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34 - Sunday, March 12, 1989 - North Shore News

Expect to pay a premium

for beachside hotel!

HAWANAN HOTELS
GET A FACELIFT

HONOLULU — A rash of expensive new hotels, the most
recent being the Hyatt Regency Waikoloa where ocean-view
rooms start at $300, is making tourism officials nervous that
Canadians will opt to stay home and shovel snow.

A spokesman for the Hawaii
Visitors Bureau points out that 36
per cent of member hotels charge
room rates under $100 a night, and
adds that this may even be on the
high side as many smaii! hoteliers
don't belong to the bureau.

As in most beach resorts in Mex-
ico and the Caribbean, ocean front
usually costs top dollar. Budget-
minded tourists prepared to walk a
few dlocks to the beach will find
they can get comfortable rooms at
a fraction of the price.

travel
talk

David Wishart

Bargains abound, particularly in
the coupon sheets such as you'll
get with a Tropical rental car.
Drinks at Harry’s Bar at the Hyatt
Regency Waikiki, for example, are
half price at happy hour, and the
live entertainment is excellent.

Travellers on a bigger budget
should know that the Hyatt has
just spent $45 million refurbishing
all 1,230 rooms. The Regency Club
accommodation is particularly
luxurious, while views from the
lanais go all the way from Dia-
mond Head to the airport.

Meanwhile the venerable Moana
Hotel, built in 190! for $150,000,
has reopened after a $69 million
renovation that brings back much
of the elegance of her early days.

This was Waikiki’s first great
hotel, successor to the more in-
timate Sans Souci, where Robert
Louis Stevenson stayed and wrote
Pacific tales.

Amelia Earhart was a guest and
of course the Prince of Wales
danced under the stars in the
courtyard. For more than 30 years
the radio show Hawaii Calls
beamed the music of the Hawaiian
islands from the Banyan Court to
radio listeners across the mainland.

The banyan is still there, has

E Small groups personal
from Vancouver. Varie

boat, donkeys, etc.

Sept. 15/89 for 17 days
$3800 including flignts
Also ask about adventurous tours to
and plus

regular stide shows.
|asmoan_ 732-9922

been since 1885 and is protected by
law. Over the years, changes were
miade to the hotel that were not in
its best interest. Parts were from
colonial to art deco, for instance.
Now a Honolulu woman architect
and designer has brought back the
best of the Moana, including the
porte-cochere, although the room
rates are a far cry from the origina!
$1.50 a night.

And it has a new name — the
Sheraton Moana Surfrider, the
reason being that the Surfrider
next door has joined to the
Moana, the latter anchoring the
Surfrider and Ocean Lanai wings.

It’s owned by Japanese, as are
all major hotels in Oahu (and most
cn the outer islands for that mat-
ter) except the Hilton properties.

een

Visitors staying on Oahu should
rent a car for a day (beware hotels
charging for overnight parking)
and try out the island’s superb
freeway system, which can get
you up to Sunset Beach in a little
over an hour.

This is the place to be when the
surf’s up, although don’t try it
unless you want a mouthful of
sand — or a broken neck. Hospi-
tals report a rising number of
severe spinal cord injuries to
swimmers who have been churned
to the bottom by big waves.

Don’t miss the great burgers and
fresh juice drinks at the food joints

THE SHERATON Moazsa Surfrider bas reopened after a $50 million historical restoration that. returned the

hotel! to its asiginal grandetr.

opposite the beach.

Golfers should have a crack at
the nearby Turtle Bay golf course,
which has come a long way since I
went to the opening of what was
Del Webb’s Kuilima 17 years ago.
Also worth an outing is the
Sheraton Makaha course.

aan

And pilots might take a leaf out
of the book of the Wardair captain
whe welcomed his passengers by
saying ‘‘Good afternoon ladies,
gentlemen, boys and girls...’? and
concluded by saying ‘*...now just

for under

23 Sun.
25 Tues.

Park & Tilford
980-9766

SUPER SALE

PANAMA CANAL/CARIBBEAN

10 glorious days beginning April 15, on the
exquisite ROYAL VIKING STAR

$2,000 ser poison

CALL US ... THIS WON'T LAST

(SPACE LIMITED AT THIS PRICE)
Itinerary
April 15 Sat Fort Lauderdale depart 7pm

18 Tues St Thomas dock &am, sail 3pm
20Thur. Cartagena dock l2noon, sail 5pm
2) Fri. Daylight cruise to/from Gatun Lake
in the Panama Canal

Ocho Rios dock 8am, sai] 2pm

Fort Lauderdale dock 8am

For more information call

MARLIN TRAVEL

Park Royal
922-9301

“MARLIN ‘TRAVEL. MARLIN TRAVEL” MARLIN TRAVEL.

Lynn Valley
984-4545

sit back and enjoy the service from
the best flight attendants in the
world.’? He made everybody feel
good.

gee

Keo’s restaurant in Waikiki,
which serves great Thai food at
modest prices, has come number
two in Honolulu magazine’s selec-
tion of Hawaii’s top 50 restau-
rants, quite an achievement when
you know that the first choice,
Michel’s at the Cclony Surf, and

(FLYER SC]

Now you can plan your
shopping ahead, and
save more in the

number three -- Longhi’s in
Lakaina — are outrageously ex-
pensive.

Others who made the list include
Stromboli’s, Bali-by-the-Sea, John
Dominis, Swiss Inn, Horatio’s,
Hy’s, Castagnola’s, the Third
Floor, the Willows, Golden
Dragon, Yum Yum Tree, Mat-
teo’s, Ryan’s Parkplace, Maile, La
Mer, Andrew's, California. Pizza
Kitchen, Nick’s Fishmarket and
Phillip Paolo’s.

[EDULE]

<% aa * Delivered to selected
ere Te areas only

If you miss any of these Myers,
Distribution Department” 986- 1337]

FIRST IN FLYERS ON THE NORTH SHORE