To
walk along Waikiki Beach at sunset is to experience that "all's
right with the world" feeling that only trade winds, a warm ocean,
happy vacationers and a glorious setting sun can provide.
It seems as if
everyone in town comes to the water's edge, cameras in hand, to see
the sunset, as if pulled by magnetic force. Here, a family plays in
the surf. There, a young man takes a photo of a woman silhouetted
against the sun. A wedding party celebrates on a balcony of the
Moana Surfrider. The surfers roll in on the waves.
The only things
missing from the above scenarios are a comfortable chair, a cocktail and some live
Hawaiian music. Luckily, all three of these things are not far
away.
Almost all of the
Waikiki hotels that open up directly onto the beach have oceanside
bars with varying mai tai recipes and music. I checked out five of
these establishments from west to east, because five seemed like a
good, albeit arbitrary, number.
The best time to go
is at sunset, when the bar most likely has a band playing and the
sun is scattering golds, reds and blues across the sky -- and all
is right with the world.
Halekulani
I was captivated by
the scene at the upscale Halekulani Hotel. Low tables and chairs
surrounded a small stage, where a male trio in white aloha shirts
sang enchanting Hawaiian melodies.
Everything is
sophisticated about the evening entertainment here, held in the
outdoor venue called the House Without a Key. There's no access
from the beach in the evening, so patrons have to enter from the
hotel. That's nice, because then you can walk the hotel's open-air
marble halls and let the sound of the music guide you to the
entrance to the bar.
The music starts at
5 p.m., and almost all the cocktail tables were occupied when we
got there around 6 p.m., filled with people dressed in casually
elegant clothes (Hawaiian shirts and slacks, sundresses) and
enjoying the pleasant evening and the music.
A hostess sat us
around a table, and we munched on potato chips while perusing the
appetizer menu. I was a big fan of the beef skewers. There's also a
casual restaurant just behind the cocktail tables, if you want a
proper meal.
The House Without a
Key hosts a trio of musicians every night. On Sundays and Mondays
the group is Pa'ahana, whose members play bass, ukulele and steel
guitar. The group sang soft harmonies in Hawaiian and English, and
on a few songs they were accompanied by hula dancer Kanoe Miller, a
former Miss Hawaii.
Even though the
House Without a Key is upscale and cool, it's not stuffy or cold.
Our group, not wealthy enough to be guests of the Halekulani on our
own, fit in just fine.
Sheraton Waikiki
The Sheraton
Waikiki is a total change of pace from the Halekulani. There was no
Hawaiian music when my brother and I dropped by one Sunday evening
to check out the casual, oceanfront Sand Bar, near the hotel's
oceanside pool.
What they did have
was a movie, "Ice Age 2," and popcorn.
Even if the movies-by-the-pool concept isn't very Hawaiian, it's
fun, especially if you have kids to entertain.
There are events
poolside every night. Mondays and Thursdays are hula nights, with
Hawaiian music and dance. Tuesdays and Saturdays are Tahitian
nights, and Friday nights feature ukulele music.
Royal Hawaiian
Our friend, who
spends a few weeks house-sitting for a family who lives in the
hills above Honolulu, swears by the mai tais at the appropriately
named Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian. Since there was an
hour-plus wait for an oceanside table at the Outrigger Reef
restaurant, my group strolled down the beach to the famous pink
hotel on Waikiki Beach.
The Mai Tai Bar is
also pink, and its pink-and-white-striped awnings make everything
glow rosy and red. We walked in through the gate from the beach,
half-dusted off our sandy feet, found an empty table and within
minutes were visited by a server.
The music at the
Mai Tai was off to the side, not front and center, but it was still
pleasant -- a little faster-paced than at the Halekulani and
accompanied by a hula dancer with an assertive sway to her
hips.
As in all Hawaiian
bars, looking over the drink menu is the best part (should I have a
Pink Palace, a Lava Flow or a Hawaiian Punch?). Half of our party
had Royal Mai Tais ($9) and pronounced them very good.
My drink was the
Tropical Itch, made with passion fruit juice and layers of white
and dark rum. Best of all, my cocktail
came with a wooden back-scratcher. That provided about five minutes
of good conversation and laughs.
The verdict: If you
haven't yet employed one of these devices to scratch your back at
an oceanside bar on Waikiki Beach, you haven't really known
bliss.
Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach
I have never walked
by Duke's Canoe Club and not found it packed with collegiate and
post-collegiate revelers, who are practically spilling out onto the
sand.
The indoor-outdoor
bar and restaurant is boisterous and rollicking. The Halekulani it
is not.
Duke's is named for
famous Hawaiian surfer Duke Kahanamoku and is on the site of the
original Outrigger Canoe Club. Today, the Outrigger Waikiki towers
over Duke's, but Duke's often seems to outshine the Outrigger, at
least at beach level, where young people from around the world meet
and mingle. There are some surfer types here, but not a lot of
locals. This is Waikiki, after all.
This is the kind of
place where ordering a Budweiser might be acceptable, but you might
as well go ahead and order a Kona Longboard ale, since you're in
Hawaii. That is, if you can get to the bar.
On Fridays,
Saturdays and Sundays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., you'll find decent
local bands performing.
On one Sunday, the
music of Henry Kapono enticed me from the Surfrider next door. The
crowd was dancing as the day wound down.
Moana Surfrider
This white,
plantation-style hotel, with its huge portico and rocking chairs
spread out over the porch, is one of the most memorable properties
on Kalakaua Avenue. The view is just as nice on the ocean
side.
The focal point of
the beachfront side is the Banyan Court and Beach Bar, and the
focal point of the Banyan Court is an enormous, knotted banyan
tree. At sunset, thousands of unseen birds twitter in the tree, a
welcome accompaniment to the music and conversation.
The Beach Bar gets
a little overflow from Duke's next door, but it's the quiet kind,
the guys and gals who want to talk instead of yell. This happened
to my brother and me -- we couldn't get a seat at Duke's, so we
went to the Beach Bar and found two empty stools and a friendly
bartender.
We came back later
in the week for drinks and appetizers (we liked the rare tuna). The
music was familiar: It was Pa'ahana, the trio who performed at the
Halekulani earlier in the week. At the Surfrider, they acted more
like serenaders, moving from table to table around the banyan
tree.
To
contact Rebecca Tobin, managing editor of the print edition of
Travel Weekly, send e-mail to [email protected].