The Ambassador Hotel was a hotel in Los Angeles, California. Designed by architect Myron Hunt, the Ambassador Hotel formally opened to the public on January 1, 1921. It was especially well-known for its bar and nightclub, the Cocoanut Grove, with its swaying coconut palm trees made of paper mache and monkeys with electrified amber eyes.

This pre-tiki establishment and its parent hotel were more Moorish in style than Polynesian, yet set the tone for tropical pre-tiki establishments. This was Los Angeles’ premier night spot for decades; host to six Oscar ceremonies and to every United States President from Herbert Hoover to Richard Nixon. Prominent figures such as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis, Nat King Cole, Barbra Streisand, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, and The Supremes were some of the many entertainers that attended and performed professionally at the Cocoanut Grove.

The hotel was the site of the assassination of United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968. Due to the decline of the hotel and the surrounding area, the Ambassador Hotel was closed to guests in 1989. In 2001, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) purchased the property with the intent of constructing three new schools within the area. After subsequent litigations to preserve the hotel as a historic site, a settlement allowed the Ambassador Hotel to be demolished in 2005.

• Note (Disambiguation): Not to be confused with the Cocoanut Grove in Boston (1927-1942) which is infamous as the site of the deadliest nightclub fire in history -- taking 492 lives on November 28th, 1942.

Hugman's Oasis and House of Má, the new tiki bar and restaurant concepts from Esquire Tavern owner Chris Hill, opened in April 2021 in downtown San Antonio's Historic Witte Building.

Named for Robert H. H. Hugman, the architect responsible for the creation of San Antonio's River Walk, the bar occupies the building's river level. The restaurant, focused on Vietnamese homestyle cooking, is located at street level.

Bamboo Ben did the build-out on Hugman's Oasis, which features glass floats, bamboo trim, black lava, neon lit fountains, a ton of skulls (including skull chandeliers!) and a wall of hand-carved and painted tiki panels similar to the ones installed by Bosko at False Idol in San Diego.

Hugman's bar menu features drinks such as the Bermuda Triangle, a tropical rum-based sipper, and a Piñagroni, a pineapple take on a traditional Negroni. House of Má features separate libations including the Old Siam and Soi Cowboy.

Hawaiian Punch Village was an area tucked into the back of SeaWorld in San Diego — SeaWorld used to have lots of Polynesian theming, but it’s sadly gone now. (One of SeaWorld’s creators, George Millay, also owned The Reef, a Polynesian restaurant in Long Beach.)

SeaWorld San Diego opened in 1964 and the Village appears to have been original to the park. It was gone by the end of the 80s, however.

Hawaiian Punch Village featured Punchy's animatronic band and a Hawaiian Punch Restaurant where you could order a Hawaiian Rum Cooler if you were an adult.

Apparently there were other similar Hawaiian Punch Villages located in the SeaWorlds at Aurora, OH and Orlando, FL as well.

Just a stone's throw from Hollywood is Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, which opened in 1906. It is the final resting place for hundreds of celebrities from Walt Disney to Sammy Davis Jr. The sprawling cemetery is also home to "Henry", a thirty-one inch Moai head from Easter Island. Although the figure hasn't been authenticated, it was obtained in 1954 by park founder Dr. Hubert Eaton who affectionately named it after his friend Henry Wendt. On a trip to Easter Island, so the story goes, Wendt and Eaton received the head in a legal transaction between Rapanui fishermen who were using it as ballast for a boat.

The In Search of Tiki exhibition was held at the Forest Lawn Glendale Museum from August 8th, 2009 to January 4th, 2010. The show was curated by Doug Nason and Jeff Fox, and featured traditional oceanic art, Polynesian pop, and modern Tiki art. The group exhibition included Josh Agle (SHAG) whose original acrylic on board painting In Search of Tiki was used as the name and advertising print for the show. Henry the Moai is portrayed on the far right of the painting.

The Castaway (or "Cast Away" as it was sometimes spelled in advertising) was a bar located just outside of Geneva on the Lake, Ohio on Route 534 (eastside) heading north. South of The Strip although not located in the village, the night club became closely associated with the party scene of The Strip during the 1960s (it was open at least as early as 1963). The owner was James Brown (Jimmy). The entrance to the Castaway was a huge Easter Island Moai with gas flames coming out of its eyes. You entered through its mouth. The bar was destroyed in an arson fire in 1979.

