The New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel

One of the major recreation areas developed at Waikiki near Sans Souci and The New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel is Kapiolani Park. On June 11, 1877 Kapiolani Park was opened as “the only park Honolulu can boast of". Designed to be the grand playground for Waikiki the park contained one thousand trees, channels streams, walks, drives, a bandstand for musical concerts and a mile long track for horse races and polo games. By 1904, the Honolulu Rapid Transit Line extended its trolley to Kapiolani Park, and built the Waikiki Aquarium at the end of the line so as to attract visitors.

For several months after Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898, Kapiolani Park was briefly used by the United States Army as a military bivouac site called Camp McKinley. Except for that brief army interlude, Kapiolani Park has a hundred years served the people of Honolulu as an area for cultural entertainment, sports, picnicking, exercising, sun tanning, kiting and family pleasures. Located directly behind The New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel, the park has also been enjoyed by hotel guests for the last forty years.