Post #811028 by SBJiminyC on Fri, Oct 20, 2023 8:57 AM

I was at a postcard collectors show the other day and came across this groovy postcard from the Kauai Surf Hotel.

Dining Room

This started me down the rabbit hole on this property. Apparently the Childs family and their chain of Inter-Island Resorts were really pioneers in opening up tourism to the “other islands” besides Oahu and the Waikiki area. Surf Vs Palms Article

I assumed this place was merely “Tiki adjacent” but then I found this thread here on TC and really enjoyed seeing all the actual tiki iconography they used in their marketing and around the resort. I also discovered some photos on Flickr from a fellow named Ian Lind taken back in August of 1962.

A few of the Sign up front with some very different tikis than in those photos posted here.

Here’s some of the Buffet in the dining room. You can see the canoe in the postcard image posted above in the far left.

This is a view of the beach with another tiki hanging out.

These kinds of discoveries make me wish I could time travel to experience these things in their heyday.