From Beach Bars To Local Hangouts, Here’s Where To Drink In Waikiki And Beyond
This article was updated in 2026
Waikiki has everything people imagine about Hawaii: palm trees, tropical cocktails, sunset views and beach bars just steps from the sand. After multiple visits and time with locals – one of whom is a bar promoter and another is journalist – I’ve learned there’s much more to Waikiki nightlife than hotel lounges and tourist traps. This guide covers the beach bars, local hangouts and classic watering holes worth visiting.
By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Nightlife Blogger
As every good tourist knows, Waikiki is the centerpiece of activity on Honolulu. It has all the tacky tourist shops, overpriced stores and enough high-rise hotels (all seemingly called the “Outrigger”) to provide lodging for the millions who come here seeking sunshine and tiki torches.
It’s also quite easy to find a cocktail here. But it’s hardly the only place in town that provides fun, lively environment. We, of course, have them all. This section focuses on the pubs and bars. For dance spots and upscale clubs, click on the Clubs link at the bottom of this page. Here’s a breakdown of the different drinking areas of Honolulu:
- Waikiki Beach bars
- Waikiki Beach Walk
- Local neighborhood pubs
- Restaurant bars
- First Friday Honolulu
Waikiki Beach And The Waikiki Beach Walk Bars
This is the centerpiece of Honolulu’s bar activity.
It’s an interesting combination, offering the friendliness and comfort of a casual dive bar in a clean, modern environment.
On the one side, it’s the stereotypical Hawaiian lounge with palm fronds over the bar, rum drinks served with umbrellas. staff outfitted in Aloha attire, an ocean-air patio (lanai) right on Waikiki Beach with a view of Diamond Head and tiki torches burning at night and
This gives it all the makings of a geeky tourist trap but pleasantly it isn’t. Duke’s Canoe Club doesn’t gouge customers with insane prices, either. The “passion-style” rum drinks hover around a $16-29, beers are $8 and up and wines are $12-20. Okay, not cheap by any means but not really outrageous considering the location.
Duke’s attracts its share of locals as well as tourists. It’s best in the late afternoons as people come in casually off the beach. Sundays, it’s a prime party destination. There’s a band in the afternoon and the outdoor patio is packed. As is the case in Hawaii, it’s not an insane scene – nobody is standing on tables twirling their tops, for example – but it’s definitely energetic.
The Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, which serves the best Mai Tais on the island and, in fact, quite probably the entire South Pacific. It’s been remodeled and veterans to the place must ask for the “Old School” Mai Tai. Or, as it’s listed on the menu, the “scratchier.” This will set you back more than $20.
Both Duke’s and the Mai Tai Bar are within easy reach of the beach’s booze cruises. For $30, you get a catamaran with all the rum, beer, mai tais and whatever else might be on board one can consume in 90 minutes.
The yellow boat in front of Duke’s and the catamaran that launches from the Shorebird are the best ones. Sunset cruises are the most popular.
After the sunset booze cruise and the obligatory walk-through at Duke’s, Honolulu’s nights shine under the maluna.
How about a bar at the beach with 101 rums!? It’s called RumFire just down the beach at the Sheraton. It has fire pits outside in a casual lounge area and outstanding drinks – made with your choice of some 100 rums from around the world.
A few blocks toward Diamond Head and across the street sits LuLu’s Waikiki Surf Club and the Tiki Bar, second-story hangouts with elevated, open-air views of the beach.
LuLu’s is like a Mexican Spring Break bar, Hawaiian style. And that is to say it’s always ready to happen. It has few locals but many young foreign tourists who seem to seek it out as if it were a hostel with cocktails.
It must be because they can lean against the railing against the huge open-air windows and soak up the sea breeze along with drinks and conversation. Or maybe its that oversized flip-flop on the wall. The food is fine, as well, so it’s great for dinner and post-dinner drinks. Or breakfast, for which is it known around the island.
The Tiki Bar doesn’t look like a tiki bar because it’s essentially a concrete balcony with a bar (spot it from the street by the huge stainless-still tiki torches along the railing). But it does have that Hawaiian-style hang-loose atmosphere.
Jimmy Buffett’s opened up Jimmy Buffett’s at the Beachcomber in the Ohana Waikiki Beachcomber is now closed in case you are wondering about it.
The Waikiki Beach Walk on Lewers has several spots, including The Yard House, which anyone from the mainland will recognize as a nice sports bar with good food and plenty of draught selections. This gets a few locals, but the main crowd are the tourists from the mainland who see a familiar name and go in there for sports, drinks and food in a familiar and comfortable setting.
