25 Souvenirs From Hawaii That Capture the Aloha Spirit

The best souvenirs from Hawaii will transport you back to Hawaii and you won’t ever regret buying them. Whether it’s through taste, feel, or general laid back vibes, the key is bringing back that Aloha spirit.

These are my top 25 Hawaiian souvenirs both for yourself and that make great gifts for friends and family.

Psst! This blog post contains affiliate links in it which sends me a bit of extra money if you use them… at no extra cost to you!

I’ve divided my list of the best souvenirs to buy in Hawaii into three categories:

General aloha Hawaiian souvenirs
Hawaiian Jewellery to buy
Hawaiian food related souvenirs

Aloha Hawaiian Souvenirs

1. Sun Kissed Skin

This is obviously a bit of a joke, but you’re going to Hawaii which is a sunny destination pretty much all year round! So bring back a nice tan to make friends and family back home jealous!

Just watch out and be careful not to burn instead! The UV is much higher in Hawaii than in the mainland and you might be spending a lot more time outside than you’re used to.

P.S. Make sure to use a sunscreen that’s free of harmful chemicals, specifically oxybenzone and oxytinoxate, to protect the reef. For example, I use the Neutrogena oxybenzone free dry touch sunscreen (be sure to double check that it’s the oxybenzone free version). Although it doesn’t promote it’s oxytinoxate free, it wasn’t listed in the ingredients.

a closeup photo of two bright blue tin boxes that are leaning on each other. The cover of the tin has the word Aloha engraved with the image of a surfer riding a wave

2. A Fake Flower For Your Hair

A perfect thing to buy in Hawaii is a plastic or foam fake flower for your hair that you can wear on your vacation and even when you get back home.

The fake flower replaces the real flower that is popular to place behind an ear in Hawaiian culture to represent your relationship status (if you’re single you wear a flower behind your right ear, if you’re in a relationship you were a flower behind your left).

You can find floral clips or barrettes, or even one’s with a stick to stay behind your ear in many shops throughout Hawaii.

There are tons of options of different flowers and colour schemes to choose from too.

a very full image with a lot going on but a lot of the same. There are two rows of five buckets each. Inside each bucket it's filled to the top with different coloured fake flowers. Each is a different style hair piece. Clipped on to the front row are even more floral hairpieces hanging down. There isn't a space without anything!

3. Aloha Wear

The classic Hawaiian souvenir is of course a Hawaiian shirt, a floral patterned piece of clothing. But did you know this was actually called Aloha wear in Hawaii?

Similar to a fake flowers, pick up a Hawaiian shirt, dress, sarong, skirt… etc. to wear during your vacation. I saw so many people dressed in Aloha wear throughout the Island, but it was a very popular beach outfit.

And bonus points if you’re able to match the pattern with the rest of your travel group (and yes, they sell a lot of matching patterns for men and women!).

P.S. If you’re worried about space in your luggage on the way home, pack one less beach outfit because you know you’re going to buy one on your trip! See more of my travel packing tips lie this in my post.

two headless mannequins are positioned side by side. One is a man and the other is a woman, but they have matching fabrics. The men's shirt is black with pink hibiscus and white, green and yellow accents. the woman's is the same print but in a dress.

4. A Ukulele

A ukulele is the instrument of Hawaii. It’s a smaller version of a guitar, with only 4 strings so it’s a bit easier to learn how to play your favourite songs (and it’s also easier to bring on home as a souvenir from Hawaii!).

This is the ultimate Hawaiian souvenir for music lovers, whether you already play an instrument or are looking to start!

P.S. Did you know that the proper Hawaiian way to pronounce ukulele is oo-koo-leh-leh.

5. Hula Dashboard Doll

A hula dashboard doll is a really fun souvenir from Hawaii to buy for yourself or as a gift, even though I will admit I didn’t see any actually in cars in Hawaii. This one is not about being truly authentic to Hawaiian culture.

a wall with fake grass and filled in offset and two rows of just ukuleles. Each ukulele is slightly different from each other.

