Hotel at a Glance: VIVE Hotel in Waikiki

VIVE Hotel in Waikiki—opened in July 2013—puts guests in position to explore Oahu’s beaches and bustling urban center. Nearby Waikiki Beach offers ideal swimming waters with shallow areas and seawalls, all cupped by the green hills of the Koolau Range mountains. Just steps from the hotel, you’ll find pulsing nightclubs, award-winning seafood restaurants, and family-friendly attractions.

• Get active: The front desk can organize tours ranging from surfing on the famous North Shore to snorkeling in volcanic craters to visiting Pearl Harbor.
• A room with a view: Cosmopolitan guest rooms and Lifestyle junior suites look out to the mountains or the Pacific Ocean.
• Shop till you drop: Two short blocks south of the hotel, Kalakaua Avenue, also known as the Waikiki Strip, is lined with upscale boutiques and eateries stocked with macadamia nuts and kona coffee.
• Within walking distance: The Honolulu Zoo is home to more than 1,000 species, including Indian elephants, spider monkeys, and a Sumatran tiger.
• Tee off: The area has top-rated golf courses, including Ko Olina Golf Club.
• Onsite dining: complimentary continental breakfast in the hotel lobby offering pastries, seasonal fruits, coffee, and juice
• Complimentary beach gear: including boogie boards, beach towels, beach chairs, and beach mats

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. 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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