A Luau experience by Waimea Valley. Back to all Oahu tours.
Tour Summary: Toa Luau is a family-run show on a lawn inside Waimea Valley, the only Oʻahu luau held inside a botanical garden. The North Shore setting and hands-on cultural activities make it the most authentic option on Oʻahu, and the ticket doubles as a valley day pass.
After your check-in, take part in a number of different hands-on Polynesian cultural activities including a nature walk around the botanical garden, learn how to cook in an umu, weave with coconut fronds and leaves, tree climbing, and traditional games from across the islands of Polynesia. Image: Toa Luau 
Malassada Kalua pig Big Island Beers After your check-in, take part in a number of different hands-on Polynesian cultural activities, such as this kava ceremony. Image: Toa Luau After your check-in, take part in a number of different hands-on Polynesian cultural activities, such as the reparation of an Imu (underground oven). Image: Toa Luau The comfortable seating area. Image: Toa Luau Once the show begins, you will embark on a journey across Polynesia featuring live music, song, and dance. Watch the ori from Tahiti, the haka from New Zealand, the graceful hula from the islands of Hawaii, and of course, the thrilling fire knife dance from Samoa. Image: Toa Luau
4 Tour Highlights:
- Explore Waimea Valley (free Waimea Valley pass included!) and enjoy a Polynesian Luau with fire knife dancing
- Be greeted with flower lei, and walk through fragrant flower lei gardens
- See cultural demonstrations, dancing, and enjoy traditional Hawaiian food and cocktails
- Choose from two start times at either 12:30PM or 5:00PM. The early show is great for families with young children.
Tour Information:
| Price: | Adult | Youth |
|---|---|---|
| (excluding taxes & fees) | $125 | $105 |
Price note: $125 is the Silver matinee seat; dinner seatings and higher tiers run to $205, adult pricing starts at 21, youths 13 to 20 start at $105, children 5 to 12 at $85, and ages 4 and under are free.
Tour Provider: Waimea Valley
Activity: Luau
Tour start time: 12:30 pm, 5 pm
Duration: 3.5 hours
Location: Waimea Valley
Pick-up available? No
Included: Flower lei, Cultural activities, Umu demonstration, Kava ceremony, Luau Dinner, Polynesian show.
Cancellations: Customers will receive a full refund with 24 hours notice of cancellation. Customers will also receive a full refund in case of operator cancellation due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances. Contact us by phone to cancel or inquire about a cancellation at 877-778-0273. No-shows will be charged the full price.
Read more: about luau in our Oahu luau guide.
(It is not possible to book this tour directly through our website. Clicking on the button above takes you to the Waimea Valley website where you can make the booking.)
Read more about this tour
Your ticket here is also a Waimea Valley pass, and it works for one visit on any day within seven days before or after the luau. Get to the valley about two hours early and you can walk the paved three-quarter mile up to Waimea Falls first; the operator suggests the same, and a golf-cart shuttle runs $10 per person round trip if the walk is too much.
TripAdvisor reviewers write about the hands-on hour before the food more than about the show itself. You peel taro and green bananas, husk coconuts, weave a headband, and watch a coconut-tree climb while the family that runs the luau works the lawn. Those activities start well before the listed showtime, so guests who arrive right at check-in end up watching them instead of doing them.
The hands-on lawn hour: taro and green-banana peeling, coconut husking, headband weaving, and games from across Polynesia. Image: Toa Luau
How the luau runs
The sequence is fixed: lawn activities and cooking demonstrations first, including the imu (the underground oven) that cooks the kālua pork, then a kava ceremony about 45 minutes in, then the meal, then a 45-minute show that moves through Hawaiʻi, Tonga, Aotearoa, Tahiti, and Samoa and ends with the fire knife dance. The whole event runs 3.5 hours, and the 12:30 and 5:00 shows are identical.
There is no buffet line. Servers bring a fixed menu to the table: kālua pork, grilled shoyu BBQ chicken, green salad, mac salad, lomi tomato, rice with furikake, haupia, local fruit, and white cake with coconut frosting. The pork draws the most repeat praise in reviews. Two caveats recur: plates are portioned ahead and arrive warm rather than hot, and the tableware is disposable.
Seating tiers: Silver, Gold, and VIP
Every tier eats the same menu and watches the same show; the price difference buys seat type, position, and drink tickets. Free water and iced tea come with all of them. Adult ticket pricing starts at 21. Youths 13 to 20 start at $105 and children 5 to 12 at $85; under 5 is free.
Silver
$125 matinee, $145 dinner, one adult drink ticket. Seats are bar-height, and the operator’s own caveat is that they suit neither elderly guests nor very young children.
Gold
$155 matinee, $175 dinner, two adult drink tickets, standard seating at communal tables of up to ten.
VIP
$185 matinee, $205 dinner, three adult drink tickets, and the VIP seating area. The harshest reviews come from VIP buyers on rainy days who felt the top tier lost its value on a muddy lawn.
Getting there and back
No transportation is included. The drive from Waikīkī can pass 90 minutes in afternoon traffic, and parking at the valley runs about $2. The operator recommends the 12:30 show for anyone relying on TheBus or Uber: rideshare pickups on the North Shore after the evening show are hard to get. The matinee lets out around 3:30 to 4 PM, in time for sunset at Waimea Bay across the road.
If you plan to swim below Waimea Falls, lifeguards decide daily at their 9 AM call whether swimming is allowed (status line: 808-638-7766), free life jackets are required, and the falls can slow to a trickle in a dry stretch.
Waimea Falls is a paved walk of about three-quarters of a mile from the valley entrance, 15 to 40 minutes each way. Photo by Mari Sparacino on Unsplash
Swimsuits are not allowed at the luau itself; the dress code sits between casual and aloha wear, and there are changing rooms near the waterfall. Rain moves the show under a pavilion, and it runs even in heavy rain.
At $125 for the matinee, this is the cheapest full luau ticket on Oʻahu, and Reddit’s luau threads and The Hawaii Vacation Guide both rank it first anyway. Book the 12:30 show and arrive by 10:30. That leaves time to walk up to the falls before the taro peeling starts.
About Waimea Valley
Toa Luau is run by one family, and the ʻohana that owns it hosts the evening in person. They keep the crowd small, seat guests at shared tables, and set up on a lawn inside Waimea Valley on the North Shore, a botanical garden and nature preserve rather than a hotel ballroom. Because the family runs the night themselves, guests get pulled into the taro peeling and coconut husking instead of watching from a distance.
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