But it will remind you everyday of Hawaii! Place it on your dashboard, or if don’t have a car, pick up a solar powered doll to put in a sunny spot in your house!

There are so many different versions of hula dashboard dolls too that you don’t have to get a hula girl at all. There are cartoon hula pineapples, sharks, even men dancers, and more!

You can find these at most souvenir shops in Hawaii.

P.S. Easily keep track of what to buy and what you’ve already bought in Hawaii with my printable Hawaii travel guide with a souvenir checklist and more Hawaiian travel guides.

6. An Aloha Dry Bathing Suit Bag

A dry bag is so useful when you’re in Hawaii, back home, and travelling to other destinations.

A dry bag is a bag that either keeps the contents dry, or if you put wet contents inside, it keep the rest of your bag dry.

A table display of solar hulas perfect for a dashboard or table. There are five hula dolls in total, each in plastic, but you can still see the dolls clearly. They are similar but each have a different coloured skirt. On the middle, two hula dolls stand out as one is a cartoon pineapple with a smiling face, and behind it is a cartoon shark.

I pack my bathing suit in a dry bag on every trip, and it often comes in handy!I even use it when I’m home if I ever go to a pool or beach in my area.

This is another Hawaiian souvenir that’s handy to buy at the start of your trip to use throughout your vacation.

The ALOHA Collection makes aloha themed dry bags (or as they call them, Splash-Proof pouches) in all sizes to fit your smallest items like keys and wallet to your largest items like your towel. They even sell entire bags!

7. A Beach Aloha Floaty

The water is so warm in Hawaii that you can sit and relax in the water on a floaty without getting too cold (p.s. the water ranges between 70°F to 80°F (21°C to 26°C) throughout the year).

So buy an Aloha floaty to use on vacation, then deflate it to bring home as a Hawaiian souvenir.

An aloha floaty on display in a shop window. It's hanging on a window faced out for passerby to see. It's blue with white hibiscus flower and leaf outlines. It's a A shape, with two handles on either side. There's a piece in the middle that connect both sides, and this is where you can sit. In the centre is a sign, it says: sit N' Float 12.99, the price.

8. A Non Floral Lei

If you want to bring home a lei from Hawaii, I recommend getting any other type of lei than a floral lei (unless it’s a fake floral lei!).

If you’re traveling to the mainland U.S. you’ll go through an agriculture security check at the airport because they want to avoid the spread of insects and plant diseases.

On top of that, floral leis don’t last, so they don’t make a great Hawaiian souvenir anyway.

And there are so many other types of leis you can buy instead. For example, there are shell leis, kukui nut leis, ribbon leis, and even knit leis. None of these will be flagged at security leaving the island, and won’t degrade over time!

an overhead view of a table with a few different types of leis on display. They're all tangled together but you can distinctly see there are three types. A classic white and purple flower lei. There there's a green knit lei made with long eyelash yarn, and finally, there are two seashell leis with very tiny white shells. The leis also sit atop a printed out O'ahu Hawaii travel guide

9. A Hawaiian Quilt

Hawaiian quilting is a century old tradition that has been passed down through generations.

It’s a beautiful art that brings Hawaiian style into fabrics and useful items. You can find a Hawaiian quilt anything today, from the classic quilt to pillow cases, and even wallets or purses.

So even if you don’t want to bring back an entire home decor change to your house you can still bring a piece of a Hawaiian quilt back with you!

a closeup of a beautiful hawaiian quilt design. It's a light blue and a dark blue pattern, but you can see the intricate stitching that adds a pattern without a change in fabric or colour.

10. Koa Wood Anything

Koa wood is a native tree to Hawaii (and in fact is the second most popular tree on the Islands), so it’s no wonder it’s used to make different useful wood items for your home.

Bring back koa wood bowls, salad hands, or even a small keychain!