The bar was known for its Go-Go shower dancers and for its live musical acts.

Conway Twitty recorded a live album there called "Conway Twitty Rocks At The Castaway: Geneva-on-the-lake, Ohio; 3rd-9th August 1964".

This modest motel has a spectacular neon sign probably built in the 1950s, but except for a few palm tree cut-outs along the fence line, is otherwise non-tiki in appearance.

Bretton's was open from 1945 to the mid-1970's. The Bali Hai Room was added in 1954.

Today this space is an office building.

*NOTE: Almost identical menus show price hikes.

The Tropics Lounge was a pre-tiki establishment opened sometime during World War II and was located on the third floor (they counted the basement level as #1, so the third floor today is more like the second floor or mezzanine level).

Here's a quote from the hotel's history flyer:

"After dinner, the gentlemen would retire to the third floor to the popular lounge called the Tropics. The sound of thunder was piped in and the lights fluttered and went out. A mechanical hula girl would emerge from behind the bar and dance in a grass skirt while it rained behind the bar."

Although the hotel is still running, it has undergone many remodels and it is difficult to see any sign of where the bar once was.

Tijuana's first pre-tiki bar opened in 1928.

A legendary social spot for over 80 years, the Aloha serviced the Prohibition crowd from the U.S. and sailors come to port. Originally it featured amateur boxing as its source of entertainment but then turned to dancing, featuring classic romantic dance numbers from Old Mexico and the popular Aloha girls, swaying and sashaying their way around the room to the music of the tropics.

It was burned down and rebuilt in 1938.

This was not a tiki bar as we think of them today and even by pre-tiki standards it was still essentially a Tijuana tequila bar. Other than a few decorations and tropical murals (which were on display for many years), the name, and the occasional hula dancing, this location blended in with other bars in the area.

However, it proved a popular spot for tourists throughout the 20th century -- the club grew and evolved with the times in both good and bad ways. As the century reached its final decades it operated as a disco in the 70s and a strip club in the 80s. In 2011, the Aloha burned down, thus ending a legendary bar and restaurant experience. The building's marquee however survived, and can still be seen on the front of the building to this day - a symbol of Mexican history and a physical reminder of Tijuana's once bustling, enterprising nightlife.

Originally named Tiki Village, the Tiki Hotel is an iconic Apartment Hotel located on the banks of the Nerang River at the end of Cavill Avenue in Surfers Paradise, Australia.

Built by Bernie Elsey (around 1965), who also built the Surfrider Hotel and the Surfers Paradise Beachcomber. Bernie's in-house entertainments were legendary. The pyjama parties and Hawaiian nights pushed the edges of the law, filling national papers with copy and his establishments with patrons. He also famously introduced the Surfers Paradise Meter Maids, clad in gold bikinis and armed with sixpences employed to rescue motorists from expired parking meters. They became internationally famous and still operate, nearly fifty years later.

Tiki Village was the first purpose built Timeshare Resort in Australasia and ran as such from 1982 until December 2018 when it was relaunched as a Full Service Hotel and renamed the Tiki Hotel Surfers Paradise.

Milan Flores Guanko (1906-1994) had a carving shop at Gray's Nursery on Beach Boulevard in Westminster.

Guanko learned to carve from his father in the Philippines before immigrating to the U.S. in 1928. During WWII, he began carving full-time. His tikis appeared at Disneyland, the Western Hills Hotel, the Royal Hawaiian Restaurant in Laguna Beach, The Islands Restaurant in Phoenix, Ren Clark’s Polynesian Village in Fort Worth, Texas, and many more restaurants, hotels and apartments throughout the world.

He died at age 87 in Glendale, where he’d moved his shop in later years.

*NOTE: The large dark-stained tiki with hands crossed on the far left can still be seen at the Kon-Tiki in Tucson although it has been painted a few times and stood outside for many years (now in their covered outdoor patio).

Claire Fieberg opened The Tiny Tiki in 2018.

It is true to its name at less than 500 square feet, but provides a needed dose of tiki to the Spokane area.

The bar closed in June 2021, looking for new owners to take over. This took a while, but they did eventually re-open @ February 2024.