The Tiki, Lake George, NY (hotel)

Name:The Tiki
Type:hotel
Street:2 Canada Street
City:Lake George
State:NY
Zip:12845
country:USA
Phone:1-518-668-5744
Status:operational

Description:
This throw back Motor-Hotel, the Tiki, is surprisingly well preserved considering it is now owned by Howard Johnson. It is located on the main strip in Lake George, New York, which is a summer hang out and vacation spot for many upstate families. Clearly the entire area was once a swinging spot with googie properties everywhere. The town itself and most of the businesses really cater to the family and therefore are a bit average (rundown) in appearance. The Tiki, however, does have some splendor left in it. With the Waikiki Supper Club and fire dancing (summer only) the Tiki offers an (reasonably) authentic escape, especially for its Adirondac Mountain location.
The exterior of the Tiki is quite profoundly Polynesian and consists of two large A-Frame structures and multiple small A-Frame "huts" connecting the two larger. This was possibly the original resort. Behind is located multiple 2 story lodging buildings and a pool. Inside the larger large A-Frame is the bar; rock wall, waterfall, stream and fake palms abound. An outrigger, sparce tikis/masks, puffer fish, glass floats and other Polynesian paraphernalia round out the bar area.

[ Edited by: Primo Kimo on 2004-03-19 06:08 ]

Primo, thanks!!! I've always been curious about this place, but no one ever seems to talk about it...much less post pictures...!!wonder how their drinks are?

Well TV, have a second helping then. The bar pic was taken through large plate glass windows that seperate the rock wall from the bar. I guess as an afterthought to try to keep in some heat in the winter. They wouldn't open the bar for me. Cheesum Crow it was 12:30pm, when do people start cocktail hour around here anyway?

Ya, I wear flip flops in the winter. Snow is just like really cold sand, man.

[ Edited by: Primo Kimo on 2004-03-19 06:03 ]

It also is known as Tiki Resort, http://www.tikiresort.com/. Last year, I saw their fantastic floor show. A real delight! The drinks and dinner were just OK. (frozen drinks w/ whipped cream on top) But check out their fabulous tiki decor and A-frame exterior.

Looks like fun but not too cheap iinthe summer months! YIKES!

I was just in Lake George this past weekend, and figured I would update this thread with some new photos, in case anyone was interested in making the trek there.

I'm truly not sure how much I could recommend it. I've long believed that any tiki is good tiki, and I will take whatever I can get at all times, but when we first got there I was a bit bummed...i think mostly cuz I was praying for a gift shop there, and was disappointed to find that there wasn't one!
---but also just the feel of the whole town-- which was obviously once a beautiful resort town in the fifties (lots of googie style architecture still left...)but has now taken on more of a niagara falls feel to it, esp. in terms of the gross tourism aspect of things. I know there's no going back to this hey-day:



(thank-you Mr. Kirsten's Book of Tiki for those photos...)

But nonetheless a few of the external tikis remain (and I love the kitsch aspect of the fake palm trees!):

Poolside!:

The real gem though is the Waikiki supper club, so if you do make the trip in the summer time, hold out for that. No tiki mugs, expensive yet medicore food, and crappy slushy-style drinks served in daquiri glasses, but the family that does the Polynesian review is supper fun and worthwhile. Hula dancers, Blue Hawaii and Don Ho abounds in this production. I imagine if this family decided to pick up sticks and go the Tiki resort might be no more.

Someone has already posted photos of the upstairs tiki bar, so I will spare you more of those. It was never open except for the evening comedy club that happens there (and I wasn't about to suffer through that...) but the downstairs decor where the supper club happens is even better:

The actual hotel rooms themselves had zero tiki though. I did notice a kon-tiki "store" on the main drag, but when we went in it was just an unbelievably crappy head shop:

which is basically all there was on that strip: sketchy headshops, gift stores, and tacky wax museums. I use the term tacky affectionately though :)

So my advice for making this trip is that one night is all you'll need there (unless you've got kids and actually want to do all the six flags type stuff and mini-putt action that Lake George has to offer), and definitely stay for the supper club (the kids will ove that too)!

ok sorry for the novel :)

No, thanks for the novel! I can understand the overall letdown, but it's still nice to see a little tiki (green teeth? hmmm...), and to hear that the family is still performing. I've also liked those funny fake palm trees.

i know those green teeth are a little less scary in the dark at least! --I updated critiki on the lake George too :)