The back story
Where Hawaiʻi sleeps: the grand hotels of Waikīkī and the resorts of the islands
The Royal Hawaiian of 1927 and Halekulani on Waikīkī Beach, the Kahala beneath Diamond Head, the North Shore’s Ritz-Carlton and the resorts of Maui, Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi Island: where to stay in Hawaiʻi.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Frank Schulenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsThe first choice in Hawaiʻi is the island, and on Oʻahu the second is the beach. Waikīkī, two miles of sand below Diamond Head, has the historic hotels, the restaurants and the city at your door; Kāhala, a few minutes east, has the calm; the North Shore has the winter surf and the country. On the neighbour islands the great resorts spread along the leeward coasts of Maui, Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi Island.
Waikīkī’s historic hotels
The Royal Hawaiian, built in 1927 and known as the Pink Palace of the Pacific, ushered in a new era of resort travel to Hawaiʻi, in its own words; next door, Halekulani has welcomed guests to its beachfront grounds for more than a century. Its younger sister, Halepuna Waikiki, sits just behind on Helumoa Road.
Beyond Waikīkī
At the far end of Kapiʻolani Park, the Kaimana Beach Hotel faces the ocean beyond the crowds; the Kahala Hotel & Resort, east of Diamond Head, has its own beach and its dolphin lagoon. On the North Shore, the Ritz-Carlton Oʻahu, Turtle Bay, has replaced the old Turtle Bay Resort.
The neighbour islands
On Maui, Hotel Wailea keeps 72 suites on 15 acres, and the Grand Wailea spreads across the Wailea coast; on Kauaʻi, 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay has 252 rooms above the bay; on Hawaiʻi Island, the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel stands on the Kohala Coast.
For a first visit, give Oʻahu four nights in Waikīkī, then fly to a second island for the rest of the stay.
Our advice: book the room by its view. In Waikīkī an ocean-front room and a city-view room in the same hotel are two different holidays.
Why it's on our list
- Waikīkī’s historic hotels
- Beyond Waikīkī
- The neighbour islands
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Location
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More in depth
The back storyReading Oʻahu: a palace, a crater and a harbour of memoryʻIolani Palace, the only official royal residence in the United States, Diamond Head’s crater, the memorials of Pearl Harbor, the Bishop Museum and Hanauma Bay: how to read Oʻahu’s great sights.History & heritageHawaiʻi: from the palace of the monarchs to the islands todayʻIolani Palace of 1882 and the last reigning monarchs, the plantation families and their kitchens, Pearl Harbor in 1941, Duke Kahanamoku’s Waikīkī and the revival of hula: Hawaiʻi’s heritage, told plainly.
The back storyHula, opera and Islamic art: Hawaiʻi’s artsThe Bishop Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art and Doris Duke’s Shangri La, Capitol Modern, the Hawaii Theatre of 1922, the opera, the symphony, the Merrie Monarch hula festival and the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival: Hawaiʻi’s arts.