Waikiki Trolley has opened bookings for its Holiday Lights tour, running nightly December 6 to 31, 2026: an open-air double-decker ride from a festival tent at Aloha Tower to the Honolulu City Lights at Honolulu Hale, about an hour on the ground there, and back. We don’t rent a car, so anything that gets two people downtown and back after dark gets our attention. Our first reaction, though, was a question: the lights at Honolulu Hale are free, so what exactly does the ticket buy?
What happened
The tour was covered on October 27 by Lighthouse Hawaii, a Honolulu-based Japanese-language publication, but the details below come from the operator itself. The official booking page, where confirmations come from Waikiki Trolley’s operating company, E Noa Corporation, lists “Holiday Lights 2026” from December 6 to December 31. When we checked on October 28 (Hawaii time), every date in that range was open, including December 24 and 25.
The setup: you check in at the Holiday Station, a tent at the corner of Richards Street and Aloha Tower Drive. Waikiki Trolley’s 2026 tour page (in Japanese, updated October 21) gives the address as 198 Aloha Tower Dr. The tent has photos with Santa and “the Green Guy,” free hot cocoa, carnival games, crafts, and, new this year, a lights-and-music show the booking page says runs about every 30 minutes. Then the double-decker rides through downtown to Honolulu Hale, where you get roughly an hour at the City Lights, and brings you back to the tent.
The booking page puts the whole thing at about 2.5 to 3 hours, including about an hour at Honolulu Hale and 30 minutes at the Holiday Station.
What it changes for a Waikiki stay
Here is what the booking page listed for the December 6, 6 pm tour, checked October 28, 2026. These are subtotals: the booking page adds “Taxes & Fees” before checkout.
| Ticket | Adult (12+) | Child (3-11) |
|---|---|---|
| Lower deck | $39.50 | $34.50 |
| Upper deck | $49.50 | $39.50 |
| Lower deck + Waikiki shuttle | $49.50 | $44.50 |
| Upper deck + Waikiki shuttle | $59.50 | $49.50 |
Lap children 0 to 2 ride free. On the booking page, taxes and fees come to about 10.7% on top of each ticket: an adult lower-deck seat goes from $39.50 to $43.73 (+$4.23), an adult upper-deck seat from $49.50 to $54.80 (+$5.30), adult upper deck with the shuttle from $59.50 to $65.87 (+$6.37), and a child lower-deck seat from $34.50 to $38.20 (+$3.70). The Japanese page also says a ticketing fee and tax are added at checkout.
A few things that matter if you’re staying in Waikiki:
- The tour starts downtown, not in Waikiki. Without a car, you either add the round-trip shuttle ($10 more per adult or child before taxes and fees) or take a rideshare to Aloha Tower. The operator’s Japanese page says the shuttle runs between Waikiki Shopping Plaza and the Holiday Station, picking up on Royal Hawaiian Avenue near the Pink Line stop, but shuttle times had not been announced yet when we checked.
- Departure times are fixed. The Japanese page lists 6, 7 and 8 pm departures, with extra 6:30 and 7:30 pm runs Friday through Sunday and from December 18 to 27. The ticket time is the bus departure, you’re asked to check in 10 to 15 minutes before, and the Japanese page’s FAQ says a 6 pm booking rides the 6 pm bus.
- Upper deck is the only way to guarantee you’re upstairs. Seating is first come, first served, and only upper-deck ticket holders can sit up top, both ways.
- The return time is set on the night. The driver announces it when you get off at Honolulu Hale, depending on traffic.
- Cancel at least 24 hours out. The booking page’s policy says no refunds for cancellations within 24 hours of the tour.
- Driving? The booking page lists validated parking at Aloha Tower at $15 for up to 4 hours, otherwise $3 per 30 minutes.
For two adults, the booking page totals come to $87.46 for the lower deck without the shuttle ($79 subtotal plus $8.46 in taxes and fees), or $131.74 for the upper deck with it ($119 plus $12.74), before any tip for the driver.
What we’d do — and what we wouldn’t
We haven’t taken this tour, so this is a read of the published details, reported, not field-tested.
The part that shaped our call is in the Honolulu City Lights FAQ: there’s no entrance fee. After the opening night on Saturday, December 5, the display is open daily from 8 am to 10 pm through December, and the outdoor lights and the 50-foot tree come on around 6 pm and stay on until about 6 am. In other words, the tour’s main stop is something anyone can walk into for free. What the ticket really buys is the ride, the Holiday Station tent, and not having to figure out downtown on your own at night.
For us, that’s not enough to book it. Our evenings are short and quiet, and a 6 pm departure with a shuttle on both ends adds up to a long night out for two people who are usually back in the suite with a beer by then. We’d also skip the Santa photos and carnival games without guilt. If one of us really wanted to see the tree, the simpler move would be a rideshare to Honolulu Hale right around dusk, a slow lap, and a ride back, with no fixed bus to catch.
Who should book it? Families with kids, mostly. The tent is clearly built for them, the ticket bundles cocoa, a game ticket, crafts and the photos, and the booking page’s FAQ says there are no age restrictions. Anyone who wants the double-decker itself, singing carols on the open top deck through downtown, should pay for the upper deck: $10 more per adult, $5 more per child, before taxes and fees. That’s the part you can’t get by going on your own.
If you go, the 6 pm slot makes the most sense to us: the lights at Honolulu Hale come on around then, and the booking page lists that slot as 6:00 to 8:30 pm, so you’d be back at Aloha Tower by about 8:30 pm, traffic permitting.
Before you plan around this
- Prices above are from the booking page for the 6 pm tour on December 6, checked October 28, 2026 (Hawaii time). Tax and fee amounts are as the booking page shows them before checkout and may change with the fare. The operator says departure times, dates, schedules and fares can change without notice.
- Waikiki Shopping Plaza shuttle times were still “to be announced.” Re-check the booking page before you plan dinner around a shuttle you can’t see yet.
- On October 28, Waikiki Trolley’s English-language Holiday Lights page still showed the 2025 tour. The 2026 details were on the booking page and the Japanese page.
- The tour runs rain or shine, but the booking page says it may be modified, delayed or canceled in severe weather. Bring a light jacket for the top deck.
- City Lights hours are from the organizers’ FAQ for the 2026 season. Opening night (December 5) has a parade and street closures downtown, a day before this tour starts.
Checked October 28, 2026 (Hawaii time).
