At the ‘Ewa end of Waikīkī lies a 22-acre resort with more than 2,800 guest rooms and its own 5-acre lagoon. But before the Hilton Hawaiian Village and surrounding resorts were built, the place was called Kālia.
Streams from Mānoa and Palolo Valleys ran down toward the ocean and joined to create the Pi‘inaio Stream. This stream flowed beneath and through the Waikīkī marshlands, entering the sea at Kālia. This estuary, where freshwater mixed with the salty ocean, created a unique environment that supported a diverse array of life.
The Kālia shore was abundant with marine life and limu of all varieties. Kūpuna have described the once-common practice of walking across the reef to choose lobster, crab, shrimp, or octopus for a quick meal. One could pick ‘oama (young goatfish) by hand from the shallows because the schools of the young fish were so plentiful. As the ‘ama‘ama (striped mullet) made their annual runs across the south shore of O‘ahu, the men of Kālia would swim out in a row, surround the fish, and drive them into a bag net by slapping the water and kicking their feet over the shallow reef.
On the mauka portion of Kālia, there were many loko i‘a (fishponds) and loko i‘a kalo (taro fields used to raise small fish). A complex system of gates unique to Kālia helped manage the many interconnected ponds.
After Western contact and throughout the 1800s, epidemics of smallpox, typhoid, mumps, whooping cough, and influenza devastated the Hawaiian population. In the aftermath, Waikīkī’s once-thriving agricultural system began to change forever.
In the 1920s, in the name of “progress,” the Ala Wai Canal was dredged, and the marshes, the lo‘i kalo, and the loko i‘a were filled in. Waikīkī was on its way to becoming the epicenter of Hawaii’s tourism industry.
After changing hands a few times, the property finally came under the ownership of Henry J. Kaiser, founder of the Kaiser Permanente health system. In 1954, Kaiser purchased the properties along the Kālia shore to build the Hawaiian Village Hotel, consisting of thatched-roof cottages with 70 guest rooms, gardens, and swimming pools. Hilton Hotels & Resorts then purchased the property in 1961.
Since then, the Hilton Hawaiian Village has expanded and added several new towers, including the Rainbow Tower, with its 286-foot-tall ceramic tile mosaic made of more than 16,000 individual tiles.
Over the years, the resort has been a popular choice for celebrities and dignitaries, including Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, and Michael Jackson. However, it has also attracted otherworldly visitors.
The most famous ghost story of the Hilton Hawaiian Village is that of a beautiful but mysterious woman wearing a long red mu‘umu‘u with blue and white print that extended to the ground, covering her feet. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspaper printed this story in 1959.
One afternoon, a housekeeper said that a tall, stately woman with long, reddish-black hair suddenly appeared from nowhere. The Hawaiian woman had a beautiful, dark complexion and a smiling, happy face. But what the housekeeper remembers most is that the woman seemed to shimmer, as if she were giving off a faint, otherworldly glow.
Just as the woman asked for directions to a particular room, the housekeeping inspector approached and offered to show her to the room she was looking for. While the housekeeper watched them leave, the woman had disappeared just as suddenly as she arrived.
The inspector didn’t notice right away and continued to the requested room. When she turned to point it out, the woman wasn’t there!
“I was talking to myself,” she said hauntingly, “It was unbelievable. The woman had disappeared into thin air!”
Over the years, similar stories have surfaced at the resort. Both locals and visitors have reported sudden encounters with a mysterious woman in the hotel’s hallways or in other areas of this haunted resort. She's described as beautiful, barefoot, often dressed in red, and sometimes glowing. She may ask for directions or a ride or simply smile and disappear.
Some believe these sightings are visitations from Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes. She is said to take many forms, most often a regal woman in red or an old woman cloaked in mystery. Her appearances are often fleeting but powerful, leaving behind a sense of awe and reverence or a quiet warning.
Whether it is truly Pele who walks through the halls of the Hilton Hawaiian Village or something else entirely, those who have seen her never forget. But ancient goddesses aren’t the only supernatural visitors here. Over the years, guests have reported unexplained sightings throughout the property, in the rooms and halls of the resort’s towers, along the beachfront and lagoon, and on the sidewalks throughout the village.
What makes these hauntings unique is that the apparitions seen aren’t always dressed in old-fashioned clothing as one might expect. Instead, they often appear in modern attire, like everyday hotel guests.
One visitor shared his own Hilton Hawaiian Village ghost story with us. He said the crosswalk at the front of the resort was crowded one night, humming with sounds of tourists, traffic, and music. He and his wife stepped off the curb, weaving between people, heading for the nearby Kālia Tower. That’s when they both noticed him.
A young Chinese man, looking barely twenty years old, wandered through the crowd. He wore a windbreaker, khaki pants, and a backpack and looked lost. His mouth moved in a quiet monologue, and his eyes darted about like he didn’t recognize where he was. It was strange but not unheard of, as Waikīkī draws all kinds of travelers.
The tall, broad-shouldered visitor instinctively prepared to shoulder past the young man who seemed to be heading straight toward them in the crowd. But as the couple approached the other side, the visitor felt something odd in the air. The young man passed within inches of him. He was so close that he could see the stitching on the man’s sleeve and the worn straps of his backpack. He didn’t flinch or move aside. He just kept walking forward, murmuring to himself.
Without a word to each other, the visitor and his wife immediately turned around, sensing something was off. The crosswalk behind them was still busy, the path unobstructed, but the young man was gone.
Not just out of sight… Gone. There was no one jaywalking across Kālia Road, and they would have seen him if the man had walked toward the Hale Koa Hotel. Even if he’d sprinted, they still would have seen him. They scanned the area in silence and then looked at each other. No words needed. They both felt it.
Some places absorb energy, especially where confusion, trauma, or sudden death occur. That energy plays back like an endless loop of memory, repeating forever. What they saw probably wasn’t a person. It was an imprint caught in the folds of Waikīkī, still trying to find its way home.
