Manoa means vast or deep in Hawaiian, and the green valley opening ahead of you earns the name. The name 'Manoa' means 'vast' or 'deep' in Hawaiian, and the valley earns the name: it stretches back into the Ko'olau Mountains in a deep green corridor that receives more rainfall than almost anywhere else on O'ahu, creating a landscape of exceptional lushness. Ancient Hawaiians settled this valley and cultivated taro in its stream-fed fields for centuries before any Westerner arrived.
The springs and streams that pour from the valley's back walls fed communities well downstream into what is now the heart of Honolulu. Robert Louis Stevenson, who came to Hawaii in 1889 seeking a climate that might help his tuberculosis, found the valley an inspiration and wrote about its beauty in letters home to Scotland. The American missionaries of the 1820s settled here as well, establishing farms and schools in the valley's cooler air.
Today, Manoa is a residential neighborhood of great charm, its hillside streets lined with older homes half-hidden by tropical vegetation. The trail to Manoa Falls winds through a forest that drips with moisture year-round, and the rainbows that form above the valley on almost any afternoon are among the most reliably beautiful sights in Honolulu.