Spain

I leave for Spain in 6 days. I can't wait to see the Tiki Bars in Barcelona. Does anyone know of anything Tiki in Cadiz area or even Morrocco?

Spain as a whole represents (perhaps) the last untapped Tiki goldmine. TikiChris & I spent many months checking out uncharted Tiki territory in Europe a few years ago and Spain suddenly came out of nowhere to reveal itself as TikiCentral - Europe. Sven's work has expanded on this dramatically, but there are still big holes.

Check these places out and report back please. There really aren't that many of us over in Europe who want to document Tiki bars.

Trader Woody

We ended a cruise in Barcelona and spent a few days exploring. I can highly recommend the Kahiki and Kahala. The Kahiki was willing to sell most of thier mugs, so if you are on a collecting expidition, start there! And, it is right off a subway stop so it is easy to get to and from.

The Kahala was much more beautiful on the inside, but they wouldn't sell mugs. The only thing wrong with this place is the huge TV on one wall. This wouldn't have been a problem except the big game was on and that was all anyone in town was interested in.

We couldn't find the Aloha and we have heard it is the best. I feel I have to warn you (and anyone reading) that street numbers are not necessarily consecutive.

We didn't get a chance to go anywhere else in Spain, so we are really looking forward to you sharing what you find!

Some other pictures we got from the bars:
http://www.ealoli.com/photos/index.php?cat=8

If you try you will find me, where the sky meets the sea, your special island, come to me, come to me...

[ Edited by: Chip and Andy 2005-10-18 16:59 ]

We couldn't find the Aloha and we have heard it is the best.

Not at all. Of all three I liked it least. The decor was the least impressive and the drinks were vile - completely undrinkable.

My favorite was the Kahala for decor, drinks, and service. Luckily the TV was not turned on the times we were there (3 different nights). The TV is located in the front room so you can get away from it in one of the areas in the back of the bar. It is pretty far out from the center of town.

The Kahiki was my 2nd. favorite. We bought a few mugs there as well. It is also the closest bar to the center of town (near the plaza at the top of the Rambla). The drinks are so-so.

TikiTrevor - You asked about Cadiz, well here is a place to stay in Cadiz that's tropical with tikis on site that someone posted in the Locating Tiki Forum. It looks pretty good - I hope you can take pics and share them with us if you stay there.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=15123&forum=2&1

I did a search for "Cadiz" in the great new super-fast search feature!

yes, please take photos and share them. It'd be great to learn about this and know more. Have fun!

Thanks for everyones feedback. I can't wait to go. Luckily the Hostel I am staying at in Barcelona is within 2 miles of all 3 Tiki Bars. I am bringing an extra suitcase with me to hopefully fill-up with Tiki Mugs! I am bringing my digital camera to document everything, so I will post pics when I return.

hey Trevor ~ don't forget to fill your empty suitcase with bubblewrap and some tape!

also, did you remember to check Critiki?

have tons-s-fun, take plenty pics!

Trevor,

I'd try to carry on as many mugs as you can. You can get away with a couple of good size shopping bags on most airlines in my experience. Good luck and take lots of pics!!

Matty

I am for sure carrying on the mugs with me. I have a large backpack that is large enough to hold a lot of mugs but small enough to carry on. I used the same bag when I went to Japan last December and all my mugs made it home safe!

I totally disagree about the Aloha. I thought it was by far the least scuzzy and best decorated of the bunch. The staff was a lot friendlier as well.

Check out this old post

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=7659&forum=1#75576

Yeah, I really liked the Aloha. A really cool bar and very friendly barmen, though it was a quiet night and I was able to sit down and chat with them. The Kahiki was the one I liked the least, but it's still certainly worth visiting.

Locating the Aloha has proved a bit of a nightmare in the past, so it may be worth heading there by cab. Streets are longer than they look on the street map too!

Trader Woody

On 2005-07-13 02:47, Trader Woody wrote:
Locating the Aloha has proved a bit of a nightmare in the past, so it may be worth heading there by cab. Streets are longer than they look on the street map too!

Trader Woody

We took a cab to the Kahala, got drunk, and walked all the way to the Aloha, then all the way to the Kahiki, and back to our hotel in the Gothic Quarter. It was almost light when we arrived home!

Ok I just got back from Spain and had an AWESOME time. I was only able to visit the Aloha and Kahiki in Barcelona. I will be posting some of my pics of these places in the "Locating Tiki" section for each location. Here are a few teaser pic's.