Bonus! Hawaiian Music

Nothing captures the Hawaiian vibes more than local Hawaiian music. Normally, I would recommend picking up a CD, but I know I’m old school and probably the only person that still owns a CD player.

So instead of buying a CD that you can’t use, make a point to listen to Hawaiian music as much as you can on your trip to discover local artists.

I rented a car and only listened to local radio instead of my own Spotify. If you aren’t renting a car, and don’t have access to a radio, this is my Spotify playlist of my liked songs from my trip.

a vertical photo of a display of pineapple shaped wood dishes. They vary in wood pattern and size and slightly shaped as they are hand carved.

Hawaiian Jewellery To Bring Home

Hawaiian jewellery is another great souvenir that captures the Aloha spirit. From floral pendants to wave rings, you can’t leave without some form of jewellery added to your collection.

But there are a few specific pieces of jewellery that you’ll only be able to find in Hawaii…

11. Hawaiian Heirloom Jewellery

Hawaiian heirloom jewellery travels back to the late 1800’s and the last Queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani. She was gifted an engraved bangle with her name on it, and the tradition and style stuck.

Hawaiian heirloom jewellery, as it’s known as today, are beautifully engraved pieces that are often gifts to celebrate milestones and passed on from one generation to the next.

The original piece was a bangle, but you can often find the engraved patterns on rings as well. And you can opt to have them engraved with your name or not.

seven columns of eight hawaiian heirloom rings. Half are silver and half are gold. They are all placed evenly in a ring display holder. You can see the intricate engraved pattern on each ring.

12. Sunrise Shell Pendant

Sunrise shells are naturally occurring shell patterns that looks like the colours of sunset. You’ll only find these scuba diving in the ocean surrounding the Hawaiian Islands.

Although there’s a small chance you can find one washed up on the shores of Electric Beach on the Leeward Coast (on O’ahu). But the waves can be giant sneaker waves along those shores, so I wouldn’t recommend it.

Instead, just buy one that’s been polished and turned into a pendant for you to wear as a necklace!

What About Tahitian (Black) Pearls

You’ll see a lot of black pearls, also known as Tahitian pearls fore sale in Hawaii. Although they’re beautiful, and there’s no shame in buying one if you see one you like, just know it’s not actually from Hawaii.

Black pearls are unique in the sense that they cannot be cultured and grown like regular pearls. So they are only found naturally, just not in Hawaii! Black pearls are more often found around Japan and French Polynesia like Tahiti…etc.

If you do want to bring back a pearl from Hawaii, I recommend “finding your own” pearl at Pearl Factory. They let you pick your own oyster and open it yourself. Then you can buy a setting for your very own new-found pearl!

Pearl Factory has a few locations throughout the Hawaiian Islands.

a mannequin bust showcasing three necklaces, with imperfect pearls, and sunrise pearl pendant. The sunrise pearl goes from green purple to golden yellow

Food Souvenirs from Hawaii

Food souvenirs are great gifts from Hawaii to share your culinary experiences with friends and family back home. It’s also fun to reminisce with the flavours from your trip!

P.S. If you’re interested in more Hawaiian foods to try during your trip, check out my post on the top 30 Hawaiian foods to try.

13. Hawaiian Cookbook

If you love cooking and Hawaiian food, then a Hawaiian cookbook is the ultimate souvenir to bring the flavours of Hawaii back with you.

Learn some new cooking skills, and have everlasting flavours of Hawaii fill your kitchen.

14. Musubi Maker

One of the most popular dishes in Hawaii is musubi. Although you can’t bring back a musubi, you can bring back a musubi maker to make them yourself at home.

You don’t actually need a musubi maker to make musubi (they use a SPAM can), but this way you can also make other types of musubi too.

a closeup of the packaging for the musubi maker. There's japanese writing on the box as well, in english it says: easy to use. Just push for perfect shape! There's an image of SPAM musubi in the corner.

