Photo: Carol M. Highsmith (Public domain)
A self-guided audio walking tour of Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park on the Kona Coast. It begins in the Royal Grounds, a center of the Kona chiefs after the island was unified in the early 1600s, at Keoneʻele Cove, the canoe landing kept for the aliʻi, and Hale o Keawe, the mausoleum whose kiʻi stand over the place where the bones of 23 chiefs were kept. Past the kōnane board and the fishponds reserved for the aliʻi, the Great Wall divides the Royal Grounds from the puʻuhonua, the refuge where kapu breakers, defeated warriors and noncombatants could find safety until the kapu system ended in 1819. Inside are the Keōua and Kaʻahumanu stones and ʻĀleʻaleʻa Heiau, the older principal temple. For those who continue, the 1871 Trail runs south along the coast past ʻŌmaʻo Heiau, the Kēōkea hōlua slide and the Alahaka Ramp to the abandoned farming and fishing village of Kiʻilae. Each wall, platform and stone is described as seen from the path.
14 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 18 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 1 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Royal Grounds of Hōnaunau, Keoneʻele Cove, Hale o Keawe Heiau, Kōnane Papamū, Heleipālālā Fishpond.
Great Wall, Puʻuhonua, Keōua Stone, Kaʻahumanu Stone, ʻĀleʻaleʻa Heiau.
ʻŌmaʻo Heiau, Kēōkea Hōlua, Alahaka Ramp, Kiʻilae Village.
The small cove that served as the canoe landing for the aliʻi, where sea turtles rest on the sand and Hale o Keawe is seen across the water.
The restored mausoleum that held the bones of 23 chiefs, whose mana protected the refuge, guarded by carved kiʻi of Lono and Kū.
The L-shaped dry-set wall of lava stone, fitted without mortar, that separates the Royal Grounds from the place of refuge.
The refuge for kapu breakers, defeated warriors and their families, which ceased to function after the kapu system fell in 1819.
A large boulder propped on smaller stones, where the story says Kaʻahumanu hid from Kamehameha until her dog's barking gave her away.
A stone sled track more than 1,200 feet long, built for the aliʻi's downhill racing and later robbed of stones for the 1871 Trail.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 14 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 14 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau — the Place of Refuge and the Royal Grounds, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
14 narration points, including Royal Grounds of Hōnaunau, Keoneʻele Cove, Hale o Keawe Heiau, Kōnane Papamū and Puʻuhonua. That is about 18 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 14 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.