The 33 Best Places in Honolulu

Waikiki has been pulling people in since Hawaiian royalty claimed it as a retreat, and SpaHalekulani is where you go when the tourist squall gets to be too much. The spa holds a Forbes Four Star and a spot on Vogue's 100 Best Spas in the World list, and it carries both without making a fuss about it. Treatments lean into Pacific traditions, and the whole operation is quiet in a way that Waikiki, bless its heart, generally is not.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Vogue 100 Best Spas in the World

Polished wood, tattooed bartenders, and leather aprons as far as the eye can see. Bar Leather Apron is a serious cocktail bar tucked into Fort Street Mall, and it won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar in 2023, which is the kind of thing that makes sense once you sit down. The menu leans on local, seasonal ingredients, so the drinks read like a farmers market with a liquor license. Go slow; this isn't a round-of-shots situation.

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Winner · Outstanding Bar
2. The 50 #81 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu

Every room has a lanai big enough to actually live on, and guests frequently do. Halekulani is a classic Waikiki beachfront hotel that runs on the kind of unhurried, attentive service that feels almost anachronistic now. The spa draws from Hawaiian, Asian, and South Pacific traditions, and surfing lessons are steps from the lobby. Forbes Four Star and a Michelin two-key property, it wears its reputation quietly, which is part of the point.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Nine suites, each occupying its own private floor, with a butler who arrives by a separate service elevator so you never have to share a hallway with him. ESPACIO is a boutique hotel in Waikiki that takes residential-style luxury at its most literal, pairing oceanfront balconies and Jacuzzis with in-suite shopping curated by Neiman Marcus. It holds a Forbes Five Star, and the staff practices omotenashi with enough commitment to make leaving your floor feel like a poor decision.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

The lobby, pools, and restaurants all live on the eighth floor, which means no street traffic filters up and no one is cutting through to anywhere. This Waikiki high-rise hotel holds a Forbes Four Star, and every room is a privately owned residence with a kitchenette, laundry, and enough square footage to feel like you actually live here. The upper floors shift color palettes by level to mirror the island's landscape, which is either lovely or a lot, depending on your floor.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service · Dave Newman
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West

Dolphin pods drifting past the oceanfront balconies have a way of making evening plans negotiable. This Four Seasons resort sits on the Leeward Coast, far from Waikiki, facing a sheltered lagoon with the Wai'anae Mountains behind it. The Naupaka Spa runs fourteen treatment rooms, the kids' club is one of the stronger ones in the portfolio, and Michael Mina's seafood restaurant anchors five dining options. Forbes Four Star.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels
3. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

1. World's 50 Beaches #39 · North America's 50 Best Beaches

A family of dolphins lives in the resort's lagoon, which tells you something about the ambition level here. This is a classic luxury resort on the quiet side of Diamond Head, well away from Waikiki's chaos, with a calm private beach and the kind of unhurried, personal service that boutique hotels keep promising and rarely delivering. Every American president since LBJ has stayed, and the place carries that history without being stiff about it.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. World's 50 Beaches #35 · North America's 50 Best Beaches

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The name is optimistic: you're a few minutes' walk from the water, not on it. But in Waikiki, where the default is a 500-room resort charging fees for breathing the air, a 125-room indie hotel with a rooftop pool, no kids' club, and no mineral-water-misting attendant by the pool feels like a negotiated peace. Rooms are white and wood, with Wegner wingback chairs and oversized showers. A ground-floor café handles coffee and drinks for the beach run.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The pink Moorish palace on Waikiki has been there so long it basically predates Waikiki. This resort splits between a historic building, where the Moorish detailing and coral stucco run deep, and a contemporary tower for guests who want the postcard view without the period atmosphere. The spa sits in a garden, the pool has cabanas, and the beach puts surfing and sailing right outside. A Michelin Selected Hotel.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A three-story walk-up wrapped around a palm-lined pool, White Sands calls itself the last of the vintage walk-up hotels in Waikiki, and the claim is easy to believe. The towers that swallowed the beachfront decades ago never touched this low-rise compound, where the vibe is unapologetically 1970s Hawaii, laid-back and a little overgrown, the kind of place that makes the glassy resorts next door feel slightly embarrassing.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The bungalows come with their own infinity pool, direct beach access, and a dedicated host, which sets the tone for what this Ritz-Carlton resort is going for. It sits on Oahu's North Shore, far enough from Waikiki to feel like a different island entirely. The activity menu runs to around 70 options, from ukulele workshops to after-dark snorkeling, so the outdoorsy guests will never run out of things to sign up for.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu
2. Eater The 38 Essential Honolulu Restaurants

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu
2. Honolulu Magazine 2025 · Budget Brunch Buffet · Best of Honolulu

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu

1. Sunset Happening Hawaiian · Where to Eat and Drink
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu
3. Honolulu Magazine Crispy Spanish Octopus · The Best Things We Ate in Hawai‘i

The bar stools here are swings, which tells you everything about the mood. Heyday is a neighborhood restaurant and bar tucked into the courtyard of a midcentury hotel in Waikiki, leaning hard into the retro-tropical bit with mai tai variations and boozy slushies alongside cheesy toast and a fried mahi sandwich that reads as a Filet-o-Fish with ambitions. After dark, the Green Lady Cocktail Room in room eight opens as a dark lounge spilling into a palm-fringed courtyard.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu
2. Eater The 20 Best Restaurants in Waikīkī, Hawaiʻi

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Honolulu