destinations

Meetings in paradise

If you're going to fly six hours to a meeting, this is the place to land. Honolulu's beaches and valleys are the definition of paradise, with just enough office space thrown in.

In Hawaii, they call it the “Giggle Factor.” When someone says they are traveling to the islands on business, it usually elicits a knowing giggle, as the listener invariably assumes the islands are a business boondoggle and a great place to recreate. But with a $30 billion dollar gross state product and a dynamically growing visitor industry, Hawaii is actually a serious place for business. Honolulu, the state capital, is both a place to play and a place to get the job done.

Most business in Honolulu is conducted either in the downtown district, centering on Bishop and Alakea Streets, or in Waikiki, where most of the large hotel chains have their offices. Oahu, where Honolulu is located, is the most populous Hawaiian Island, with 800,000 people. Oahu is also an island of sharp contrasts, with badly paved roads and hideous cinderblock apartment buildings juxtaposed with beautiful beaches and untouched, verdant valleys. The city is in the midst of a massive construction boom, thanks to a healthy tourism business and massive military spending, and tall cranes dot the skies.

Traffic can be brutal, as there is only one major highway artery for each portion of the island, so a serious accident can mean a three- to five-hour traffic delay. Public transportation is omnipresent, but very slow, so a rental car is highly recommended for traveling around Oahu. Taxis will serve you well enough if you are staying within Waikiki or merely moving between Waikiki and downtown.

The surreal tropical colors-electric blue water, powder blue sky, bright green mountains-are almost beyond belief for many first-time visitors. While Waikiki and downtown Honolulu are fun, travelers will need to venture out to the Windward and North Shores of Oahu for the most jaw-dropping beauty.

The city’s character

Honolulu is a melting pot, with the highest rate of intermarriage in the country and dozens of ethnic groups represented, including significant Filipino, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiian and Caucasian populations, as well as diverse denominations from the east and the west. Every house has a bottle of soy sauce, and popular Asian dishes such as fried rice and kimchee are island staples. Japanese noodle shops outnumber pizza joints. It’s no surprise, then, that Honolulu has some of the most sophisticated Asian fusion cooking in the world and has become an international mecca for Asian arts. The city has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the country among large metropolitan areas, although property crime rates-petty theft, stolen cars and so on-are among the highest. Honolulu has very little distinctive architecture and, as a result, a diminished historic feel. But the city makes up for these failings with fabulous cultural offerings, world-class food and unsurpassed natural beauty at every turn. Honolulu residents are a bit more hurried than their Outer Island counterparts, but most of them are genuinely friendly and ready to help visitors.
Entertaining clients

In Honolulu, golf is like a religion. The Sony PGA Open at the Waialae Country Club draws many of the top pros each year, and Oahu has a plethora of good places to play, with dozens of municipal and public/semi-private club courses dotting the island. Two of the best are the Fazio and Palmer courses at Turtle Bay, pro-level courses set along the ocean in an idyllic resort an hour from Honolulu on the rugged North Shore (57-091 Kamehameha Highway, 808-293-8574). A closer option is the Luana Hills Country Club (770 Auloa Road, 808-262-2139), a semi-private course nestled in a rainforest in the shadow of the steep Koolau Mountains, roughly 25 minutes from downtown Honolulu. Most courses have great twilight-round deals for golfers on a budget.

Honolulu

Come nightfall, all of Honolulu’s beachfront hotels offer lively bars with live Hawaiian music. A local favorite is the House Without a Key (2199 Kalia Road, 808-923-2311) at the Halekulani, where you can sit on a large patio, quaff a delicious (and strong) mai tai designed by cocktail connoisseur Dale DeGroff, and take in hapa haole music sung by a swinging trio. The house hula dancer is Kanoe Miller, a former Miss Hawaii, who is one of the most elegant practitioners of the modern awana hula style. Downtown locales for cocktails include Indigo Eurasian Cuisine (1121 Nu’uanu Avenue, 808-521-2900), which turns into a nightclub late most nights, and Palomino’s (66 Queen Street Mezzanine, 808-528-2400), an upscale nouveau American eatery with wood-fired pizzas and pupus that is popular with the after-work crowd.

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alex salkever is a freelance writer based in Honolulu. Email Alex at editor@executivetravelmag.com.

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