Kualoa Ranch UTV Raptor Tour 🦖

If you do only one thing during your visit to Oahu, a visit to Kualoa Ranch should be it!

Kualoa is one of the most historically significant destinations on Oahu. Ancient Hawaiians considered Kualoa one of the most sacred places on Oahu. It was a residence of kings, a place of refuge and sanctuary - a pu`uhonua - and a training ground for royalty who were instructed at Kualoa in the arts of war, history and social traditions.

This estate, Kualoa Ranch, has been used for various purposes over the last eight decades. During World War II, some of the lands of this estate was used as an auxiliary airstrip with many of the large monkeypod trees providing natural hangars for small planes.

Still a working cattle operation, Kualoa Ranch encompasses two valleys, three mountains, a secluded beach and 800-year-old, 125-acre Molii, Hawaii’s largest and best-preserved fish pond. Hollywood fell in love with it decades ago, using various sites as backdrops for blockbusters such as Jurassic Park, Tears of the Sun, 50 First Dates and Lost.

Kualoa Ranch offers bus tours, e-bike tours, ATV and UTV tours, horseback tours, and zipline tours, all which take you throughout the ranch, giving you jaw-dropping views of the ranch’s varied terrain, ranging from dense tropical rainforest to wide open pastures, bordered by vibrant green cliffs that lead to the ocean.

Having a blast!

We booked the UTV Raptor tour, an exhilarating two-hour drive in an UTV that led us throughout the ranch, stopping at some of the movie sites featured in the Jurassic Park franchise, the latest King Kong movie, and the Lost series. Considering only a small portion of the movies and show were actually filmed at the ranch, a lot of what we saw were leftover props from the movies set out for visitors, but we were so impressed with the scenery alone that we didn’t care; it made it more fun!

Left: The concrete entrance movie prop from Jurassic Park looks very realistic from afar, but it's actually made of plywood!

Middle: A family was taking a picture inside the cage with the dinosaur, and one of our guides made the dinosaur move and roared, startling all of them, which probably made for a great picture! 😆

Right: Props from King Kong

As we drove through the lush rainforest, both of us could not stop saying, “Wow, wow, WOW! 😲” as we came upon more and more incredible scenery. We drove up to a point where we could see dazzling views of the Kaneohe coastline, including the islet of Mokoli’i, aka “Chinaman’s Hat”. Our tour guides were knowledgeable and a lot of fun, pointing out some interesting sites and told us about some cool Hawaiian folklore along the drive.

Click on the arrows to see pictures of the Kualoa Ranch landscape.

After a quick lunch at the ranch, we spent some time hanging out on the beach at the Kualoa Regional Park to get a last look at this magical place.

Hanging out at the beach at Kualoa Regional Park with the Kualoa Mountain Range in the background.

Just the gorgeous drive out to Kualoa Ranch alone was worth it, but if you’re interested in an activity that’s great for people of all ages, be sure to check this place out! If you’re interested in learning more about the tour we did, click here.