What is on your Tiki Bucket List? Here is mine

First, I’ll start off with the Places I’ve already visited.

The Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland and Disneyworld

Trader Sam’s at the Disneyland Hotel

Tangaroa Terrace Bar Disneyland Hotel

The Polynesian Hotel Disneyworld

Th Hatch in Tustin

The Golden Tiki

Frankie’s Tiki Room Las Vegas

Tahiti Village Las Vegas

Tiki Grill and Bar Oahu

Cuckoo Coconuts  Oahu

Disney’s Aulani Oahu

Ka’anpali Beach Hotel in Maui

Bali Hai San Diego

The Catamaran Hotel San Diego

Tiki Oasis 10 Years at the Crowne Plaza

The Shag Store Palm Springs

The Tonga Hut Palm Springs

The Reef Palm Springs

Tiki Caliente At the Caliente Tropics Palm Springs

Jan and Dean’s Tiki Lounge Huntington Beach
Billy's at the Beach Newport Beach

Roxanne’s Rum and Tiki Social Long Beach

The Bamboo Club Long Beach

The Ocean Palms Resort in Carlsbad

Lakanuki Mammoth Lake at the Village 

Places that  no longer exist

The Puka Bar Long Beach

Cat’s Eye Club San Diego

Don the Beachcomber’s in Sunset Beach (This was our Main Tiki hangout.... Still miss it)

The Royal Hawaiian Laguna (Before the new management)

Tahiti Joe’s at Tahiti Village Las Vegas (terrible service so I’m not surprised)

Here are the top places I want to visit that are the most likely and one on my dream list for some day.

Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto at the Polynesian at Walt Disney World.

We were in Walt Disney world several years ago –just weeks before it opened.  We were there for a cheer competition, so we didn’t have a choice of when the trip was.   It kills me knowing that we missed getting to go there by about two weeks.  I love Trader Sam’s at Disneyland and I can’t wait to someday visit the cool East Coast version.

The False Tiki in San Diego

This is another case of we just missed it.  A couple of years ago at Tiki Oasis this Tiki Bar was scheduled to be open in time for Oasis and didn’t.  The last two years at Tiki Oasis we have had the baby with us so a trip to Downtown San Diego to check it out wasn’t in the cards for us.   Our son is old enough to stay overnight with Grandma now –so hopefully we can actually get down to see it finally.

Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco

We just need to make a Tiki trip to San Francisco to check out this iconic Tiki bar as well as the Tonga Room and now Zombie Village.   

We went through San Francisco last summer on the way to Oregon –but it was a family trip with 3 kids in the car, so Tiki wasn’t on the agenda. 

Disney’s Aulani:

We did visit it for the day on our trip to Oahu a couple years ago and loved it.  I really want to actually stay there.  Hopefully in a couple years when our littlest is old enough to really enjoy it we can stay there.  I’d like to stay there for about 4 nights and maybe stay at Turtle Bay on the North Shore for a couple of days as well.  I really think they should add a 3^rd Trader Sam’s to Aulani.  I don’t understand how that hasn’t already happened.

The Pacific Seas in Los Angeles

This place has been on my radar since it was first announced.   The timing just hasn’t worked out for us.  We had our baby right about the time that this opened.  One of our favorite bands The Hula Girls plays there and that would be the perfect time to go –but they usually play on Thursday nights.  With kids in school and a little one—it is hard to get up to LA on a Thursday night—so it hasn’t happened yet.

The Mai Kai

This is on my dream list -but it is the least likely to happen.  It is on the other side of the country and a trip there would most likely have to be a trip specifically to go there.   Maybe some year we can actually make it out there for the Hukilau.  One can always dream.

Tiki Caliente 2019: Yacht Rock lands in the desert

I have been to Tiki Oasis for the last 10 years and have been wanting to check out Tiki Caliente for a while. 

When we found out that our favorite Yacht Rock band would be playing on Friday night we decided to finally check this event out.
The event is now held at the Caliente Tropics in Palm Springs.

Love the entrance to this place.

Poolside with the Captain of Smooth himself  Captain Carl

Kim in what I called her Peg Bundy dress.

We checked out some Tiki Tronic while cruising the Tiki Vendors.   They were playing some 80's Tiki Tronic style.   

Hungry like a Wolf.

Here is picture of the group photo from Tiki Caliente 2019.

 There are discussions in the Tiki Community about whether Yacht Rock belongs at Tiki events.   Whether it belongs or not we love it.  Yachty By Nature is a lot of fun and has become one of our favorite So-Cal bands.   They put on an amazing high energy show and Tiki Caliente was no different.   

 The S.S. Minnow was representing.

 

Like Tiki Oasis,  Tiki Caliente has room parties.  The rooms being smaller the parties don't have bands playing in the rooms --but the parties were still fun and some of the party hosts were very creative.  We stopped at a couple parties including one that was backlit with a space theme and some Space Apes.    I saw online that the Saturday night Room Party hosted by The Tonga Hut was absolutely amazing looking. 

We were only able to stay the one night this year  (It was my first night away from our 2 year old) otherwise I would have loved to stay day two to see Jason Lee perform.  His band always puts on an amazing show.  I really enjoyed the cool easy vibe of Tiki Caliente.   It is a smaller more intimate Tiki Event than Oasis, but very cool.

As a Tiki event overall:   I'd say Tiki Vending wise there was a lot less shopping opportunities.  If you want to shop Tiki then Tiki Oasis and events like Tikiland Trading Co. may be more up your alley.  But if you are looking for a fun weekend in Palm Springs with good music and a chill friendly Tiki Vibe,  then definitely check it out.  Plus if you haven't been to Palm Springs in a awhile with the SHAG store , The Reef , and The Tonga Hut it is definitely a Tiki must do.

Tiki Caliente 2019: The Reef Restaurant : Photo Blog

Located at the Caliente Tropics in Palm Springs is The Reef Tiki Bar  On a previous Palm Springs trip we had stopped at the Caliente Tropics The Reef was just being worked on.  We decided to come back to Tiki Caliente some time in the future.

 Early this year my wife was down in Palm Springs for my step daughters cheer comp and dropped in to check out The Reef.  While she was there we found out one of our favorite bands was going to be playing this year at Tiki Caliente.  Right then we decided to dip our toes in Tiki Caliente for the first time. 
I'll do a separate blog about the event itself,  but The Reef deserved its own little photo blog.

Love this sign listing the other local Tiki places.   
True Ohana spirit.

Cool artwork greets you as you enter.

The Reef has Tiki Mug Mondays. 

 If we lived in Palm Springs I could put my mug collection to good use.

Here are a couple of pictures inside the bar area.

Love the Shark

 A Leftover from May 4th ??? As a Star Wars fan I loved it.

I loved the decor.

We had a late lunch which was good and a couple of Tiki drinks before heading back to our Hotel to get ready for the fun.  

Even if you don't go to Tiki Caliente--definitely stop to check out the Caliente Tropics and The Reef the next time you are in Palm Springs.

 Here is the link to their website

https://www.thereefpalmsprings.com/