Moana Surfrider, A Westin Resort & Spa, Waikiki Beach

Moana Surfrider, A Westin Resort & Spa, Waikiki Beach

Waikiki is many things, most of them loud. The beach is genuinely one of the most beautiful urban beaches in the world, the food scene has quietly become serious, and Diamond Head sitting at the end of the bay is the kind of landmark that makes you understand why people have been coming here for over a century. The difficulty with Waikiki is that most of the hotels on it are large, corporate, and fairly interchangeable. The Moana Surfrider is not, or at least not in the ways that matter. The hotel opened in 1901, which makes it the oldest on the beach, and it reads that way. The original building, now called the Banyan Wing, is a white Victorian structure with wraparound verandas, stately columns, and a hundred-year-old banyan tree anchoring the central courtyard that nobody has removed because the whole hotel is essentially organized around it. Two further wings have been added over the decades, and all three have recently been through a serious renovation timed to the hotel's 125th anniversary. The Tower Wing is the result if you want the best ocean views, the most space, and rooms with floor-to-ceiling lanai doors, warm metallic accents, and a custom curved seating nook that makes the balcony feel like part of the room. The Banyan Wing is the result if you want something with more character, slightly idiosyncratic rooms, rocking chairs facing the Pacific, and a sense of history that the Tower rooms trade for square footage. Breakfast or afternoon tea at The Veranda is one of those experiences that earns its reputation, looking out over the beach with the banyan tree in the courtyard below. The Beach Bar, in the sand, with live Hawaiian music in the evenings, is exactly what it sounds like and the better for it. Beachhouse at the Moana handles dinner with ocean views and Victorian-era bones that have survived the renovation intact. The Moana Lani Spa is the only beachfront spa in Waikiki, built around Hawaiian healing traditions, and worth booking in advance. This is not a quiet retreat from the city. It is on Kalakaua Avenue, Waikiki's main drag, and the Tower Wing rooms facing the street will tell you about that. The oceanside rooms cost more and earn it. Surfing lessons, outrigger canoe rides, and snorkelling are all available directly from the beach. Diamond Head is a short drive. What the Moana offers that almost nothing else on this beach does is genuine age, a building with a reason to exist beyond the room count, and the kind of courtyard that makes an afternoon feel like it has somewhere to go. The short version: The oldest hotel on Waikiki Beach, opened 1901, with three wings freshly renovated for the 125th anniversary. Book the Tower Wing for views and space, the Banyan Wing for character. The banyan tree courtyard, the beachfront spa, and The Veranda breakfast are the reasons to be here specifically.