Waikiki: Three Days On the Quiet End, and a Trip Down Memory Lane

It was one of those 1970’s low-ceilinged lounge cabarets; murky dark, smoky, packed. My teacher buddies kept calling for more rounds of syrupy-sweet Chi Chis with umbrellas, and sure – why not? So what if I was pregnant at the time? Hey, this was 1979; no one cared about that yet. Bad lounge singers marched out in cop/construction worker/cowboy/Indian chief outfits to belt out a brand new song we’d never heard before: Y – – -M – – -C – – -A- – -!!!! We rose to our tipsy feet, cheering them on – more Chi Chi’s, please!

That bad behavior happened on my first visit to Waikiki almost 40 years ago (and the baby, who’s getting on to 40 now herself, came out fine, thank heavens). Back then, Waikiki Beach consisted of a sleazy strip of clubs and ticky-tack Tiki souvenir shops, set on a sparkling white sand beach – a perfect place for us to blow off steam after school let out in June. Today, the spectacular beach hasn’t budged, but the tacky strip has morphed into a million-dollar mile filled with shops like Cartier, Tiffany, and Gucci.

Too bad, in a way; that old strip had its charms. Since then, I’ve visited Waikiki several times but never with Padre, so I was eager to show him my old haunts (lucky Padre). He wouldn’t get to visit the sleazy club, but most of my favorite Waikiki hangouts are right where they always were.

WHY WAIKIKI?

Lots of people bypass Waikiki for other islands because they think it’s too crowded, too commercial, and too tacky, despite the best efforts of Gucci and company. All true, but also not true, because it depends on where you go and what you do here. Done right, Waikiki can be as enchanting as the rest of Hawaii, for a fraction of the cost. And there’s a good reason it was the most popular Hawaiian beach forever; the setting is absolutely gorgeous.

GO FOR THE QUIET END

Location, location, location; it really does make all the difference. Have you noticed how many hotel choices there are in Hawaiian vacation brochures? It’s overwhelming, but you can’t just pick any old hotel if you want to avoid two things we dislike: 1) sections of beach so crowded you trip over people, and 2) the Concrete Canyon Effect. I noticed the Canyon Effect many years ago, when I stayed next to the swank Halekulani Hotel in order to attend a relative’s wedding there. Our lovely condo had an expansive view of the ocean from several floors up, but once outside at street level, I had to navigate the concrete canyons for blocks in either direction. Even the million-dollar mile is shaded on both sides by tall concrete buildings.

Waikiki Beach really is walled off by cement, and if you stay even one block back you’re in the canyon. On this visit, Padre and I took a walk through the heart of Waikiki beach, tiptoeing through the baking crowds, past the classic old hotels, and then back to the quiet end along the Concrete Canyon route.

It was a relief to finally see daylight once we reached our hotel, the Park Shore Waikiki, which sits at the end of the Waikiki strip, right across from Kapiolani Park. The park stretches into a long greenway running all the way to the base of Diamond Head, great for rambling excursions. Or you can just walk barefoot down the beach, which is what we did yesterday.

WALK TO MY NOT-SO-SECRET BEACH

And from this point on, the beach is not walled off by condos any more. On one side you see parkland greenery, the other the blue pounding surf. Much better.

I discovered the quiet end many years ago when I helped a friend lead student tours to Europe, and our company gave us a free trip to Waikiki. Woo Hoo! They put us up in an inexpensive hotel on the outer edge of Waikiki – the quiet end – but it was free. The hotel was the Queen Kapiolani, one door down from the Park Shore Waikiki. The old Kapiolani is in the midst of a lavish restoration project, so it could be a great place to stay again soon.

On my free trip, I discovered quiet, empty beaches on walks toward Diamond Head, Sans Souci Beach being my favorite ‘secret’ beach.

I told Padre how great my secret beach was, but oops….not any more. What were all these people doing on my beach? It was more crowded than I remembered, but nothing like the sardine section in the middle of Waikiki. And San Souci is much wider than other Waikiki beach sections, so you can still spread out and bake in peace. Many locals swim laps here in the morning, and I did some fair snorkeling back in the day here as well.

RIDE THE BUS TO EVERYWHERE

And the local bus stops right outside; you really do not need a car. My previous Waikiki trips were on the cheap, so I rode the bus everywhere; all the way out to Pearl Harbor, to Hanauma Bay, to the Bishop Museum, to the Ala Moana Shopping Center,

to the Maritime Museum, to Chinatown. We didn’t ride the bus on this visit only because we ran out of time, but I noticed how much Oahu traffic has deteriorated. So getting anywhere outside Waikiki may take awhile, even on a bus. But we had everything we needed; a great beach, good food, places to walk. And our relatives came down to visit us, so that was the best part of all! I wish I’d had time to take Padre hiking to the top of Diamond Head and snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, two other fond memories from my past. I was able to get to both locations easily from the quiet end, back in the day.

AND NOW WE GO DOWN UNDER

So we were rather sad to leave Waikiki – lovely short visit. Right now we’re winging our way to Sydney, Australia, on a ten-hour flight instead of a 20+ one. That’s the real beauty of a Waikiki stay – visit our relatives AND break up that awful flight. (Writing this post has made it go much faster. But I wish they’d quit bringing me cookies.) We’ve had no travel mishaps so far, although a cyclone is bearing down on Darwin, Australia, one of our destinations for next week. I confess I forgot about cyclones; shouldn’t forget about those, mate, ‘ya think?

Tomorrow we plan to ride the Sydney ferry to Manly, and temperatures will hit 100. Will we wilt? Probably. If we get into a spot of trouble, we’ll let you know – G’day and thanks for following along!