Wakiki Beach History, Travel Information, Amenities, Hotels, Fare, Facts And More
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PERSONAL INFORMATION
NAME
Wakiki Beach
COUNTRY
America
ADDRESS
Honolulu, HI 96815, United States
WAKIKI BEACH PICTURE
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About Wakiki Beach
A popular beach neighborhood in Honolulu, the Wakiki is one of the 6 beaches in the district, along with Queen's Beach, Kuhio Beach, Gray's Beach, Fort DeRussy Beach, and Kahanamoku Beach. Its name comes from the Hawaiian language where "Waikiki" translates to spouting freshwater, it is named so for the springs that once fed the wetlands.
Some Lesser Known Facts About Wakiki Beach
- Wakiki is an ideal spot for surfers and maybe even called the home of modern surfing. Duke Kahanamoku, often dubbed "father of surfing", had his home Waikiki Beach on the spot where the Royal Hawaiian Hotel stands today.
- The beach is partially man-made. That is, it has been filled with imported sand for decades. Over the years, there has been steady erosion. The ocean waves and currents that lap at Waikiki take the sand out to sea where it builds up in the reefs. So now, Instead of bringing new sand in from around the state, it is now pumped out of the reefs and back onto the beach.
- Wakiki beach is often the top of the list of visitors in the area. The area receives its tourists in booming numbers every year, attracting 72,000 visitors on any given day so that the tourism amounts to up to $2 billion annually!
- The site has a rich history, in the 1800s, it was mainly a retreat for the Hawaiian royalty. An early form of the irrigation system was built to take advantage of Waikiki's abundant resources. It had erosion difficulty even in these early times, resulting from the development of homes and hotels close to the shoreline.
- In the year 1990, a 9-foot bronze statue of Duke Kahanamoku was installed at the beach by Gordon Fisher.
- There have been numerous distinguished visitors, whether its soldiers going off to war or celebrities like Elvis Presley who was known as a regular visitor to the island, and three of his films were shot on location on Oahu, including on Waikiki Beach.
- The Wakiki today, is in full bloom and enjoys commercial success with prestigious hotels like Hilton, Sheraton, and Hyatt. Other attractions include the iconic "Diamond Head Crater", The 500-acre Kapiolani Park, the Waikiki Aquarium, Honolulu Zoo, and the International Marketplace, which is a shopper?s paradise.
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