The Modern Honolulu

Step into a hip and modern Waikiki, which means you won’t find rattan furniture anywhere nor slack key music over the speakers. Instead, you get sleek, all white with blond-wood-accented rooms and electronic funk a la Ibiza played in the common areas. Come here to see and be seen, at the clubby lobby bar behind the bookcase or alongside two oceanview pools—each with its own bar and expansive daybeds. Choose this hotel, too, if you’re looking to get away from the kids—the top pool is adults only. There’s no beach access here, but the pool has its own beachy sand—a blend culled from all the islands—to pretend like there is.