This is an archive - these pages are no longer updated!
Some information will be out of date.  Some of this writing goes back to 1995.
See Tiki Road Trip (2007 edition) for the most up-to-date information.

More Tiki places to visit in Florida (or NOT to visit, in some cases...) Floridians have quite a different definition of a "Tiki Bar" than the rest of the country seems to.  As far as they're concerned, any open air bar with a thatched roof near the water is a Tiki Bar.  There doesn't have to be a Lono or Ku replica within a day's canoe trip for Floridians to slap ''Tiki Bar" on their signage.  This became even more apparent to me recently, while I was driving around the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale areas during my trip to the Mai Kai.  I found a couple of places that advertised themselves as Tiki Bars, but aside from the thatch, there was absolutely nothing Polynesian about them whatsoever. It has come to the point where you can walk into a so-called Tiki Bar and get looked at funny for questioning a lack of actual Tikis!  This example is from my Easter Island journal (we were in Florida on the way home):   "...We stopped at a dumb little would-be Tiki Bar that we found purely by chance.  The bartender had no idea what we were talking about when we asked why there were no Tikis in this Tiki Bar.  When we started talking about 'tacky modern reproductions of ancient Polynesian fertility gods', she thought we had flipped.  There was a one armed man sitting in the corner, staring at us like a hawk.  The owner came over to say ‘hi’ when he heard that I would likely mention his bar on my web site.  He didn’t realize that a Tiki Bar was anything other than an open-air bar by some water.  Most people in Florida don’t.  The beer was in plastic bottles.  Ugh". Fueling the ignorance is this little nugget (from a site I don't wish to advertise) which claims that "In ancient Polynesia, Tikis were where locals and chieftains met to discuss happenings in their village".  Well, as most readers of this page know, this information is completely false.  There were meeting places as described above, but as we all well know, they weren't called Tikis.  But you can see how misinformation like this would fuel nascence, and perpetuate a justification for calling any old hut-like pub a Tiki Bar. Anyway, I visited Swanny's Tiki Bar adjacent to the Day's Inn in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and the Tiki Bar next to the Parkside Motel between Lauderdale and Miami (closer to Lauderdale).  Neither of them had anything to do with Tikis whatsoever. Rick Jacoby writes: The bar is as you have mentioned, a Florida style tike bar; i.e.: a  bit of thatched roof and some open air seating, but NO Polynesian  decor and NO tikis in sight.  It is on the water though which is nice.  My wife had a coconut and rum drink that she liked and I  ordered a Mai Tai.  After giving them a few hints on how to make the Mai Tai, it wasn't half bad.  The food was very limited; basically snack bar food. All in all, I think it would be a big disappointment for anyone to go there expecting a real tiki bar. Aku Tiki Inn Daytona Beach, FL .. Miss Jenna adds:  I sought this out in March while in Daytona but was very disappointed. The tiny front office definitely had a tiki theme going on and some really great pieces of carved wooden furniture but the so-called adjacent Tiki Bar now hosts Country line dancing (ack!) and when I asked, they said it wasn't very  traditional (which leads me to believe it may have been redecorated - we never saw it because it was closed). 2004 Historical Note: This picture of James T outside of the Aku Tiki Inn - holding a tiki pendant on a string (circled in red) - was the first image ever posted to the Tiki Bar Review pages... in early 1995!  It was taken in 1992 by Sally (Brindo) Finger. Geoffrey Sundstrom writes: About the Aku Tiki Inn in Daytona Beach and the Hawaiian Inn in Daytona Beach...  These two properties are less than a block apart on the ocean side of A1A.  As of July 01, the Best Western Aku Tiki was well maintained on the outside and a very pleasant place to sun and swim.  The atmosphere was much more laid back than the Hawaiian Inn further down the street.  The big tiki out front of the Aku Tiki is the main attraction, and wall panels inside are decorated with tiki images.  Also the building's roof line is of Polynesian design and very attractive.  Little else seems to remain of what was obviously designed as a Tiki themed and decorated hotel.  The Hawaiian Inn is a much larger hotel, probably newer and more heavily decorated with tiki/Hawaiian art.  Very nice murals are now painted on several of the walls.  This property is in the midst of a condo conversion, but was very crowded and noisy during our visit!   There is a small outdoor tiki bar by the pool and a lounge/restaurant inside that features a hula show on Friday and Saturday nights. In my opinion, the Aku Tiki is a nicer place to stay (and sells a wonderful T-shirt), but the Hawaiian Inn is good for a tropical drink and does offer a hula show.  Look for lots more data on both the Aku Tiki Inn and Hawaiian Inn, including addresses, history, and reviews, in Tiki Road Trip. Busch Gardens near Tampa, Florida .. These two jokers are hamming it up in Busch Gardens near Tampa, Florida.  Is it me or do they look like Gumbies (Monty Python), or what?  You will find that many Theme Parks feature a tropical motif, and Tiki gardens often abound.  Look for more data on Busch Gardens in Tiki Road Trip Tahitian Resort Holiday, Florida .. In Tiki Road Trip, we called this building 'incredible', and while it is certainly a nice example of Tiki-era architecture, it may have been slightly spoiled when they painted it salmon and teal!  What were they thinking? That said, there are a handful of ten-foot-tall Tikis on the premesis, but the one they call "Easter Island God" is just about the loosest of all of the loosely-based Moai effigies I have ever seen. There is a nice concrete Tiki by the pool, and there is a cafe and Tiki bar on the premesis.  The Tiki Bar has a small stage in the corner, and just enough beachcomber style artifacts to differentiate the bar from any other hotel bar.  The stink of thirty years of cigarette smoke is permanently embedded in the carpet and chairs.  A window behind the bar allows service to people walking up from the pool area, and provides a little ray of sunlight in the gloomy and depressing little pub.  This I like: poolside window service on one side, and an array of septuagenarians who haven't seen sunlight since the war (no, not Iraq) huddled at the bar smoking themselves to death. There are 400 Tiki Bar Reviews plus other road trip adventures in the book Tiki Road Trip Get an autographed copy of Tiki Road Trip from the author!

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