Splash Bar

The pitch.

Cross Kalakaua from the Moana Surfrider and you're at Splash Bar — a vintage-tiki pool bar with a daily DJ from 3 PM, a happy hour from 3-5 PM, and prices that don't punish you the way the Pink Palace next door does. Order the Princess Pineapple in an actual pineapple, hit the kalua pig sliders, and pretend you live here. Not oceanfront, but you save enough on the drinks to buy a cab back to a real ocean view later.

What it actually is.

Splash Bar is the poolside bar at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani — the Marriott-managed Waikiki property built on the estate that once belonged to the namesake Hawaiian princess. Set across Kalakaua from the Moana Surfrider, it is a one-block walk from the sand. The space was given a sharp 2017 rebrand by Hawaii illustrator Nick Kuchar that leaned into vintage-tiki visual language — surfer-girl posters, mid-century type, tiki mug references — and the bar itself plays along with hand-carved tikis, palm-print drinkware, and tropical kitsch that's intentionally retro. The daily DJ from 3-6 PM makes it one of Waikiki's better poolside day-party spots.

Happy hour: what to get.

Outside happy hour, it's known for…

Vintage-tiki rebranded poolside bar with the hollowed-pineapple Princess Pineapple, a 3-6 PM daily DJ, and the best mid-range happy hour within a block of the Waikiki beachfront strip.

Best time to actually go.

3:00 PM sharp for the start of happy hour AND the DJ set together — the only window where price, music, and crowd all peak.