The Aloha

The Kahiki:

The Mugs I bought:

Just got back from working in Spain, and of course, I did some poking around for fun too.

Working on an extensive report, but here's the short version:

In Barcelona...

Aloha:
Grumpy service, shittiest drinks ever, but I liked the dark, labyrinthine design of the place, the turtle pond, the murals... great decor.

Kahiki:
Friendly Service, decent drinks, decent decor.
Overall, firmly in the middle of the three.

Kahala:
Awesome drinks, awesome service, very nice decor.
Definitely the winner of the three.
Went back a few times, incluing New Year's Eve.

in Lloret Del Mar...

Hula Hula:
Only open on weekends, and is impossible to find.
Great looking place, but I couldn't stay for a drink.

in Callella...

Maui:
Was closed for the season when I went.
Sign and Tiki statue in front looked cool.

Kauai:
Decor is more like the inside of an Aztec temple than Tiki but I liked it. Friendly staff. Giant log drum Tikis out front.

Waikiki:
Greasy spoon diner. No Tiki.

and...

Port Aventura
This is an amusement park with five sections, each themed to a different place: Polynesia, China, Wild West, Mediteranean, Mexico.

In Polynesia, there are Tikis EVERYWHERE, and even Tiki themed rides, such as the puke-inducing Kon Tiki. Yes, the park is for kids, and is pretty cheezy, but it is also pretty Tikirific.

Most of these places had the same selection of Tiki mugs, with a few variations.

Overall, I counted at least 33 different mug designs.

Most of these places still match each mug to a drink and serve the drinks in the mugs. But different places will put different drinks in the same style mugs.

Can't think of anywhere in the USA that still does this quite as religiously as ALL of the places in Spain do. Awesome.

Also hit Boadas off of the Rambla: AMAZING (non-Tiki) cocktail bar.

Aloha: Grumpy service, shittiest drinks ever.

I totally agree, and have complained on TC before about how bad Aloha's drinks were, plus the bartender was a total jerk.

in Lloret Del Mar...Hula Hula:

Tried visiting this place 3 years ago when I was sailing up the Costa Brava, and anchored overnight in Blanes. Unfortunately, the cost of the cab ride over to Lloret was prohibitive, even though it was only 1.5km away (something like 15 Euros!), so we decided not to go.

Port Aventura: yes, the park is for kids, and is pretty cheezy, but it is also pretty Tikirific.

It was also pretty freakin' hot and humid when I took my family there year, and the crowds were so huge that they shut the whole water park down. It's also full of grossly obese vacationers who insist on removing their shirts; this is apparently such a problem that the park put up these signs:

chillin with Andrew who puts on the Tiki Parties in Spain.

Sh!t faced with Nicolas the owner of the Kahala. He treated me like family,class act!

[ Edited by: Tiki Diablo 2006-01-04 00:34 ]

On 2006-01-03 11:47, MrBaliHai wrote:

Port Aventura: yes, the park is for kids, and is pretty cheezy, but it is also pretty Tikirific.

It was also pretty freakin' hot and humid when I took my family there year, and the crowds were so huge that they shut the whole water park down.

I was there the day after Xmas, and the place was a ghost town. It was rockin - ZERo wait time for most of the rides! That said, it was also 45 degrees - odd being on a roller coaster in an overcoat and scarf...

On 2006-01-04 00:28, Tiki Diablo wrote:
chillin with Andrew who puts on the Tiki Parties in Spain.
Sh!t faced with Nicolas the owner of the Kahala. He treated me like family,class act!

Andrew met us out at Kahala on NYE. Cool guy. He wanted me to guest DJ at their annual party at Aloha, but for some reason they cancelled it this year.

Nicholas was really stoked about the Tikis you made for him, and was showing them off to Andrew and I.

Wow, great thread. I'm going to be in Spain for a short time in September on my honeymoon. Now I have something to bother my wahine about!

Welcome back JT! I had almost the exact same experiences at the tiki bars in Barcelona. Kahala is #1! Can't wait to hear more about Boadas, the best cocktail bar in the world! (at least until I check out the bars in Cuba)

And I'm looking forward to hearing more about the tiki bars in Calella. I don't think anyone on TC has reported on them before, and I couldn't make it there.

