Waikiki Beach

In response to your article on the sand departing Waikiki Beach (Dec. 25): In researching an article for The Times (July 29, 1982), I found that the sand on Waikiki Beach actually came from Manhattan Beach. Kuhn Bros. Construction Co. was busy excavating for its many projects in the 1920s and excess sand on the hills of Manhattan Beach was a problem. At the same time, Oahu was looking for some nice white sand. A few boatloads of California real estate were shipped across the water and everyone was happy.

If you’re thinking about Hawaii for the winter, you can keep the cost low with Ocean Resort Hotel Waikiki in Honolulu. The hotel's winter sale takes half off room rates with prices that start at $89 per night. The deal: The low rate is part of a bigger winter sale on nearly 20 condo and hotel properties on the islands of Hawaii , Maui , Oahu , Molokai and Kauai that are part of  Castle Resorts & Hotels . So check out the company's sale page for more deals on  on Oahu and other islands.

There are occasional transcendent glimmers of emotional redemption in Godfrey Hamilton's monologue "Sleeping With You," staged by David Prescott at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood. Love without expectations or price tags is the state of grace desperately sought and all-too-briefly cherished by his two characters, both portrayed by Mark Pinkosh.

Hawaiian authorities were rushing to evacuate up to 100,000 residents and tourists from low-lying coastal areas Saturday morning as an estimated 3-to-8-foot tsunami raced toward the islands at the speed of a jet plane. Radio stations were broadcasting civil defense alerts, and sirens sounded in the early-morning hours, well ahead of the expected arrival of the waves, estimated at about 11 a.m. Hawaii time, triggered by a massive earthquake in Chile. "We are taking this very seriously.

Hang ten in Oahu with a summertime deal at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa that celebrates the June 8 opening of the animated penguin surf comedy "Surf's Up." The deal: Stay in Waikiki in a garden room at the resort for $229 a night. The package, available now through Sept. 30, includes a 20% discount on surf lessons for two and a 20% discount on spa treatments. No minimum stay is required.

Waikiki Beach, a sunny memory for millions of tourists, is badly eroded, a fraction of its former self. But talk of rebuilding it is mired in a quicksand of territorial law, lobbying by surfers and decades of studies. Waves have whittled the white-sand beach down to a sliver ranging from no width at all along vintage seawalls to 100-foot-wide stretches. State and tourism officials want engineers to do something about it.

Hurricane Iniki, a surprise from the south, slammed into the islands of Kauai and Niihau late Friday, putting thousands of hapless tourists and frightened residents to flight throughout Hawaii and shutting down Waikiki, the beach famous for its surfers and grass-skirted hula dancers. Iniki swallowed all of Kauai with the full force of its 130-m.p.h. fury between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., Hawaii time.

If you’re thinking about Hawaii for the winter, you can keep the cost low with Ocean Resort Hotel Waikiki in Honolulu. The hotel's winter sale takes half off room rates with prices that start at $89 per night. The deal: The low rate is part of a bigger winter sale on nearly 20 condo and hotel properties on the islands of Hawaii , Maui , Oahu , Molokai and Kauai that are part of  Castle Resorts & Hotels . So check out the company's sale page for more deals on  on Oahu and other islands.

Timeshare Auction III will be held next Sunday, starting at 9 a.m. at the Los Angeles Convention Center. More than 200 time-share vacation units located around the world will be auctioned by MDR Telecmom of Marina del Rey, according to Mario Collura, auction sponsor. Minimum bids will range from $100 a week per year at Waikiki Beach to $14,950 for a two-week interval on Maui.

Say aloha to Waikiki, one of the pleasure capitals of the Pacific, on an inexpensive hotel deal offered by ResortQuest Hawaii. THE DEAL: Pay $126 a night plus tax for a room and breakfast at the newly renovated oceanfront ResortQuest Waikiki Beach Hotel. An upgrade to an ocean-view room is $20 more per night. THE HOTEL: The hotel (formerly Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel) has a new fitness facility and an outdoor pool.

