AAA Four Diamond Resort near Waikiki Beach

This vacation includes:

• Round-trip airfare
• Airfare taxes
• 5 nights of city-view double accommodations at The Modern Honolulu
• Convertible rental car
• Upgrade to a partial Oceanview room for $99 for five nights.
• Upgrade to a full Oceanview room for $329 per person.

At The Modern Honolulu, you’re no more than a five-minute stroll from Waikiki Beach. But you don’t even have to go that far to find fun in the sun. On the roof of this hip resort, hammocks are slung between palm trees surrounded by 100 tons of sand shipped in from the shore. At night, hanging lanterns and candles impart a secluded, romantic feel. The rooftop beach is typical of the hotel’s knack for combining urban living and tropical luxury.

Live moss and natural coral decorate the onsite Japanese-fusion restaurant, Morimoto Waikiki, where you might spot Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto prepping tuna sashimi at the sushi bar. The restaurant specializes in dishes made with fresh Pacific seafood, from salmon roe to lobster seasoned with garam masala. Fresh, organic ingredients also go into Hawaiian-inspired entrees at The Grove and Passageway.

Guests can relax amid views of Waikiki’s cityscape in posh city-view rooms outfitted with 46-inch LCD TVs and natural teak accents. You can rent an iPod or iPad to take advantage of the room’s complimentary WiFi. To decompress, head to the onsite spa for a Polynesian lomi lomi massage or organic facials infused with acai.

Honolulu’s Waikiki: White-Sand Beaches, World-Class Surfing, and Luxury Entertainment

In 1911, local Waikiki kid Duke Kahanamoku beat the world record for the 100-meter freestyle swim by 4.6 seconds at an amateur swim meet—a feat so unimaginable athletic officials refused to recognize it. But when he won an Olympic gold medal the following year, Duke became an international sensation despite them. Photogenic and frequently in the press, he was rarely seen without his solid-koa-wood board, popularizing the local pastime of surfing. This publicity helped turn Waikiki from a private playground for Hawaii’s ruling class into a travel hot spot as people came from all over to take surfing lessons with a celebrity athlete. Today, you can see Duke’s likeness—complete with a board—immortalized in a bronze statue on Waikiki’s Kuhio Beach.

With the influx of visitors came a number of hotels and businesses, so Waikiki now has the look and feel of an urban resort area. When not sprawled on the white-sand beaches, most travelers explore the sunny avenues lined with everything from upscale boutiques and nightclubs to craft booths and street performers. Cultural attractions include the Honolulu Zoo, an expansive habitat that’s home to exotic and endangered species such as sumatran tigers and white-handed gibbons. Steps away, the Waikiki Aquarium is stationed alongside a living reef. Within the marine museum, more than 3,500 creatures of the tropical Pacific Ocean glide throughout glassed-in galleries.

It’s worth making the trek to Diamond Head State Monument, a 300,000-year-old saucer formed by a single explosive eruption and arguably Hawaii’s most recognizable landmark. Hikers can walk down a 0.8-mile trail where molten lava once smoldered to ascend to the crater’s 560-foot-tall lip.

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