Honolulu is buzzing over the remake of Hawaii Five-0, the van driver tells me on the way from the airport. Unlike Lost, which was shot in the tropical wilderness of Oahu, this series is being filmed in the city itself. just like the original.
I look out at the passing cityscape and start having flashbacks. There it is: the familiar palm-dotted skyline, the concrete buildings, the neon graphics. “The city hasn’t changed much since the sixties, has it?”
“Not in this part of town,” he says. “Look up there.”
He points to the top of a turquoise-paneled hotel and I recognize the balcony where Detective Steve McGarett spins around to face the camera in the opening sequence. I start singing the theme song and the driver joins in.
View from Hyatt Regency Waikiki (photo Cathleen McCarthy)
Moments later, we pull onto Kalakaua Avenue at the heart of Waikiki, and the retro glamour takes on a gentile polish, transforming into a sort of tropical Fifth Avenue: Prada, Ferragamo and Chanel are oddly interspersed with surf shops and the occasional ABC, the islands’ ubiquitous (and totally addictive) convenience store.
He drops me at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki and I find myself at the center of a revitalized hotel district, steps from what turns out to be one hopping Saturday night strip.
Around the corner is the lavish Trump International Hotel that opened in November and the spiffily renovated Sheraton Waikiki and Outrigger Reef, part of the Waikiki Beach Walk, an ongoing $460 million project that’s helping turn this part of Waikiki into a luxury mecca.
Compared to most major U.S. cities, Honolulu is tiny and well off the beaten path, but when Travel & Leisure surveyed readers about their favorite American cities last year, Honolulu ranked #1 for romance and relaxation, #2 for weather and action/adventure, and #6 for luxury hotels and family vacations.
That potent combination makes it tough to beat as a tropical, urban getaway.
Luau at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (photo Cathleen McCarthy)
Over the next week, I eat some of the most innovative sashimi I’ve ever tasted at the new Doraku Sushi in the Royal Hawaiian Center, watch killer sunsets and early-morning surfers from my own 33rd-floor balcony, join the late-night throngs at the International Marketplace, learn to ride a wave (more or less) with the help of some really hot local firemen, swim with sea turtles and chase acrobatic dolphins from a catamaran, and feast on lavender scones and abalone on the half shell at the Kapiolani Community College farmers market where more than 50 vendors set up every weekend.
After I return home, I find CBS has announced its fall line-up. The next-generation Hawaii Five-0 will air on the same network where it all began. Honolulu is officially back in the spotlight.
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