bag under the size rule; carry diapers in a clear bag, and baby food jars are allowed.

Junior Ranger. The free Junior Ranger booklet can be downloaded and printed at home or picked up in person. Kids learn about the attack, the USS Arizona’s bell and the people who lived on Oahu at the time, then find a ranger to be sworn in and earn an official badge. It fills the hour before the boat well.

The flight simulator. At the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, kids must be 48 inches tall to fly the simulator solo, or 41 inches to ride with an adult. It does go upside down.

The Visitor Center is fully accessible, with mostly flat paths and no hills. The Park Service lists its restrooms, theater, exhibit galleries, bookstore, information desk, drinking fountains, the Navy boats and the USS Arizona Memorial itself as accessible.

• Bring your own wheelchair. None are available to rent; the park provides them only in emergencies.
• Motorized mobility devices are allowed. Rollators are too, but the park warns they are “the source of the most common traumatic injury requiring hospitalization” here, so take care.
• Accessible parking is in the front lot, and benches are placed throughout, since distances between some facilities are long.
• Hearing and vision. The park film is fully captioned in English, there is an induction loop for hearing aids, and ASL interpreters are available with 14 days’ notice by email. Braille signage, tactile models and a braille-ready park brochure are available. Details on the accessibility page.
• The museum ships are harder. The Bowfin submarine itself is not wheelchair accessible, though its museum building is. At the Aviation Museum, the Tower View Experience fits wheelchairs 24 inches wide or less.

Water fountains are “located throughout the park,” and water is the only thing you can carry into the theaters, museums, Navy boats and onto the memorial. On food, the two sources read differently. The Park Service allows food elsewhere on the grounds as long as it is not concealed in a package. The Pearl Harbor Historic Sites family day page says flatly that “outside food isn’t allowed at the sites, but bottled water is fine.” Plan to eat on site or after you leave.

Where to eat, per the same partner page:

• Jake’s Street Food at the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum, with waterfront seating. The closest to the Visitor Center.
• Wai Momi Shave Ice (until 3 p.m.) and Slider’s Grill (until 2 p.m.) on Ford Island.
• Hangar Café at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily; the grill closes at 3 p.m. and grab-and-go runs to 4. The museum’s own FAQ confirms the hours.

Restrooms. Pearl Harbor Historic Sites notes that there are no restrooms between the Visitor Center and the memorial, so plan accordingly before joining the line for the program. The Visitor Center restrooms are wheelchair accessible.

Take all the photos you like. Personal photography needs no permit for a group of 8 or fewer using hand-held gear in areas open to the public, and that covers ordinary phone and camera photos on the memorial. The one exception: under the park’s photography rules, underwater photography of the USS Arizona and USS Utah wrecks is done only by the National Park Service. Nobody else may film or photograph them underwater, because the wrecks are the “sacred resting places for service members who lost their lives during the attack on Pearl Harbor.”

Remember where you are. The memorial is the final resting place for more than 900 sailors and Marines still aboard the Arizona. The park’s ranger tips say it plainly: using your phone “for talking and texting while onboard the USS Arizona Memorial is not appropriate.” Be respectful of other visitors, the volunteers and the rangers.

Build the day around your Arizona Memorial reservation, since it is the one fixed time. Here is how the rules above fit together.

The family order is from the Pearl Harbor Historic Sites family day itinerary, checked September 2026. Paid-site times and tickets are in our Passport guide.

Done by early afternoon? The Aiea Loop Trail and Keaiwa Heiau is the hike in the hills right above the harbor. If you would rather hand the reservation and the logistics to someone else, our comparison of Pearl Harbor tours from Waikiki lays out the options; the tour below covers the Arizona Memorial and the Battleship Missouri together.