The Outer Islands Are In

Hawaii once meant Waikiki--a fabled bit of beach washed by the blue Pacific, where laughing girls wreathed visitors with orchid leis and every day afforded another sun-drenched romp through a paradise of surf and sand, every night (under a perfect moon) another tropical taste of the revelry of luau. But in only ten years, Waikiki has been transformed into some thing that seems to belong more to southern Florida than it does to the once magical islands of Hawaii. Soft-drink and souvenir stands clutter the beach front, the famed beach itself is often so crowded that it looks like Coney Island on a Sunday, and hawkers are everywhere ($8 for a twilight cruise plus a cup of rum punch in a catamaran).

"Mass always follows class," sighed Hawaii Visitors Bureau Manager Charles Braden. And though mass has gone, lemming-like, down to the beach at Waikiki, class is slowly but in increasing numbers beginning to push on past Oahu to the other, lusher and less hokey islands. In 1955 there were only 815 hotel rooms available on outer or so-called Neighbor Islands (v. more than 8,000 in Waikiki alone); last year there were 1,776 with more abuilding.

The outer island attracting the most tourists is the big island of Hawaii, whose Kailua-Kona district has long been considered by its devotees among the Pacific's finest deep-sea fishing areas. The long-established Kona Inn. a barracks-like octopus of a place, captures much of the millionaire trade. But it is about to acquire a new rival. Promoter Laurance Rockefeller has leased a large tract around Kaunaoa Beach, hired Architects Skidmore. Owings & Merrill to design a $12 million, 150-room resort hotel intended to provide every luxury anybody is willing to pay for.

Second most popular island is Kauai, where Promoter Lyle Guslander's Coco Palms resort has become the bellwether for hotel operations on other islands. A low, sleek structure whose two long arms embrace a central lagoon, Coco Palms features local color. Bed-lamp shades are plastic copies of the feathered helmets kings once wore, bathroom basins consist of giant clamshells, and guests are called to meals by a leather-lunged islander blowing into a conch shell. Another Gus-lander development, the 22-month-old Hanalei Plantation, is situated on a promontory that was used as the set for the movie of South Pacific. It is designed for couples who will shell out $50 a day and be satisfied at night with entertainment no more boisterous than a book.

But it is the island of Maui, half an hour by plane from Honolulu, which connoisseurs consider the handsomest of the lot. The Hana-Maui Hotel is so revered an institution that some of its affluent guests (like Faithful Vacationer Marshall Field Jr.) arrange to skip Honolulu completely, fly by private plane directly in and out of Maui. Just within the past six months, a first-class championship golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones has opened, flanked by two new luxury resorts. One is the Royal Lahaina. a 32-cottage settlement and semiprivate club. The new Sheraton-Maui is less expensive but more spectacular. Perched high on an escarpment of black rock, the 150-room hotel hangs like a scalloped upside-down cake over the sea, has been so successful that an additional 60 units have been add ed to be ready for occupancy by July 1.

The new bid by the Neighbor Islands for a slice of the tourist trade does not seriously worry Waikiki. There seems to be an endless flood of eager U.S. tourists; each year for the last ten the influx has increased by an average 20%. Only four months ago, the Gallup poll asked a cross section of Americans for their choice of a "dream vacation spot," and Hawaii's name led all the rest by a wide margin.

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