The City and County of Honolulu will close Hoomaluhia Botanical Garden one day a week starting in 2026 to give the 400-acre garden a regular time to rest after years of receiving record-breaking numbers of visitors, according to a news release.
The Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation is asking the public to vote in a survey on whether Hoomaluhia should be closed on Tuesdays or Thursdays. The poll will be open until Oct. 8 at 5 p.m. DPR will use the results of the survey to choose which day of the week to close Hoomaluhia.
Hoomaluhia Botanical Garden in Kaneohe is the city’s most popular botanical garden. The garden’s activities, including camping and fishing, support its free admission.
The picturesque location started to receive more visitors after a photo taken in 2017 went viral that showed the road into Hoomaluhia Botanical Garden and the lush backdrop of the Koolau Mountains, according to SFGATE. People now flock to the area hoping to get a similar shot.
DPR reports that over the past decade Hoomaluhia has seen a steady increase in visitors, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This rise in attendance culminated with 723,495 visitors from July 2024 through June 2025.
(Graph courtesy of DPR)
“We are on track for another record-breaking year of attendance, and more and more we are continuing to see the strain this is having on the natural allure and recreational offerings of this wahi pana (storied place),” said Honolulu Botanical Gardens Director Joshlyn Sand in the news release. “Instituting a regular schedule of rest and rehabilitation is a trend we are seeing locally, nationally, and internationally; giving staff and wildlife a chance to recuperate. Ultimately, it will also help to preserve this amazing location and all it has to offer for generations to come.”
Hoomaluhia was opened in 1978, with an estimated carrying capacity of 600,000 visitors a year, which has now been surpassed. Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, which saw 400,776 visits in 2024, is closed two days a week (after experiencing one-day-a-week closures prior to the pandemic). DPR will try a similar rest for the natural environment at Hoomaluhia. This will also give staff time to perform maintenance, particularly in high-traffic areas, such as roadside and pathway landscaping, paving improvements, tree pruning, cleaning of buildings, exterior power washing and more.
DPR said Tuesday and Thursday were selected as the best choices for weekly closures because there are no garden programs scheduled on those days. Data show attendance is similar on these two days.
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