[ Edited by: thejab 2006-01-04 17:51 ]

I'm looking forward to hearing more about the tiki bars in Calella.

So am I. We stayed in Llafranc last summer, and walked over to Calella a couple of times for dinner. I had no idea there were any tiki bars there!

Does Andrew visit TC?

Andrew is a cool guy, not sure if he visits TC though.

And I am certain that his ears are ringing like mad right about now!
:)

There's an article on Barcelona's tiki bars in today's Washington Post. That damn word "tacky" is back!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/06/AR2006010600490.html?referrer=emailarticlepg

(Registration necessary to read article)

Just so's you don't have to deal w/the registration & stuff, I've pasted the article below.
FWIW, I thought it was pretty cool to see a TC shout-out in the Washington Post (despite the gratuitous 'tacky' descriptor)
Enjoy!
Scottiki

Barcelona Puts the Tiki in Tacky
By Laura Randall
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, January 8, 2006; Page P01

It's a long walk from the Maria Cristina metro station to Barcelona's oldest tiki bar. After exiting onto busy, tree-lined Avinguda Diagonal, you must head east past several modern high-rises, one of the city's biggest shopping malls and a branch of the department store El Corte Ingles.

Just when you're ready to give up and duck into the nearest tapas joint for a glass of vino tinto, the neon "Hawaiano Bar" sign and carved wooden doors of Kahala finally appear.

That's when you leave the Barcelona most travelers know -- the one of high-end cuisine, classy wine bars and 20th-century Gothic palaces -- behind. Far behind.

It may seem hard to believe, but this sophisticated European city has three tiki bars with the kind of beach-hut decor and ambiance that make the knees of Polynesian culture devotees buckle in delight. Tiki bars, with their tropical environments and umbrella-topped drinks, have long been icons of island living and the good life. The bars, which flourished in the 1940s and 1950s after the return of U.S. soldiers from World War II tours of duty in Asia, have experienced a resurgence in the past decade as a new generation of plugged-in fans discovered their retro-hip allure.

When Tiki Central, an online network for all things tiki, asked its members last summer to rank cities with the best tiki environments, Barcelona's name came up as often as Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. And in a 2002 article about the comeback of Polynesian culture, Fortune magazine included all three of the city's bars on its short list of worldwide tiki bars -- right between San Francisco's Tonga Room and Trader Vic's London.

Besides Kahala, there is Kahiki, centrally located near Las Ramblas promenade, and Aloha, not far away on a quiet urban street in the L'Eixample district. As a resident of Los Angeles, home to Trader Vic's and a handful of other thriving, well-known tiki bars, I was curious to see if Barcelona lived up to its reputation as a city with a great tiki vibe. The answer turned out to be yes -- and no.

With their dizzying expanses of bamboo, Hawaiian-shirted servers and huge variety of exotic mugs (most of which are manufactured in Toledo, Spain), the bars would make even the late Victor J. Bergeron (founder of Trader Vic's) drop his swizzle stick in admiration. At Kahala, the doors give way to a carved stone wall and a bridge that crosses a murky pond that must have once housed some pretty unhappy koi. The main room is dominated by a long wooden bar flanked by carved wood masks and an aquarium full of puffer fish and other tropical marine life. Waiters deliver trays of Ponche de Plantador (Planter's Punch) and Ciclones de Azores (Hurricanes) to customers lounging in semidarkness on rattan sofas.

On the Thursday night I was there, the amount of dry-ice mist drifting from the drink prep area bordered on the obscene. Young couples and boisterous groups of office workers dominated the crowd, and as my husband and I studied the drink menu and gawked at the wall hangings, we felt like the only tourists in the place.

A dozen blocks away at Aloha, parakeets, canaries and turtles live in a glass-fronted cage under a yellow neon sign that resembles a vintage movie marquee. With a billiard table near the entrance and American pop music (think Madonna circa 1985) on the jukebox, the atmosphere reminded me more of Bennigan's than a South Seas hula hut, but the Aloha has a strong following among the out-of-town tikiphiles who've visited the bars. It's the site of tiki-themed fiestas organized by American expat Andrew Burns, a guitar technician for David Bowie, Patti Smith and other performers. For a $3.60 cover fee, Burns distributes floral leis, screens movies from the late 1970s and brings his own DJs to spin Martin Denny and other tiki-friendly crooners.

