Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort Highlights

Although my stay at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort was brief (way too brief, hello it was Hawaii!) it was the perfect spot to dash in-and-out of, eat at and sleep in during the time I was in Waikiki for SPAMJam.

Here are a few highlights from my stay.

I arrived on Friday afternoon to this beautiful view, I never get tired of the color of the water in Hawaii!

During my weekend I got to enjoy two of the three main restaurants (there are two other eateries as well) starting with an apéro at the Hula Grill Waikiki.

In Hawaii, they call appetizers, pupus. Whatever you call them, the Kahlua pork sliders and ahi poke tacos were delicious which I enjoyed alongside a plantation tea (tea with pineapple juice).

[The Hula Grill Waikiki actually created my favorite SPAM dish for the festival, the SPAM Waffle Dog with the new Portuguese Sausage-flavored SPAM.]

We talked, ate, and laughed while overlooking the pool which I totally wanted to dive into…

We also listened to the Lei Day festivities that were taking place on the beach in front of the hotel, you can see the stage in the upper right/middle of the photos. There was even a helicopter that dropped flowers!

From there we moved to a pre-SPAMJAM party hosted by Hormel which was held in a beautiful suite overlooking Diamond Head.

You can see a little bit of the view behind the photo I took of my Hula Mai Tai, that is if you can tear yourself away from that drink.

We had more delicious food, some SPAM themed:

Including Hormel’s contest winner:

As well as some with local ingredients in dishes found in the main restaurants:

The next day I went to the KCC farmer’s market which is a hop, skip, and a jump away from the hotel. I had a breakfast of champions made up of Kahlua pork over rice and a delicious green farm juice from Nalo Juice.

In the late morning, I worked in my room on my terrace catching up on a few blog tasks and then met several other bloggers for lunch in the famous Duke’s Canoe Club. I have been reading several books that take place in Oahu and so I knew some of the history of Duke Kahanamoku and his gang of beach boys.

The restaurant serves typical beach food, Hawaiian dishes, and burgers, etc. I tried a MacNut-crusted katsu chicken with lilikoi sauce with rice with a mac-and-potato salad combo.

I was completely satisfied and then this landed on the table!

Duke’s famous Hula Pie is to die for! We asked the server to explain how it is made because it is a work of art. There is an Oreo cookie crust, macadamia nut ice cream with huge macadamia nuts inside, plus chocolate syrup. Yes, I know. You want to get on your surfboard and paddle to the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort right now. Just. For. The. Pie.

I say, do it!

From there I went back for a nap (seriously, I did!) and fell right to sleep as the bed in my room was mega comfortable.

I being either super full or super sleepy when I was in my room, neglected to take a proper photo! Here is what my room looked like:

At 3:00 we had the media pre-screening of all the SPAM dishes followed by the festival, all of which I included in my write-up about the SPAMJam.

One of the best things about the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort was that is located in the heart of SPAMJam, so when I needed a little break from all that eating, I just slipped into my room for a rest (and I actually watched the festivities from the terrace (my room was on the side where I had a view of both the water and the street – perfect!).

I slipped back out for chef interviews and then called it a night, and had another fantastic night of sleep before heading back to San Francisco. There is just something about sleeping next to the ocean.

I would have loved to stay longer and experience more of what Outrigger calls Ke ‘Ano Wa’a (see what that encompasses in my interview with Bitsy Kelley) but it was just a super quick weekend trip, so I am hoping to stay at an Outrigger Resort property in the future to soak up more of the Outrigger atmosphere.

My weekend was fantastic and I have to thank Outrigger Resorts once again for inviting me to SPAMJam and showing me their wonderful hospitality and sponsoring my trip.

How about you? Have you been to Waikiki? How about an Outrigger Resort? Where would you like to stay out of all their locations?

For a visual summary of this post, check out my Outrigger Waikiki web story!

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