Hawaii travel goes authentic

Travel

Objects and their Hawaiian names are seen along the wall in The Olelo Room, a bar at Disney's Aulani resort in Kapolei, Hawaii on Aug. 31, 2012. Many Hawaii resorts are edging away from kitschy marketing inventions and are instead turning to Hawaii's actual rich traditions to make trips special for travelers.

Kalama Cabigon, a kahu, or caretaker, leads a chant on Waikiki beach outside the Moana Surfrider hotel in Honolulu. Chanting, or mele, is Hawaiian tradition, a means by which islanders worked to remember myths of gods.

A Hawaiian canoe is seen next to a lazy river swimming pool at Aulani, Disney's resort in Kapolei. The Hawaiian islands were discovered by Polynesian explorers who braved the Pacific in canoes and to this day, canoeing remains a Hawaiian tradition.

Vise Vitale of Honolulu performs a Samoan fire knife dance during in an "Aloha Friday" celebration of Polynesian music song and dance in Honolulu, 2005. Fire knife dancing is often mistaken for Hawaiian even though it's a Samoan invention.

A Waikiki restaurant and store with cartoonish tiki decorations is seen in Honolulu. No, the Aloha State doesn't have wild monkeys or parrots. Lei aren't plastic and don't cost 99 cents -- they're supposed to be made of real flowers.

Jim and Sherri Miltenberger of Windham, N.Y. sit at The Olelo Room bar at Disney's Aulani resort in Kapolei, Hawaii on Aug. 31, 2012. Two California restaurants, Trader Vics and Don the Beachcomber, started the tiki bar phenomenon in the 1930s, and later opened branches in Honolulu. Even the tiki itself is a transplant; tiki gods actually stem from New Zealand Maori beliefs, not those of the Hawaiian people.

The lobby atrium at Disney's Aulani resort in Kapolei, while impressive, isn't indicative of real island lodgings. Sorry to burst your bubble regarding anymore Hawaii travel stereotypes but here are some others, while fun for tourists, that aren't authentically Aloha State: grass skirts (introduced to Hawaii by immigrants to Hawaii from the Gilbert Islands), coconut bras (origin unknown but they're not from Hawaii) and those high-drama torch lighting ceremonies many Hawaiian hotels use to regale visitors. That ritual was invented by Grace Guslander, the manager of the Coco Palms Hotel on Kauai, where part of the Elvis Presley movie "Blue Hawaii" was filmed.

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Objects and their Hawaiian names are seen along the wall in The Olelo Room, a bar at Disney's Aulani resort in Kapolei, Hawaii on Aug. 31, 2012. Many Hawaii resorts are edging away from kitschy marketing inventions and are instead turning to Hawaii's actual rich traditions to make trips special for travelers.

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