Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum
Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum
4
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Monday
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
About
Aloha! the Sugar Museum is dedicated to preserving and presenting the history and heritage of the sugar industry on Maui, and the multi-ethnic plantation life it engendered. Learn how sugar is made, explore the geography of the land, and the feat of engineering to obtain water for the fields. Follow the journey of the immigrant plantation laborer, and discover why Hawaii is the "melting pot of the Pacific." Open Monday-Thursday, 10-2, with last admission at 1 p.m.
Duration: < 1 hour
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- angeleyes27Brigantine, New Jersey5,337 contributionsInteresting off beaten path small museumThis museum is very small. It took us about 20 minutes. However it presents a segment of Maui’s history that is often overlooked. The sugar plant here closed in 2016. I think this is a nice short stop.Visited March 2024Travelled as a coupleWritten 5 March 2024
- William C27 contributionsHistory lesson at Maui Sugar cane museumHistory lesson at Sugar Museum. Hawai’i had a long history of producing sugar for the US and this museum points out the challenges that faced that production. People came to the island from different countries seeking a better life but that wasn’t always the case. At one time there were large plantations in Maui that produced sugar cane. But after more than 100 years Maui has switched to citrus fruit. The museum is a great remembrance of the sugar cane industry and worth a visit for an hour or so.Visited March 2024Travelled as a coupleWritten 24 April 2024
- Brian BMarion, Ohio100 contributionsNot-crowded museum of local historyThis is a small museum that takes 30 to 60 minutes to visit. It tells the story of the local sugar industry and of the people who worked the fields. It is interesting history that helps explain the multi-cultural melting pot that is Hawaii.Visited September 2024Travelled as a coupleWritten 28 September 2024
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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4.0
267 reviews
Excellent
68
Very good
132
Average
53
Poor
10
Terrible
4
JKCNTX
Azle, TX42 contributions
Jan 2020 • Friends
While sugar WAS a crop of Hawaii this place is interesting for the history of the island presented in museum fashion. Some “push button, listen or watch” exhibits. Give yourself an hour. The lady accepting payment was sweet and friendly. American Express not accepted if you plan to use credit card.
Written 27 January 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hawaiidreamer1
Los Angeles132 contributions
Mar 2020
Very small museum near the airport. You shouldn't need more than 30 to 45 mins to complete the self guide tour. The museum has a few rooms that you walk thru. Some good history on the history of sugar on Maui. There's several pieces of machine in and outside of the museum. There's also a small gift shop inside.
Written 8 March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
gutygroup
Stittsville, Canada74 contributions
Feb 2020 • Couples
If you have 45 min to kill at $7 it’s a nice morning field trip. A bit of history, done nice old pieces of equipment of the time, friendly staff and very engaged. Not a must but if you have time...
Written 26 February 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Brian B
Marion, OH100 contributions
Sept 2024 • Couples
This is a small museum that takes 30 to 60 minutes to visit. It tells the story of the local sugar industry and of the people who worked the fields. It is interesting history that helps explain the multi-cultural melting pot that is Hawaii.
Written 28 September 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
William C
27 contributions
Mar 2024 • Couples
History lesson at Sugar Museum. Hawai’i had a long history of producing sugar for the US and this museum points out the challenges that faced that production. People came to the island from different countries seeking a better life but that wasn’t always the case. At one time there were large plantations in Maui that produced sugar cane. But after more than 100 years Maui has switched to citrus fruit. The museum is a great remembrance of the sugar cane industry and worth a visit for an hour or so.
Written 24 April 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hrothmir
Smyrna, GA226 contributions
Feb 2024 • Friends
We had some time on our last day in Maui and so stopped here before heading to the airport for our flight. I enjoy learning about history including industrial history of places I visit and was looking forward to this stop. I found the museum less well laid out and less informative than I had hoped. While I tried to look at and read most of the exhibits, I did not come away with as complete an understanding of the sugar manufacturing process as expected. My expectations were too high for this modest museum.
Written 13 March 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kathy B
Lahaina, HI36 contributions
Jan 2020
Small but worth the stop. Information was nicely presented. It is a walk through at your own pace, took us about 60 minutes to complete. Gives a good history of sugar production on the island and a day in the life of a plantation worker.
Outside are displays of various machinery used in the industry.
were nicely
Outside are displays of various machinery used in the industry.
were nicely
Written 11 January 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
angeleyes27
Brigantine, NJ5,337 contributions
Mar 2024 • Couples
This museum is very small. It took us about 20 minutes. However it presents a segment of Maui’s history that is often overlooked. The sugar plant here closed in 2016. I think this is a nice short stop.