15. Pineapple Knife (Dole Plantation – O’ahu)

A pineapple knife is a tad gimmicky, but it’s an inexpensive gimmick that has some practicality to it.

A pineapple knife is exactly what it sounds like, a knife specifically made for cutting pineapples. It’s an invention from the Dole Plantation so it’s solely sold at their gift shop (on O’ahu). Their patented design is that’s it’s serrated on both sides and the knife has a slight curve to it.

I’d like to think you can also use it for other curved fruit as well, like different melons.

P.S. I recommend watching the free pineapple cutting demonstration at the Dole Plantation. I learned A LOT about how to pick out a pineapple in the grocery store and how to properly cut it (with the knife of course!). But I wowed my entire family with my knew pineapple cutting skills, and knife!

A woman has two items in her lap and she holds them up with one hand. On the top is a serrated knife package. The package shows what the knife looks like inside. It looks more like a mini chainsaw than a knife before it's serrated on both sides. On the knife it says Hawaii Plantation. It has a yellow handle. Below the knife package is a CD called the Pineapple Express by the band Manoa DNA. The CD cover has three men hanging out of a mini yellow train.

16. Local Coffee (Kona Coffee)

Although the coffee plant isn’t native to Hawaii, it’s flourished in the Hawaiian climate, especially on the Big Island in the Kona region.

Kona coffee will be the most popular local Hawaiian coffee. And even if you aren’t visiting the Big Island, you’ll still be able to taste and buy Kona coffee. But each Island will also have their local coffee plants, they’re just on a much smaller scale.

You want to make sure that the coffee you’re buying as a souvenir isn’t a blend of beans and it’s a single origin coffee with 100% Hawaiian beans.

A morning cup of a coffee overlooking the sunrise view of Diamond head slightly blurred in the distance.

17. Local Chocolate & Products

The cocoa bean is another plant that can easily grow on the Hawaiian Islands. So over the last few decades, farmers have invested in cacao farms to produce 100% local Hawaiian chocolate.

On top of that, you can get island, and even region specific chocolate bars. For example, Manoa Chocolate makes region specific bars from most Hawaiian Islands. This is a fun way to see how terroir and region can vastly change the taste of the chocolate.

Because the chocolate bars are made on the Island from pod to bar, you can buy so much more than just the chocolate bar (which aren’t the best souvenirs to travel with anyway), so I recommend buying other more unique cocoa products instead.

You can buy the cocoa bean that’s been fermented and roasted (I recommend tasting it before, it can have a rather unique taste that isn’t for everyone), cocoa nibs to add in top of ice cream or oatmeal, crushed cocoa beans for brewing chocolate, and even the cocoa shell itself which is used for chocolate tea (and is actually delicious!). You can find all these products from Manoa Chocolate.

P.S. Manoa Chocolate also offers cacao orchard tours on both O’ahu (at Kamananui Orchards – I did this one), and the Big Island (at Honoli’i Orchards).

three bags from manoa chocolate on the table. The first bag is green and says cocao tea, you can see through the window of the bag it's brown shells. The middle bag is royal blue and is cocao nibs. Finally, the third bag is a maroon and says brewing chocolate on the bag.

18. Macadamia Nuts & More

To follow the trend, another Hawaiian souvenir that wasn’t always local to Hawaii are macadamia nuts.

The macadamia nut trees were brought over from Australia in 1881, so they have made their home in Hawaii for almost 150 years now.

But Hawaii also does macadamia nuts a bit differently. It’s not just about the nut itself, but the flavours they add to the nut.

They have a huge variety of macadamia nuts flavours from kona coffee, to honey roasted, or even Maui onion and they’re all uniquely delicious.

You can also buy some speciality macadamia nut butter and macadamia nut oil.

a closeup of tropical farms of Hawaii macadamia nut packages in a row. There's a brown onion soup pot with a cover in front, it says hawaii on the front. You can read the flavour of the macadamia nut , which is caramel glazed

19. Rum And / Or A Mai Tai Mix

Sugar cane was a huge crop and export for the Hawaiian Islands as well, so it’s not surprise that you can find local Hawaiian rum.

