West Kauaʻi Technology & Visitor Center


Waimea’s friendly visitor center holds modest but interesting exhibits on Hawaiian culture, Captain Cook, sugar plantations and the US military. Its gift shop sells local artisan crafts, including rare Ni‘ihau shell lei.


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1. Waimea Sugar Mill

0.04 MILES

The evocative skeleton of this 19th-century sugar mill still looms over Waimea. Pumping out sugar from the Westside, it fueled Kaua‘i’s economy until 1945…

2. Waimea United Church of Christ

0.15 MILES

What’s now the Waimea United Church of Christ was originally erected in 1847 by Reverend George Rowell. Protestant missionaries had lived in Waimea for…

3. Waimea State Recreational Pier

0.24 MILES

Flecked with microscopic green crystals called olivine, this wide, dark-tinged beach stretches between two scenic rock outcroppings and is bisected by the…

4. Waimea Hawaiian Church

0.3 MILES

Sunday’s Hawaiian-language mass at this simple low-slung church makes an interesting way to connect with local culture. Waimea’s first Christian…

5. Hofgaard Park

0.37 MILES

This small grassy park at Waimea’s main intersection holds a statue of Captain Cook. Display panels explain local history.

6. Captain Cook Monument

0.38 MILES

A statue of Captain James Cook stands on Waimea’s central green space. When his ships Resolution and Discovery sailed into Waimea Bay in January 1778,…

7. Waimea Town Center

0.39 MILES

Waimea’s plantation-era core offers some interesting architecture. Take a short stroll to admire the neoclassical First Hawaiian Bank (1929), the art deco…

8. Lucy Wright Park

0.52 MILES

It’s a telling reflection of how locals feel about Captain Cook that the beach where he first landed is named not for Cook but for Waimea’s first Native…