The Royal Hawaiian

The pink hotel of Waikiki, The Royal Hawaiian opened in Honolulu in 1927, built by the Matson Navigation Company for the passengers of its liners from San Francisco. Known as the Pink Palace of the Pacific, it stands on the beach at Helumoa, the former coconut grove of the Hawaiian kings, and is operated today within Marriott's Luxury Collection for the Japanese owner Kyo-ya.

History

Matson, which carried most visitors to Hawaii by sea, built the hotel to give its first-class passengers somewhere to stay that matched the ships. It cost about four million dollars and opened on 1 February 1927 with a ball for more than a thousand guests. Warren & Wetmore of New York, the architects of Grand Central Terminal, designed it. In the 1930s it was the resort of film stars and heirs, and Duke Kahanamoku and the Waikiki beachboys taught surfing from the beach in front.

In 1942 the Navy leased the hotel as a rest centre for submarine crews and pilots returning from the Pacific, and it reopened to the public in 1947. Matson sold it to Sheraton in 1959, the year of statehood, and Kyo-ya bought it in 1974. The Royal Tower was added in 1969. The hotel closed in June 2008 for a seven-month renovation and reopened in January 2009 as a Luxury Collection resort.

Architecture and design

Warren & Wetmore worked in a Spanish-Moorish style, with a coral pink stucco exterior, arcades, cupolas and a bell tower, around gardens that preserved part of the royal coconut grove. The colour was chosen to stand against the green of the grove and the blue of the sea, and it has been kept through every repainting, extending to the pink beach umbrellas and the pink stationery. The original building is six storeys; the Royal Tower, a plain block of seventeen floors beside it, holds most of the rooms. The Monarch Room, the showroom where Hawaiian musicians performed nightly for decades, survives as an event space.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 528 rooms and suites, divided between the Historic Wing, where rooms keep the proportions and carved wooden doors of 1927, and the Royal Tower, where rooms have balconies facing the ocean or Diamond Head. Of the luxury hotels in Honolulu it is the one guests choose for the building rather than the view.

Dining

Azure, on the beach, is the fine-dining restaurant for seafood. Surf Lanai serves breakfast and lunch on the terrace, and the Mai Tai Bar, open to the beach, has served the cocktail since Trader Vic introduced it to Hawaii here in 1953. The hotel's Royal Hawaiian Bakery sells the pink-iced pastries that the property is known for.

Wellness

Abhasa Spa occupies a garden pavilion with outdoor treatment cabanas under the trees, and the resort has two pools and a fitness room.

Weddings and events

The Monarch Room and the Coconut Grove lawn beneath the old palms are the wedding venues, with ceremonies on the lawn and receptions in the Monarch Room or the Regency Ballroom. The hotel is among the most photographed wedding settings in Hawaii, and Japanese couples in particular travel for it. A weekly luau is held on the Ocean Lawn. Meeting rooms serve corporate groups.

Location

The hotel stands at 2259 Kalakaua Avenue in the centre of Waikiki, on the beach between the Sheraton Waikiki and the Royal Hawaiian Center shopping complex, with Diamond Head to the east. Daniel K. Inouye International Airport lies some 15 kilometres to the west, a drive of twenty to thirty minutes.