Have you ever wanted to walk the famous valley of the T-Rex ambush in the 1993 film, Jurassic Park, or the dinosaur stampede in Jurassic Park Fallen Kingdom? If you’re a movie fan like me, you can actually visit this lush, cinematic valley featured in more than 50 movies and television series. In this article, I’ll share my movie tour experience at Kualoa Ranch.
How to visit Kualoa Ranch
The Jurassic Park scene was filmed within the private Kualoa Ranch Nature Reserve. Kualoa Ranch is a 4000-acre reserve and cattle ranch that was a sacred valley to the ancient Hawaiians and was also where Chief La’a-mai-kahiki once lived in. To visit the famous Ka’a’awa Valley, you’ll need to book a tour through the ranch. In fact, it’s the only way that a visitor can enter. The ranch offers a variety of activities depending on your thrill level including a movie sites tour, UTV tour, ziplining, beach tour, and more. On their website, you’ll be prompted to add the dates of your trip. From there, you’ll view their available tours.
When I visited the ranch, I opted for the Hollywood Movie Sites Tour which was about $50 per person. There are about 35 movie tours per day starting at 8:20 a.m. with the last tour at 4:15 p.m. I highly recommend booking your visit to the ranch as early as possible as some tour slots can sell out. When I tried to book for a party of four more than a month in advance, half of the slots were sold out.
The 90-minute tour was led by an enthusiastic guide who drove us around the ranch in a windowless, jeep-like bus. The green, military-looking vehicles made me feel like we were going on an expedition.
Movie Sites Tour
Our tour guide taught us a bit more about the history of the ranch taking us through beachside vistas, as well as the ranch’s sugar mill, gardens, and stables. We made our first stop at the former World War II bunker which is now used as a movie museum. At the bunker, we strolled past posters, memorabilia, and set pieces from the many movies and television series filmed at the ranch. Some memorable pieces included a set from Hawaii Five-0 and a jeep from Jurassic World. Our tour guide took a picture of each party in the jeep encouraging us to pretend that we were driving away from dinosaurs.
We continued the tour driving through the ranch’s green hills, flora, and fauna making one last stop in Ka’a’awa Valley. The valley’s bright green and brown ridges which felt similar to the grandeur of cathedral pillars and was such a breathtaking sight. I honestly felt quite starstruck by the landscape considering how many productions the valley appears in. In the valley, our tour guide pointed out where different movie scenes took place including the tree log in Jurassic Park, Jumanji, and Godzilla.
We eventually got to walk around large, styrofoam fossils left from Kong Skull Island . Our tour guide offered to take videos of each party running away from a realistic dinosaur puppet. One important thing to note is that cattle roam this valley so be sure to watch out for some surprises that might be on the ground. I also recommend wearing sunglasses and dark colors on the tour since driving through the dirt roads caused dust to enter the bus.
Conclusion
A trip to Kualoa Ranch is quite worth the ticket price if you’re a movie enthusiast. The ranch offers a stunning backdrop with a generous tour guide, and as a day trip, you can also grab some tasty food at Waiahole Poi Factory, take a trip to Mokoli’i island, or host a beach picnic at Kualoa Regional Park. Whether it’s your first or second time in O’ahu, Kualoa Ranch definitely deserves a visit.
