Kaanapali Hotel, Lahaina, Maui, HI (beautiful rendering)

Name:Kaanapali Hotel
Type:hotel
Street:
City:Lahaina, Maui
State:HI
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:operational

Description:
Here is a great rendering for the Kaanapali Hotel. My new favorite postcard. I'm guessing from around 1965 because I found it in a scrapbook for a trip to Hawaii that year. This rendering has it all. A small village of guest huts. A beached pirate ship on the beach. At least six huge Tikis. Out of this world A-frames and is that a giant torch on top of the hotel? Not sure if the place ended looking anything like this or not but the image is fantastic. I'll see if there is any more info on the place in the scrapbook. Does anyone have anything on this place? I heard a rumor that they still have a few Tikis.

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-04-16 19:37 ]

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-04-17 04:36 ]

Bigbro would you consider that tower in front of the A-frames in the fourth photo to be one of the spirit towers you mentioned in the Hawaiian Gardens thread?

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-04-16 19:40 ]

Uncle Trav, The full name is The Kaanapali Beach Hotel. I have been there and do not remember any A-frames...just the modern 4 to 5 story buildings. They had a great free hula and ukulele show there every evening up until several months ago put on by a gentleman by the name of Rudy Aquino. He played EVERY nite with his group for many years. Alas he moved to the Cook Islands and purchased a small hotelof his own. There is still a free show there very night but when I was there in December it was not very good. I don't remember any Tikis but at the time I wasn't on the look out for any. I'll browse through my pics and see if I can come up with one or two.

Thanks for the update ukutiki. They must have updated the name as well. Here's the back of the card, just says "The Kaanapali Hotel". I love these renderings of how things may have been but ended up as something else. If I remember right someone had posted some pics of Tikis on Fliker at one point from the hotel grounds. Thanks again.

I did a little more digging in the scrap book. The pirate ship or at least part of it was the Shipwreck Bar. And a photo of a large Ku statue on the grounds of the hotel. Sorry for the quality, I had to take pics because the clipping is glued in the book.

Uncle Trav,

One of my favorite rendering postcards. So MUCH going on.

Cool photo of the tiki.

Here is the postcard for the Shipwreck bar, pretty common on ebay.

DC

This our favorite Hotel on Maui. It really is the most Hawaiian. The staff treats you like family. The grounds beauitful, yes there are tikis. There are fancier & more expencesive places, but this place out does all of them in my opinion. Here are a few pictues from our last trip in 07.

Here is the large tiki in the post card,

Another shot

They put on a different show each night.

There is a great tiki bar.

On check out day the staff sings you off on your trip home.

Hopefully we'll be returning soon!
Mike,

So is the big Tiki still there, or not? If not, they probably won't have this amazing sign up anymore, either:

It was posted here years and years ago by someone (who I unfairly forgot). It is such a classic!

Trav, I have that postcard too, I had a whole stack of them, unused, and I suspected that the cards were never used because a lot of the features depicted ended up just being a fanciful fantasy. But to see that they had the ship, and at least ONE giant Tiki (not six), and here from an old post of Ookoolady some A-frames with outriggers...

...is reassuring. But I doubt they had AS MANY A-frames as are depicted in the rendering...and I don't think they had that giant torch blazing on the roof! :)

Would love to find photos from the 60s though, to see for sure.

I love that graphic! I found that sign years ago, but it was at the Royal Kona on the Big Island, not Maui.

Zulu

A little more about this place, it was designed by architect Pete Wimberlyof Honolulu (pg. 3 of the thread).

Ooops! Wrong island. The big Tiki triggered the wrong memory. :)

So sad when rendering a dream is outweighed by the reality of the budget. The rendering always seem better.

We were just there last week, the place is awesome, really Maui's most Hawaiian hotel. A great taste of the islands. The photo with the woody in it is just down the beach at place called "Longboards" The Tiki bar at the KBH has great Lavaflows.

[ Edited by: BIG KHAHUNA 2010-10-28 17:07 ]

Looks like a fun place to stay.

Here is a postcard comparison of the beautiful rendering and the completed grounds.

And a two killer menus from ebay featuring a nice rendering of the flagship Tiki and the building with the stylized outrigger beams.

DC

Wow, that Tiki in front of those outrigger beams! Very Tiki Mod!

Looking at the outriggers from this angle, I am reminded of the great Kona Lanes...

Picked up this old postcard showing the Kaanapali Tiki.

As seen on the menu cover.

And the brochure.

DC