Burns's favorite tiki bar is the Aloha, for its bamboo decor and street-front aviary, but he admits the Barcelona bars don't have a Norm-from-"Cheers"-like following as many in the United States do. "They are hangout joints for the younger set . . . who find the drinks a bit pricey," Burns said. "So there is not really a daily scene."

Unlike many American tiki bars, which began as one-room establishments and grew with their popularity, the Barcelona bars haven't expanded or changed much since their opening, said Otto von Stroheim, the San Francisco-based founder of a tiki newsletter who has visited the Barcelona bars.

The tiki bars have been around since the mid-1970s, when the collapse of Gen. Francisco Franco's dictatorship opened the country to political and cultural freedoms it hadn't known since the early part of the century, he said.

"The concept [of tiki] already existed before they built, so they could build [the bars] whole," von Stroheim said. "They have this weird different take on things. It's a little more funky, disco-y, hip. It has a little more soul" than many of the U.S. bars, he said.

The bars' architects probably drew on the fanciful work of Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi, rather than on the nautical and trader themes favored by American tiki bars, von Stroheim said. "You have this weird weeping willow-looking stuff -- waterfalls dripping and craggy, with plants hanging off them, and all these textures and colors."

In my elbow-bending tour of the bars, I found Kahiki to be the most accessible of the three, with the tastiest tropical drinks and most affable bartenders, though some have criticized its faded floral-print furniture and sleepy environment on Tiki Central chat rooms. Located near the University of Barcelona, Kahiki attracts young couples who like the bar's quiet alcoves and unique drinks such as the Copa Tikaroa (a semisweet concoction of champagne, rum and fruit juices), bartender Eduardo Lopez told me on a quiet Wednesday night.

"They like it because it's different from the other bars and they think the drinks taste good," said Lopez, a middle-aged man who wore thick glasses and an oversize Hawaiian shirt purchased at El Corte Ingles.

As he mixed an $8 mai tai, Lopez told me he has worked behind Kahiki's bamboo bar for 20 years. Noting my interest in the bar's origins, he dug out a wrinkled yellow drink menu from New Year's Eve 2004 and a city map that shows Kahiki's location.

"Take these," he said with the faintest of smiles. "Tell your friends Barcelona has a good tiki environment."

Then he went back to waiting amid the bar's flickering puffer-fish lamps and red-eyed tribal masks for the next customer to step into the semidarkness.

Laura Randall last wrote for Travel on Ojai, Calif.

I'll be in Barcelona next Tuesday through Sunday. I'm going to hit the Kahiki and Kahala for sure, and I'm going to try talking my friend into driving to Lloret on Friday night to visit Hula-Hula. Don't think I'll make it to Calella this time.

Calella is closer to Barcelona than Lloret is!

Calella is closer to Barcelona than Lloret is!

I know, but I can't find any info about the places mentioned previously in this thread, so I don't have any idea where they're located or if they're even open this time of year.

Hula-Hula's got a website, so at least I know where they are and what their hours are.

I think it's a big mistake to miss out the Aloha just because of one bad apple bartender. My experience was the opposite - both the manager and the bartender came out from behind the bar to chat to me and even took photos of me pretending to bartend. Obviously it was a quiet night! Great decor too, plus they sold a good array of mugs.

I'm off to Granada & Seville in May, but don't hold out much hope for Tiki having just been there 4 months ago & finding nothing. Still, if anyone has any tips I'd love to check them out.

Trader Woody

I made it over to Kahala last night and hung out for an hour or so. As others have indicated, it's a beautiful bar with unique decor, and the service was excellent. I was also pleased to note that they had an original chalk drawing by our own Tiki Diablo hanging in a place of honor behind the bar.

The drinks were, in my opinion, mixed very haphazardly, although the presentation was good; they were also far too sweet. I had a Doctor Funk that almost gave me cavities and my friend had a Bastardo Saffrin (Sufferin' Bastard) that was also extremely sugary. The nice bartendress poured us some samples of the mix for their Scorpion and something I think was called Tanza de Terror (Dance of Terror). All were sweet enough to put us into a diabetic coma!

I'm going to try and hit the Kahiki before I leave, time permitting.

Good thread! Needs to be updated...
I been working on that, but after 6 years living in Spain, I keep finding new evidence of un-documented Spanish tiki bars.

Z

*Zeta is specialized in finding, studying and documenting Tiki in Spain and México.

[ Edited by: Zeta 2008-08-07 16:04 ]