Hawaii Magazine Waikīkī’s First Hotel Celebrates its 120th Anniversary The famed Moana Surfrider opened its doors today in 1901—and it’s still as popular as ever. Mar 11, 2021 For years, on my birthday, I would book a room in the historic wing of the Moana Surfrider, A Westin Resort & Spa in Waikīkī. It was my splurge—a quiet night in the original hotel built in 1901, decades before Hawaiʻi, then a U.S. territory, became a state. That year, then-President William McKinley was assassinated and replaced by Theodore Roosevelt; New York became the first state to require license plate...