ESPACIO THE JEWEL OF WAIKIKI ★★★★★

A Tower on Kalakaua Where Every Guest Gets a Floor

Waikiki is a place of big numbers. Towers of six hundred rooms, lobbies that never empty, a beachfront that reads as one continuous wall of glass. Espacio stands on the same street as all of it, at 2452 Kalakaua Avenue, and answers with nine. Nine suites, stacked one to a level, each reached by a private elevator that opens directly into its own entryway. No corridor, no neighbour through the wall, no queue at a desk. Inside, the register is Italian marble, Persian carpets and Moroccan metalwork chandeliers, warm rather than clinical. The effect is less hotel than apartment building with a kitchen brigade attached.

Why It Works

Three things decided it. The full floor plate is the first: a private lift and a single residence per level turns a Waikiki stay into something closer to a pied a terre, and it is a layout almost nobody else on this stretch offers. The second is recognition at the top of the category, with a Forbes Travel Guide Five Star rating held by both the property and its restaurant, and a place in the Leading Hotels of the World portfolio. The third is the service ratio: butler service, a house car within central Honolulu, and a spa of exactly two treatment rooms.

Why This Location

Kalakaua Avenue is the spine of Waikiki, the road that carries the shops, the hotels and the walk to the water, and Espacio sits directly across it from the beach. That is the whole argument for the address: the busiest street in Hawaii at the door, one crossing from the sand, and the noise stopping at the private lift. Balconies look over the beach and the banyan below rather than into another tower. Daniel K. Inouye International Airport is a drive of roughly twenty minutes, with round trip transfers arranged by the hotel. For culture beyond the shoreline, guests are given access to the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Bishop Museum and Iolani Palace.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: Private, residential, quietly Japanese

• Rooms: Nine full floor suites, from Beach View up to the Penthouse Diamond, each with its own elevator

• Best For: Couples who want privacy on a crowded beachfront, families taking a whole floor, travellers who cook

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The furnished balcony with its own Jacuzzi soaking tub, one to a suite, facing the Pacific

• Dining: Mugen, tasting menu only, contemporary global cooking with local produce, a cellar of around five hundred bottles and a rare Japanese whisky list

• Amenities: Espacio Spa with two treatment rooms, a dry sauna in every suite, chef’s kitchen, butler service, house car, complimentary valet parking

• Attractions: Waikiki Beach across the avenue, Honolulu Museum of Art, Bishop Museum, Iolani Palace

Inside the Suites: a Private Lift, a Sauna and a Working Kitchen

Each suite takes a whole level, so the plan runs the width of the building and the light arrives from more than one side. The lift opens into a private entryway. Bathrooms are the part guests talk about: deep soaking tubs, glassed walk in showers, TOTO Washlets and a dry sauna, which is rare inside a guest room anywhere, let alone in Hawaii. The kitchen is a real one, with premium appliances, so a long stay need not mean eating out three times a day. Categories climb with the floors, from Beach View through Ocean View and Oceanfront to the Penthouse Diamond.

Mugen, and the Case for Staying In

Mugen is why a number of guests book here without ever intending to sit on the sand. Tasting menu only, contemporary global cooking with local produce and a Japanese sensibility, and it carries the same Forbes five star recognition as the house around it. The cellar runs to roughly five hundred bottles, with a parallel collection of rare Japanese whiskies. The room is small, which is the point.

What to Know Before You Book

This is a small house, so availability is the real constraint. Check in is from four in the afternoon, check out at eleven. Children are accepted, and a floor with more than one bedroom and a kitchen suits a family better than most Waikiki suites; animals are not accommodated. The two spa rooms fill quickly, so treatments are worth arranging when the stay is confirmed. Transfers and valet parking are included, and the house car covers central Honolulu.