tiki shopping in maui & honalulu

can anyone point me towards any tiki shopping suggestions for my trip to maui and honalulu in august,ive poked around cyberspace without much luck.any suggestions would be appreciated,
thanks!-----------dave from jersey

Having recently returned from both Maui & Honolulu, I can give you some pointers on locating tikis. In Maui, I recall 4 differnt paces to buy tikis.
1.I found a large lady selling tikis next to the aquarium near Ma'alaea.
2.The same lady was also selling them in Lahaina. She was located on Front St., about mid-street on the mauka side (towards the mountain) of the street. She is set a liitle back.
3. There is a guy at the south end of Front St. who is set up in font of a store.
4.Under the Banyan Tree, they have an art festival, but I'm not sure how often they have it. There is a guy how has 3 tables full of tikis. All these tiki carvers had excellent work.

In Honolulu, the only place we found tikis was at the International Market Place. They were so-so. Definitley better in Maui.
Hope this helps.

[ Edited by: tikipug on 2003-06-13 22:09 ]

[ Edited by: tikipug on 2003-06-13 22:10 ]

[ Edited by: tikipug on 2003-06-13 22:11 ]

One more tip for your trip. If you haven't already done so, purchase the book Maui Revealed by Andrew Doughty & Harritt Friedman. This is THE bible for Maui. This book is so accurate, it's scary.

You'll find the best Tiki's in front of Suda's store in North Kihei. The guy at the Kihei Kalama Village has nice smaller ones. The ones sold on the Touristy (Lahaina) side will be more expensive.

Be sure to check out Lulu's in Kihei as well. The closest thing you'll find to a tiki bar in Maui, except for Mama's maybe.

Stop into Honolua Surf Comapny too for Tiki Farm Mugs.

Let me know if you have any Maui questions. I've been stuck on this rock in the middle of the ocean for 14 years. I recommend Maui Revealed as well.

Aloha

Hi Dave,

I'm not at home at the mo' but give me a couple of days and i'll get back to you with some tiki sites and shopping.
Cheers
Neil

thanks so much for your tips folks,appreciate it!----------dave from jersey

You should meet up with Gecko and take a peek at his tikis. Drop him a private message.
MC

Maui

Maui is a great island a kind of middle ground between the peaceful beauty of Kauai and the built up party atmosphere of Waikiki, Ohau.
I stayed at the Royal Lahaina Resort which is a great hotel.There is a Don the Beachcomber bar there but it is closed and has been apparently for about 10 years or so. Shame because it looks great. It's a purpose built A frame building with lots of Tiki detail and is built just adjacent the the mail hotel .You can peer through the dusty window and see the interior which looks great but is now piled up with junk. This hotel also has a luau which is cheesy but kinda fun. The grounds to the luau have some good big carved tikis and you can have your drinks served in a Royal Lahaina Tiki mug for $10-00.
Just up from the Royal Lahaina resort is the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel which has a Tiki bar which is over looked by a huge Ku type tiki plus there is a restaurant called the Tiki terrace which looked good with lots of Rattan and bamboo.
Lahaina is the happening place in Maui and is pretty good. There are tiki carvers all along Front Street which is the main drag through the town.A lot of the shops there have tikis outside ,most of the tikis seem to come from Wayne Coombs at Mai Tiki in Florida. There is a good outdoor market (i think on a Saturday) where there are some good locally carved tikis to be had.
If you go to the Hilo hattie store (worth a look for Tiki farm mugs etc) you will see across from there in the carpark a great display called the Hale Kahiko (Ancient House) there are several large 10' tikis and some excellent ancient Polynesian decor and it's all free and definitely worth a look.
On the other side of the island is a cool little town called Paia which is worth a look .There are a few antique stores and some other interesting shops.
Mamas fish house is definitely worth going to. Reckon it might be wise to book a table as it seems to get pretty busy. The food and tropical drinks are excellent and although not really a bonifide tiki bar it is a really cool place with great views and decor.Mamas isn't cheap though but you get what you pay for
Wakiki
Ok here's a quick run down on Wakiki. International market place worth a look if just to imagine what it once was and there is still some tikis to be found in there. Along the front , Kalakaua Ave there are a few Vintage Clothing stores which are worth a look . If you are super rich and money is no object then you have to go to Baileys Antiques and Hawaiian shirts. There are some of the best vintage Hawaiian shirts i've ever seen but expect to be paying at the very least $1000 per shirt and most of the best shirts are more in the region of $3,000 to $6,000 . He does have some good repro shirts there too plus some nice Tiki mugs and general Hawaiiana.Baileys is on (i think ) Kapahulu ave. There is a Tiki bar that has opened up on Kalakaua Ave ,imaginatively called 'Tikis' which is ok .It is decorated with Bosko and shag stuff and you can have your drinks served in a coconut shell printed with a 'Tikis' logo.The bishop Museum is definately worth a visit. Although i didn't get a chance to see him (i will next time) Do Ho Play's at the Waikiki Beachcomber hotel and he also has his bar/grill at the Aloha Market place.There is a great Antique mall that i found .It's on three storeys and there were lot's of vintage Tiki mugs and collectables. Prices weren't really cheap but there was some pretty good mugs.I think it is on Kanekapolei Place , it's on the same road as one of the Avanti Hawaiian shirt shops.The one place that i highly recommend is the La Mariana Sailing Club. It's a little way from Wakiki downtown and it''ll cost you about $25-00 in a Taxi.It's a great Tiki bar with fantastic decor salvaged from other local defunct Polynesian bars.The food is good and cheep and so are the drinks.Definitely worth the trip.
Okay guess that'll do me ,you are bound to find some other places on your travels. And there are loads of secret Tiki's to be discovered every where.
Have a great trip.
Regards
Neil

