Touring Hawaiian Coffee, Sugar Farms

A Big Island coffee farm and a Kauai sugar plantation are hoping to harvest growing interest in agricultural tourism.

Last month, the Uchida Coffee Farm began operating as the Kona Coffee Living History Farm, with costumed interpreters and twice-daily, two-hour tours. Although the farm still produces coffee, the tours focus on the period 1925 to 1945, shortly after the farm was founded, and on the daily life of its Japanese immigrant workers.

Visitors “meet” people from the era and view orchards, the original farmhouse, the processing mill and living quarters furnished from the era. The farm is in Kealakekua in the South Kona district. Reservations are suggested for the tours, which cost $20 for adults, $15 for children 5 to 11, free under 5. Call (808) 323-2006.

On Kauai, Gay & Robinson Inc., one of three sugar plantations still operating in Hawaii, has begun offering twice-daily, two-hour tours. The plantation, which ships raw sugar crystals to California for final processing, has 7,300 acres of cane fields and a plant with vats “bigger than your house,” said tour supervisor Chris Faye. It is on the island’s west side, between Waimea and Port Allen. Tours cost $30 per person. Reservations are required: tel. (808) 335-2824.