Directly across from the Yard House is one of PubClub’s favorite nice but kicked back hangouts. Giovanni Pastrami. Yes, it sounds like a restaurant but at night it’s cool hangout for some locals. It’s far from slammed, so it’s neat to go in, have a few drinks and bond with the bartender and people seated around the bar. Sometimes, these encounters can prove to be more fun than being in a wild nightclub. The food is really good and on fall Sundays the tables are full with people watching NFL games.
Some Irish lads and lasses may be tempted to down a couple of pints at Kelley O’Neills (a couple of doors down Lewers) and certainly the live band is a draw. But for the most part, PubClub finds the crowd, well, mostly uninviting. Let’s just say it’s not good for mingling.
Away from Waikiki in the Ala Moana Shopping Center is the Mai Tai’s Hawaii. It’s not not THE Mai Tai bar as at the Royal Hawaiian, but an open-air version that’s a pretty happy Happy Hour spot for locals. Occassionally, there’s a battle of the bands and it’s packed.
Below it is Around the Pearl Waikiki Beach, a lounge-style bar that’s a real gem on Tuesdays when it has Ladies Night. This is a little more dress-up of a place, which means slacks and shoes for dudes.
Locals’ Bars & Pubs
Dollar beers!? In the heart of Honolulu?
Well, almost! In the nautical-feeling Harbor Pub, located at the edge of the marina where Gilligan, the Skipper, Maryann (ahh, Maryann) and the other castaways set out to sail on their infamous “three-hour cruise,” draft beers are $2.75 from 4-7 weekdays. The Mai Tais, made with a heavy dive bar pour, are $4.95.
An old, wooden bar with more character than the SS Minnow, it’s a just-off-the-boat kind of place, which is precisely what people do after a day of sailing or cruising around the local waters.
After the annual summer regatta in August this place is packed! In addition to the beer, which is still cheap even when it’s not a buck twenty-five, it is known to serve the best pizza in town on – get this – linen tablecloth tables. Mixed drinks are cheap and strong pours.
The Harbor Pub is directly below the Chart House at Ala Wai Marina, which has an incredible Happy Hour from 5-7 featuring huge appetizers for $6-7, pints of bottled beer or local lager, mixed drinks for $6 (wells), $10 for a margarita and $14 fora Mai Tai, all with a sunset view over the harbor. A perfect Friday routine is to have a couple of drinks at The Harbor Pub then go upstairs for dinner and sunset at the Chart House.
TheTShorebird Beach Bar a local’s favorite spot for drinks with a view for 38 years, is now closed.
Murphy’s Bar & Grill, located in the cracks of downtown (a block from Aloha Tower) is a good place for Happy Hour and THE place to be on St. Patrick’s Day. The Hawaiians do it right for the Irish, a full block party – three blocks to be exact– two Irish pubs (Murphy’s & O’Tooles and several drink stands along the street), lots of Irish beer and local bands. After the party closes, it’s over the Aloha Tower to Gordon Biersch or Don Ho’s. One would think it’s a misplaced Ireland by the amount of people that turn out for this event!
Restaurant/Bars
There’s a movement among some Honolulu restaurants to transform themselves into happening bars after the kitchen slows down. Few, if any, tourists ever visit these places, so these are good spots to see locals in action.
Hang loose at the aforementioned Giovanni Pastrami, with its comfortable bar attitude that makes easy to wander into but hard to leave. Certainly for sports it’s a good place to be, with its large plasma TVs. It has a daily Happy Hour from 3-7 that includes free pizza on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It also serves a killer breakfast all day and night. Tell Bill, the GM, or the waitress Amber, that PubClub sent you.
Thursdays at Sansei in the Marriott, the meal attraction is the sushi (which is half-price every night after 10), but more people come for the cool crowd and deejay.
In East Honolulu, Uncle Bo’s PuPu Bar & Grill serves great pupus and quickly built a reputation as one of this city’s finest low-key restaurants. But it’s also a neighborhood bar, kind of a dive that’s hardly a dive with its cool decor. In fact, you expect it to be a dive, but are treated to something that’s more like a relaxed lounge.
First Fridays
If you want to get away from the tourists and join the locals then go to First Fridays. As the name implies it takes place on the first Friday each month in Chinatown and the Honolulu Arts District (centered around Nuʻuanu Avenue and Bethel Street). It goes from 5-9 and turns into a pretty good party scene later.
Kevin Wilkerson is the founder of PubClub.com, an award-winning journalist and nightlife expert who has covered destinations, events and nightlife for more than two decades. While working as a newspaper reporter, he received an Associated Press award for investigative journalism.
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