It’s all about the views. The Sheraton Waikiki is the kind of hotel where you find yourself waking before dawn to marvel at the sunrise from your oceanfront balcony. And that expansive balcony is where you’ll stand at gloaming, cocktail in hand, as the lights of Waikiki shimmer like a diamond necklace all the way to Diamond Head.
When the oceanfront Sheraton Waikiki was built in 1971, the 30-story building with 1,634 rooms and 134 suites was the largest hotel in Hawaii. Thanks to the building’s double crescent shape, more than 80% of the hotel’s rooms feature spectacular cerulean views of the Pacific. And it would be perfectly understandable if you were little inclined to leave your balcony where tropical birds play on the railing while you watch the surfers on Waikiki Beach.
A recent $55 million room renovation at the Sheraton Waikiki has resulted in rooms that have a retro chic atmosphere, a bit like Jonathan Adler romping in the tropics – and in fact, the entire property has a kind of Seventies Brady Bunch exuberance, which is completely infectious. One morning at breakfast, the maitre d’ remarks, “You’re always so happy and energetic in the morning” – to which the only reply is “It’s Hawaii.”
The Sheraton Waikiki’s half-mile beach is flanked by the brand-new Infinity Edge pool, an adults-only oasis where the pool and the ocean appear as a seamless whole body of water. Private cabanas insure privacy and shade, although you’ll find it hard to resist the floating beanbag chairs that enable cocktailing in the water at ocean’s edge.
View of sunrise from Sheraton Waikiki (Source: MRNY)
For those still in touch with the child within, the two-pool Helumoa Playground features a 70-foot long water slide, as well as two whirlpools with incredible panoramic views of the beach, ocean, and horizon.
Kai Market, one of the resort’s five restaurants, offers a daily farm-to-table breakfast buffet featuring homegrown produce for a meal that is inspired by the plantation tables of Hawaii. The multi-ethnic cuisine and local bounty includes such delectables as papaya, Maui strawberries, Kahuku Farms mangos, preserved mustard stem, umezuke, jook, pickled plum, pickled cucumber, braised gluten, sweet melons, coffee jelly, guava bread, and, of course, pineapple.
Eating breakfast al fresco at Kai Market, the Pacific beckoning to you within arm’s reach, is one definition of bliss. This is where you taste the tropical sun in a bite of papaya. And as you as sip your Kona coffee, birdsong in the air, the sea grape and palm trees rustling in the morning breeze, this is where it’s likely that you’ll have a revelation about the beauty of tropical life.
A respite at the Sheraton Waikiki revives your soul.
LINK: Sheraton Waikiki