But boost your rum souvenir by also picking up a local mai tai mix. Although a mai tai isn’t actually from Hawaii (it was invented in Oakland California), it’s certainly become the cocktail of the tiki bar.

You’ll be making the best mai tai your friends and family have ever tasted!

Three bottles on a shelf from the Ko'hana distilleries. The first bottle is frosted glass but you can still see the amber brew inside. It's a mai tai mix. The second is slightly more white, and it's a liliko'i mix .The last bottle is different, it's square and it's simply Hawaiian rum.

20. Pineapple Wine

Hawaii is the land of the pineapples, so don’t just bring back wine, bring back pineapple wine. It’s exactly what it sounds like, fermented pineapples that have turned into wine. And it’s GOOD!

Most pineapple wine is from Maui, but you can still find for sale at grocery stores on the other islands.

21. Poi in a Bag

Poi is a traditional Hawaiian side dish made from taro root. It’s served as an alternative to rice in Hawaii. It’s actually sold it in a bag, so you can easily bring it home.

22. Local Fruit Preserves

Bring the taste of Hawaiian fruit home with you by picking up some local fruit preserves.

For example, one of the most iconic Hawaiian flavours is Liliko’i (the word for passion fruit in Hawaiian!). It’s a very popular flavour for drinks, desserts, and especially jams.

23. Li Hing Mui Powder & Crack Seed

Crack seed is a dried fruit snack in Hawaii that originated in China from the li hing mui plum.

Hawaii has not only kept the tradition of drying the li hing mui plum, but they’ve also turned it into a powder that can be added to other dried fruit, and even fresh fruit.

So crack seed in Hawaii includes every type of dried fruit imaginable, with a li hing mui powder on top.

Let’s just say, li hing mui itself has an acquired taste: it’s not so sweet, it’s kind of savoury, and even a little salty. So I encourage you to try other crack seed (dried fruit) options too.

You can pick up some crack seed, as a souvenir, or just the li hing mui powder.

a box filled with bags of crack see at a hawaiian market. The labels on top of the box are printed at home. There are four rows of different types of dried li hing mui fruit. They're dark and bright reds

24. Kava Powder / Oil

Kava is the state drink of Hawaii, that’s been consumed for centuries for welcome ceremonies and for medicinal purposes.

Kava is from a tree root that’s turned into a powder that you can steep to create a drink.

You can either pick up the powder, or a kava oil as a Hawaiian souvenir.

As I mentioned, it’s been used for medicinal purposes to elevate mood, and foster relaxation. Just watch out though, due to the calming, it’s also known to make your tongue go a bit numb!

A wooden shelf that has posters taped to the top shelf made from coloured paper and written on with market. The firs sheet is orange and describes what kava is, but you can't really see what's written. The second is bright yellow, and says KAVA in giant letter with large arrows pointing below. On the bottom shelf are a few bags filled with a brown powder.

25. Local Tea: Hibiscus & Mamake

I always love finding a local tea to brew and Hawaii technically has two: mamake and hibiscus.

Mamake is one of the only native plants to Hawaii and the leaves are used to brew mamake tea. You can buy mamake infused tea blends, or just the leaf.

Hibiscus isn’t native to Hawaii, but it’s now the state flower. In fact, each island has their own variety of hibiscus flower as their individual Island flower. One of the best ways to enjoy hibiscus is steeping the dried petals for tea.

Printable O’ahu Travel Guide

Make the most of your first trip to O’ahu with my printable and portable travel guide. Includes 14 pages to plan the perfect trip to Hawaii, and stay organized while you’re there.

I’ve provided tips and advice for travelling on O’ahu, common phrases, and even the weekly market schedule. Plus there’s a checklist for every region on the island, food to try, and souvenirs to buy!

Start planning your perfect O’ahu vacation today, purchase on Etsy.