Written 6 March 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Denis P
Vancouver, Canada82 contributions
Dec 2019 • Family
Not very large, but very interesting displays and a fun way to spend 60-90 minutes. All of us, family of four, two teenagers enjoyed our time. Great to understand how sugar was made from cane and see the process.
Written 8 January 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
robert c
Sunnyvale, CA3,337 contributions
Nov 2015 • Couples
What invention deep sixed the Hawaiian sugar business? Read on.
We were on our way back from visiting Haleakala crater, and saw this sugar plantation house which had been converted into a sugar museum.
Outside were various pieces of sugar harvesting field machinery, most with bulldozer treads, a giant tractor type truck with tires as tall as a man, and several cranes for picking up the cut sugar cane and lifting them into trucks.
The museum has about 4 or 5 rooms, and has a large number of exhibits, pictures and films showing the history of sugar cane in Hawaii from the late 1800s through the 1950s. Lots of black and whites, under the Alexander and Baldwin sugar company Hawaiian sugar, which became C & H Sugar . Many of the products and captains of the sugar industry are listed.
Also shown are the immigrant workers that these companies exploited. Hawaii imported thousands of Chinese and Japanese workers to toil in the very labor intensive sugar harvesting industry.
One exhibit shows a fully clad Japanese lady immigrant dressed head to toe with protective clothing from the centipedes, scarf to keep out the dust, with long sleeved padded pants and shirts, ready to harvest the sharp spikes of the sugar cane plants, and hat to protect from tropical sun. Very hard labor work under difficult conditions, before mechanization in the 1950s. Not a job many Americans would do today!
No photography allowed inside the building. At the end of the self audio tour they have a gift shop so they can sell you postcards of items you can't take pictures of.
Expensive sample packets of raw sugar with your admission. $7 adults, $6 seniors -hey we only have so many good years left-, $2 kids, place closes at 430pm sharp.
You can find this place easily as it is across the street from the only remaining sugar processing plant in Maui, a giant factory with two 5 story tall smoke stacks bellowing tons of smoke and steam into the air, visible for miles from the highway to the airport.
Before the late 1950s, only the limited capacity, 300 mph cruising, 4 engine propeller Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-6s lumbering for 10 hours, could reach the islands from the mainland.
The invention of the high capacity 575 mph cruising 4 engine jet passenger airliner, specifically the Boeing 707, that could fly nonstop from the west coast to Hawaii in 5.5 hours, spelled the beginning of the booming tourist industry in 1959 in Hawaii, and the end of the Hawaiian sugar business.
We were on our way back from visiting Haleakala crater, and saw this sugar plantation house which had been converted into a sugar museum.
Outside were various pieces of sugar harvesting field machinery, most with bulldozer treads, a giant tractor type truck with tires as tall as a man, and several cranes for picking up the cut sugar cane and lifting them into trucks.
The museum has about 4 or 5 rooms, and has a large number of exhibits, pictures and films showing the history of sugar cane in Hawaii from the late 1800s through the 1950s. Lots of black and whites, under the Alexander and Baldwin sugar company Hawaiian sugar, which became C & H Sugar . Many of the products and captains of the sugar industry are listed.
Also shown are the immigrant workers that these companies exploited. Hawaii imported thousands of Chinese and Japanese workers to toil in the very labor intensive sugar harvesting industry.
One exhibit shows a fully clad Japanese lady immigrant dressed head to toe with protective clothing from the centipedes, scarf to keep out the dust, with long sleeved padded pants and shirts, ready to harvest the sharp spikes of the sugar cane plants, and hat to protect from tropical sun. Very hard labor work under difficult conditions, before mechanization in the 1950s. Not a job many Americans would do today!
No photography allowed inside the building. At the end of the self audio tour they have a gift shop so they can sell you postcards of items you can't take pictures of.
Expensive sample packets of raw sugar with your admission. $7 adults, $6 seniors -hey we only have so many good years left-, $2 kids, place closes at 430pm sharp.
You can find this place easily as it is across the street from the only remaining sugar processing plant in Maui, a giant factory with two 5 story tall smoke stacks bellowing tons of smoke and steam into the air, visible for miles from the highway to the airport.
Before the late 1950s, only the limited capacity, 300 mph cruising, 4 engine propeller Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-6s lumbering for 10 hours, could reach the islands from the mainland.
The invention of the high capacity 575 mph cruising 4 engine jet passenger airliner, specifically the Boeing 707, that could fly nonstop from the west coast to Hawaii in 5.5 hours, spelled the beginning of the booming tourist industry in 1959 in Hawaii, and the end of the Hawaiian sugar business.
Written 20 November 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Laura P
Haleiwa, Hawaii
Are there plans to this museum open since the plantation is closing?
Written 17 May 2016
The Sugar Museum is a non profit organization. It will remain open, and is in fact planning to expand.
Written 16 December 2017
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