Hang ten in Oahu with a summertime deal at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa that celebrates the June 8 opening of the animated penguin surf comedy "Surf's Up." The deal: Stay in Waikiki in a garden room at the resort for $229 a night. The package, available now through Sept. 30, includes a 20% discount on surf lessons for two and a 20% discount on spa treatments. No minimum stay is required.

Say aloha to Waikiki, one of the pleasure capitals of the Pacific, on an inexpensive hotel deal offered by ResortQuest Hawaii. THE DEAL: Pay $126 a night plus tax for a room and breakfast at the newly renovated oceanfront ResortQuest Waikiki Beach Hotel. An upgrade to an ocean-view room is $20 more per night. THE HOTEL: The hotel (formerly Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel) has a new fitness facility and an outdoor pool.

THE heart of Waikiki has long been a hodgepodge of high-end boutiques and crummy shops, luxury resorts and low-rent hotels, its main drag dominated by a boxy stone shopping mall with the aesthetic appeal of a medieval keep. But now the tourist zone is undergoing changes that local tourism boosters call nothing less than a renaissance. And that's not just hype.

Along the sandy sliver that is Hawaii's world-famous Waikiki beach, waves sometimes reach all the way across the sand to touch solid land. At some points, the sparkling beach is only wide enough for two or three beachgoers to lay on the narrow swath between land and ocean. After years of chronic erosion, a test sand-pumping project is trying to reclaim the iconic beach from offshore without having to truck in new sand from around Oahu, other Hawaiian islands or even other countries.

We had every reason not to take a family vacation to Oahu last Thanksgiving. The kids would miss school. We hadn't cared much for Waikiki after our honeymoon a decade ago. It was the busiest time of year to travel. And my parents -- ever lovable but occasionally trying -- would be with us. So of course we took the trip. On Thanksgiving Day, eight of us -- my husband, Jack, my children Bailey, 7, and Samantha, 4, my parents, my brother and sister-in-law and me -- flew to Honolulu for six days.

THE editorial cartoon pictures two tourists being ejected from Hanauma Bay State Beach Park, one of Hawaii's most beautiful strips of sea and sand. One tourist dejectedly tells the other, "I didn't know about the test." The illustration plays off a year-old get-tough policy that requires all visitors to watch a nine-minute educational film before they're allowed on the beach.

THE heart of Waikiki has long been a hodgepodge of high-end boutiques and crummy shops, luxury resorts and low-rent hotels, its main drag dominated by a boxy stone shopping mall with the aesthetic appeal of a medieval keep. But now the tourist zone is undergoing changes that local tourism boosters call nothing less than a renaissance. And that's not just hype.

Along the sandy sliver that is Hawaii's world-famous Waikiki beach, waves sometimes reach all the way across the sand to touch solid land. At some points, the sparkling beach is only wide enough for two or three beachgoers to lay on the narrow swath between land and ocean. After years of chronic erosion, a test sand-pumping project is trying to reclaim the iconic beach from offshore without having to truck in new sand from around Oahu, other Hawaiian islands or even other countries.

For decades it was the pride of Waikiki, a mammoth outdoor saltwater swimming pool where athletes and movie stars came to cavort and Hawaiian kids and tourist kids from the mainland took swimming lessons. But for the last 24 years, the once-proud Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium has been something else: a source of political controversy, an off-limits relic from the past, an eyesore.

"Why Waikiki?" That was the response of a friend who owns a condo on Maui when I told him I'd be spending nine days in Hawaii, five of them on Honolulu's fabled beachfront. "Join us on Maui," he said. "It's the real Hawaii." Oh, sure, I thought, his real Hawaii-a golf course by the sea. Poor Waikiki. Hawaii's oldest resort-the royal family summered here-with the image of Rio or Miami Beach: a waterfront of high-rise hotels and package tours.