Carvers can usually be found at the Luau's at the big Hotels in Maui (Kaanapali). There are also several places in Lahaina. Good luck.

Aloha,

Vic

In Lahaina Town in Maui there's a carver who sells his wares downtown in one of the outdoor shopping areas on an outdoor brick walkway that's just outside of Lahaina street (I forget the name, but it's the street with all the shops on it) and it's on the mountain side of the street. If you walk down that main street, his stuff is visible from the sidewalk. Look for the brick.

Here's a photo of his stuff. I bought the large Tiki on the extreme left, with the bark on it. it's over 3 feet tall, and was $300 bucks. He's not painted -- the wood is actually two-tone, a dark red in the middle and a light color outside, and he carved the mouth and eyes so that the wood would be it's own coloring. Very clever carver.

There's also a carver who works inside of Hilo Hattie's in Lahaina Town. His stuff is pretty good but I liked the other guy better.

~Hanford

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore on 2003-06-22 18:23 ]

Neilster,

Cool that you found that Don the Beachcomber. I saw it too last time I was in Maui and I took some pics. Turns out, they're going to reopen it soon. Check out this thread for Pics and more info:

https://tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=3925&forum=1

~Hanford

Hanford,
How much was the shipping for the three foot tiki that you bought?

Brad

The shipping was 100 bucks, although I could have wrapped it myself and took it on the plane with me as a piece of luggage (according to the carver), although it is damn heavy, I wonder if they would have accepted it. I decided not to do it beacuase it would have been a pain in the ass to wrap and get to the airport, and I was on vacation.

~Hanford

That was 100 bucks for shipping it from Hawaii to the San Francisco area, by the way.

Hey Hanford,

That's fantastic news about the Don the Beachcomber re-opening.I saw it as i checked in to the Hotel and freaked out. I jumped out of my car and ran to the door to find out it had closed down, i was gutted to say the least.I thought i'd discovered the long lost bar that had never closed.I spoke to a guy at the hotel who said the bar had opened and closed a few times over the years.Anyway the sign was there when i was in Maui in October 2002.
I think the carver that you bought the great two tone tiki from was at the front of a market place on the main street.I bought a few tikis from a guy ,i think his name was 'King Nonu' in the crafty market by the harbour area that mentioned.
Reckon the $100 you paid to ship your tiki back was a good deal, i dread to think what it would cost to ship to England.I paid over $300 to get a three foot tiki shipped from Florida a good few years ago.

That "Main" street on Maui is Front Street.

Yo, Dave from Jersey!

What exit?

Check out the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center. Not a lot of folks go there because it's a mall, but upstairs you will find the Bishop's Museum store where you can purchase some cool koa items and other gifts. From there you can have a drink at the world famous Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai bar with spectacular views of Waikiki and Diamond Head (be sure to be out on da beach for sunset).

Now with your cool buzz head over to the International Marketplace. Hopefully, you catch some Tongan tiki carvers out in front and you pay homage to the former site of Trader Vic's.

Have fun and good mana!

The Bishop Museum gift shop was first-class. Of course, the museum was even better!